Free Therapist Training›Free DBT Toolkit›Coaching Log
Last updated: November 11, 2026
A DBT phone coaching log is the therapist's record of between-session coaching. Each call or text gets one block: when it happened and how long it took, what the client asked for help with, the skills you coached, the urge or distress rating at the start and at the end, risk and any action taken, and what to bring to the next session. A weekly summary, checked against the client's diary card, collects the patterns to raise in session and with the consultation team.
The template comes from the free DBT toolkit of the Sentio MFT program, which is built on deliberate practice. Sentio's free training also includes DBT deliberate practice resources, among them a full webinar with Tali Boritz and Shelley McMain.
This is an optional template from the Sentio MFT program's free DBT toolkit, an original design for you to adapt.
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| Client (code or initials) | Week (Monday to Sunday) | Next session (day and number) |
|---|---|---|
| Contact 1 |
|---|
| Date and time: |
| Call or text, and length: |
| Reason (skills coaching, crisis, good news, repair): |
| Target the client asked for help with: |
| Situation: |
| Urge or distress at the start (0 to 5, as on the diary card): |
| Skills coached: |
| Urge or distress at the end (0 to 5): |
| Used the skill? (yes, partly, no): |
| Risk and action taken, under the clinic's coaching policy and crisis protocol: |
| Bring to the next session: |
| Contact 2 |
|---|
| Date and time: |
| Call or text, and length: |
| Reason (skills coaching, crisis, good news, repair): |
| Target the client asked for help with: |
| Situation: |
| Urge or distress at the start (0 to 5, as on the diary card): |
| Skills coached: |
| Urge or distress at the end (0 to 5): |
| Used the skill? (yes, partly, no): |
| Risk and action taken, under the clinic's coaching policy and crisis protocol: |
| Bring to the next session: |
| Weekly summary |
|---|
| Contacts (number, call or text, total minutes): |
| Diary card days with strong urges and no contact: |
| Patterns to raise in session: |
| Patterns to raise with the consultation team: |
What Does a Completed DBT Coaching Log Look Like?
Lena is an invented client: 28, a receptionist at a dental office, about three months into standard DBT with weekly individual therapy, a weekly skills group and phone coaching. Her therapist's log for the week before session 14 has one call, on Tuesday, and notes on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, days of strong urges with no contact. On the log she appears as Client 21.
| Client | Week | Next session |
|---|---|---|
| Client 21 | Monday to Sunday, the week before session 14 | Session 14, Tuesday |
| Contact 1 |
|---|
| Date and time: Tuesday, 8:20 pm |
| Call or text, and length: Call, 8 minutes |
| Reason: Skills coaching |
| Target the client asked for help with: Urge to self-harm (her life-threatening target) |
| Situation: An argument with her roommate about splitting the bills. Her roommate said she always pays late, and she went to her room ashamed and angry. |
| Urge or distress at the start: Urge to self-harm 3, shame 4 |
| Skills coached: Self-soothe (a hot shower, then music) and distract (a show with headphones on), both distress tolerance skills |
| Urge or distress at the end: Urge to self-harm 2, shame 3 |
| Used the skill?: Yes. She used both after the call, and the urge passed. Her diary card confirmed it at session 14. |
| Risk and action taken: Checked under the clinic's crisis protocol. No suicidal thoughts and no intent to self-harm; no further action needed. |
| Bring to the next session: Reinforce reaching out while the urge was still at 3, and ask which skill helped most. |
| Weekly summary |
|---|
| Contacts: One call, 8 minutes, Tuesday evening |
| Diary card days with strong urges and no contact: Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Thursday: her supervisor criticized her in front of coworkers; shame rose to 5 and the urge to self-harm to 4. She went home, did not call, and self-harmed that night (did not need medical care). Suicidal thoughts 2, no intent. Friday: urges to miss work at 5 and to drink at 4; she called in sick and had five drinks. Saturday: urge to drink at 3, not acted on; she called her brother. |
| Patterns to raise in session: Coaching helped on Tuesday; on Thursday, with higher shame and urges, she did not call. At session 14: a chain analysis of Thursday's self-harm that includes the point where she could have called and what got in the way. Assess risk with the clinic's crisis protocol, review and update the safety plan, and agree on a coaching plan for shame at work that fits the clinic's coaching policy. Reinforce Tuesday's call. |
| Patterns to raise with the consultation team: Report Thursday's self-harm and the week's coaching pattern. She used coaching after the conflict at home and did not call on Thursday, after shame at work. Ask the team what would make calling easier for her when shame is high. |
Side by side, the log and the diary card show what neither shows alone: Lena reached for coaching after the conflict at home and went without it on the day her shame ran highest. Her therapist brings the missing call into the chain analysis at session 14 and takes the pattern to the consultation team.
What Is DBT Phone Coaching For?
DBT phone coaching gives clients real-time help in applying skills to hard situations as they arise in daily life. It is one of the four modes of standard DBT, alongside individual therapy, the skills training group and the therapist consultation team. Between sessions, the client contacts their individual therapist at the moments help is most needed. Each mode serves a function of the treatment: the skills group builds capability by teaching skills, and coaching gives real-time help in using them, the function DBT calls generalization.
In standard DBT, coaching is brief contact between sessions, within each therapist's personal limits, for problem solving and coaching in skills generalization, crisis intervention, reinforcing effective behavior, and repairing the relationship. It usually happens by phone, and increasingly by text or messaging apps. Koerner (2012) gives coaching calls three priorities: reduce suicidal crisis behavior, increase skills generalization, and ease any sense of conflict, alienation or distance between client and therapist. Koerner also says calls usually last 5 to 10 minutes. The reason row in the log follows those purposes, so a few weeks of entries show what each client uses coaching for.
How Do You Fill In a DBT Coaching Log?
Fill in a contact block soon after each call or text exchange, while the details are fresh, and count a run of texts about one situation as one contact. Rate the urge or distress at the start and at the end on the same 0 to 5 scale as the client's diary card, so the numbers line up. The used-the-skill row can wait for the next session, when the client's report and the diary card fill it in.
Risk follows the clinic's own procedures. Record what you asked and what you did under the clinic's crisis protocol, and handle any contact after self-harm under the clinic's coaching policy. The Linehan Risk Assessment and Management Protocol (LRAMP), a free form the University of Washington posts for clinical use, is one example of a structured risk protocol.
Write the weekly summary at the next session, after the diary card review. The diary card is reviewed at the start of each individual session and shows what happened since the last one; set beside the log, it shows the days when urges ran high and no contact came. When one of those days ends in a target behavior, the missing contact belongs in that behavior's chain analysis, as Lena's missing Thursday call does, and a pattern that repeats across weeks belongs on the consultation team's agenda.
How Does a Coaching Log Help a Therapist See Patterns and Keep Limits?
A few weeks of entries show patterns that single contacts hide: when a client reaches out, about which targets, by call or by text, and whether ratings fall by the end of a contact. Read against the diary card, the log also shows the contacts that did not happen. Chain analysis is DBT's main assessment method and is used in almost every session; each chain covers one specific occurrence of a behavior, and patterns appear across repeated chains. A missed chance to call that recurs from week to week is one of those patterns.
The log also keeps the therapist's own limits in view. Coaching happens within each therapist's personal limits, and under the consultation team's observing-limits agreement each member observes their own personal and professional limits and tells clients what those limits are. A running count of contacts, times and minutes shows early when coaching is straining a limit, while there is still time to talk it through with the client and the team. Therapy-interfering behavior can come from the therapist as well as the client, and Koerner (2012) counts not returning calls among the therapist's examples, so the log is a check on the therapist's side of coaching too. The consultation team exists to keep therapists motivated and competent, and the weekly summary line gives it something concrete to work with.
Practice the Skill
Coaching includes problem solving, compressed into a brief call. Episode 17 of Sentio's Practice Time series walks through DBT problem solving as Linehan's manual describes it, so you can rehearse the skill before the next coaching call.
Keep reading
DBT Progress Note Template, for documenting each individual DBT session
DBT Diary Card, the client's daily card that the weekly summary is checked against
DBT Consultation Team Agenda, for the weekly consultation team meeting
Free DBT Toolkit, all the DBT templates in one place
Frequently Asked Questions
What is DBT phone coaching?
DBT phone coaching is real-time help, between sessions, in applying skills to hard situations as they arise in daily life. The client contacts their individual therapist at the moments help is most needed. Coaching is one of the four modes of standard DBT, with individual therapy, the skills training group and the therapist consultation team, and it serves generalization: using skills in daily life.
What are DBT coaching calls for?
DBT coaching calls are for problem solving and coaching in skills generalization, crisis intervention, reinforcing effective behavior, and repairing the relationship. Koerner (2012) gives them three priorities: reduce suicidal crisis behavior, increase skills generalization, and ease any sense of conflict, alienation or distance between client and therapist. A coaching log that records the reason for each contact shows which purposes a client's calls serve over time.
How long is a DBT coaching call?
A DBT coaching call is brief: Koerner (2012) says calls usually last 5 to 10 minutes. Coaching happens between sessions, within each therapist's personal limits. Keeping a call to one situation and one or two skills fits that length, and anything that needs more time can go on the list of what to bring to the next individual session. Logging the length of each call shows the week's total.
Can DBT phone coaching happen by text?
Yes. Coaching in standard DBT usually happens by phone, and increasingly by text or messaging apps. In a coaching log, a run of texts about one situation counts as one contact, with its start time, how long it ran and the same details as a call. Text coaching follows the clinic's coaching policy, including which channels it allows for contact with clients.
Why keep a log of DBT coaching contacts?
A log turns single coaching contacts into patterns a therapist can act on. It shows when a client reaches out, about which targets, and whether ratings fall by the end of a contact; checked against the diary card, it shows strong-urge days with no contact, which can feed the next chain analysis. Running totals also help the therapist observe their own limits, one of the consultation team agreements.
References
University of Washington Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics. (n.d.). Dialectical behavior therapy. Retrieved November 9, 2026, from https://depts.washington.edu/uwbrtc/about-us/dialectical-behavior-therapy/
Comtois, K. A., Carmel, A., & Linehan, M. M. (2025). DBT Next Steps clinician's manual: Building a life worth living. Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-4625-5811-7. https://www.guilford.com/books/DBT-Next-Steps-Clinicians-Manual/Comtois-Carmel-Linehan/9781462558117
Koerner, K. (2012). Doing dialectical behavior therapy: A practical guide. Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-4625-0232-5. https://www.guilford.com/books/Doing-Dialectical-Behavior-Therapy/Kelly-Koerner/9781462502325
Linehan, M. M., Comtois, K. A., & Ward-Ciesielski, E. F. (2012). Assessing and managing risk with suicidal individuals. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 19(2), 218-232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2010.11.008
Rizvi, S. L. (2019). Chain analysis in dialectical behavior therapy. Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-4625-3890-4. https://www.guilford.com/books/Chain-Analysis-in-Dialectical-Behavior-Therapy/Shireen-Rizvi/9781462538904
Rizvi, S. L., & Ritschel, L. A. (2014). Mastering the art of chain analysis in dialectical behavior therapy. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 21(3), 335-349. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2013.09.002
Sayrs, J. H. R., & Linehan, M. M. (2019). DBT teams: Development and practice. Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-4625-3981-9. https://www.guilford.com/books/DBT-Teams/Sayrs-Linehan/9781462539819
University of Washington Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics. (2016). Linehan Risk Assessment and Management Protocol (LRAMP) (Version 1.0). https://depts.washington.edu/uwbrtc/wp-content/uploads/LSSN-LRAMP-v1.0.pdf
About This Template
Corrections and suggestions: mabundez@sentio.org.
