Free Therapist Training›Free DBT Toolkit›Practice Set
Last updated: November 11, 2026
A recording review form gives a supervisor, a consultation team or a therapist working alone a structured way to watch 5 to 10 minutes of a recorded DBT session and find one skill to rehearse. The practice set then supplies new client statements for rehearsing three DBT change strategies (problem assessment, problem solving and informal emotional exposure) at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, with instructions for practicing in pairs or in a team.
The template comes from the free DBT toolkit of the Sentio MFT program, which trains therapists with deliberate practice, and it pairs with Sentio's free Practice Time episodes on the same three skills. Every client statement is new; none comes from the exercises in the APA book Deliberate Practice in Dialectical Behavior Therapy.
This is an optional template from the Sentio MFT program's free DBT toolkit, an original design for you to adapt.
Download the PDFMake a copy in Google Docs
Recording review form
Use the form only with a session the client has agreed in writing to have recorded and reviewed. Pick one segment of 5 to 10 minutes and identify the client by code only.
| Segment | Details |
|---|---|
| Client code | |
| Session number and date | |
| Segment start and end times | |
| Client's written consent to recording and review (date signed) | |
| Reviewed by (self, supervisor or team) | |
| What happened just before the segment | |
| Target being worked on (category and specific behavior) | |
| What the therapist was trying to do |
What the therapist did
Write what you can see and hear, with the time on the recording: the therapist's words, the client's response and what happened next.
- Validation and its level: statements that convey that the client's response makes sense. Note the time, the words and the level, 1 to 6.
- Behavioral specificity in problem assessment: questions that pin down one episode link by link, such as when and where it happened, what came first, what the client thought, felt (and how strongly) and had the urge to do, and what happened next. Note any gap the therapist skipped or filled with a general label.
- Generating and troubleshooting solutions: a solution tied to a specific link, the client's own ideas asked for, a check on what could get in the way, and a solution tried out in the session.
- Staying with emotion in informal exposure: when shame, fear or another emotion shows up in the room, the therapist notices it, names it or asks about it, and keeps the client in contact with the cue for a few more exchanges. Note the time and how long the therapist stayed.
- Balance of acceptance and change: movement between validation and change strategies such as assessment and solutions. Note any stretch of one without the other and how the client responded.
| Dimension | What the therapist did (times and words) | Next time |
|---|---|---|
| Validation and its level | ||
| Behavioral specificity in problem assessment | ||
| Generating and troubleshooting solutions | ||
| Staying with emotion in informal exposure | ||
| Balance of acceptance and change |
One skill to rehearse
| Next step | Entry |
|---|---|
| What worked (two or three moments, with times) | |
| The one skill to rehearse next | |
| Why this skill | |
| Matching Practice Time episode (16, 17 or 18) | |
| Practice plan: statements, level, partner and when |
DBT practice set
New client statements for rehearsing three DBT change strategies, each matched to a free Practice Time episode. Every client is invented.
How to rehearse in pairs or in a team
- Choose a skill and a level. Use the skill the review picked. Start at beginner unless the beginner statements already feel easy.
- Take roles. One person plays the client and one plays the therapist. In a team, a third person coaches, and everyone rotates through the roles.
- Read and respond. The client reads the context aloud, then says the statement as that client would. The therapist answers as in a session, in a few sentences, aiming at the skill.
- Give feedback. The client says in one sentence how the response landed. The coach, or the client in a pair, names one thing that worked and one thing to change.
- Repeat. Run the same statement again with the change, then move to the next statement.
- Adjust. Move up a level when the therapist handles both statements at a level well. Make it easier when the therapist freezes or drifts from the skill twice in a row: drop a level, give the therapist a moment to plan, or have the coach show one response first. Make it harder by having the client stay in role and push back for two or three more exchanges, or by asking the therapist to validate and use the skill in the same response.
Problem assessment (Practice Time Ep 16)
A skillful response stays with one episode of the target behavior and asks a specific question that moves the chain forward: when it happened, what set it off, or what the client thought, felt and had the urge to do next. It gathers enough of the chain to show which link to work on before turning to solutions.
| Level | Context | Client says |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | A 34-year-old man whose diary card shows drinking on Saturday. | “Saturday got away from me. I said I'd stay in, and then I was at the bar until it closed.” |
| Beginner | A 22-year-old student who missed skills group on Wednesday. | “I was all ready to come to group. I had my coat on. And then I just didn't.” |
| Intermediate | A 41-year-old woman whose card shows a shouting match with her sister. | “It's the same thing every time. She pushes my buttons and I lose it. There's nothing to figure out.” |
| Intermediate | A 19-year-old who walked out in the middle of a shift at work. | “I don't know why I left. The whole week was too much. It wasn't one thing, it was everything.” |
| Advanced | A 30-year-old woman whose card shows self-harm on Tuesday. Her therapist has already assessed current risk this session. She will not look up. | “Do we have to go through it all again? I know what happened. I messed up. Can we just move on?” |
| Advanced | A 52-year-old man, irritated after missing two sessions in a row. | “You want it minute by minute? Fine. I woke up, I didn't feel like coming, I didn't come. Specific enough?” |
Problem solving (Practice Time Ep 17)
A skillful response works on one link the chain has found and builds solutions with the client, asking for the client's own ideas first. It matches the solution to the link (skills training for a missing skill, stimulus control for a cue, exposure for an unwarranted emotion, cognitive modification for faulty thinking, contingency management for an environment that rewards the problem) and, where it can, tries the solution out in the session.
| Level | Context | Client says |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | A 27-year-old woman whose chains show her urges peak when she looks at her ex's posts in bed after midnight. | “So it always starts on my phone, in bed, late. What do I even do about that?” |
| Beginner | A 45-year-old nurse whose chains show he skips lunch on long shifts and snaps at coworkers by midafternoon. | “I guess not eating is part of it. I just never have time on those shifts.” |
| Intermediate | A 36-year-old woman who knows her skills but goes blank when shame hits. | “I know I'm supposed to use a skill right then. But in the moment they're just gone. I can't think of a single one.” |
| Intermediate | A 24-year-old man who drinks heavily at parties when he feels anxious. | “I could stop going to parties, but then I'd have no friends. And I'm not standing there with a soda while everyone stares.” |
| Advanced | A 33-year-old man whose partner left for the weekend after a fight. | “There's no solution. She's leaving either way. Why would I practice some skill for a relationship that's already over?” |
| Advanced | A 29-year-old woman whose urges to self-harm rise after calls with her mother. Current risk has been assessed and her safety plan is up to date. | “The only thing that works is never talking to her again. You keep wanting me to try something. I've tried everything.” |
Informal emotional exposure (Practice Time Ep 18)
A skillful response notices the emotion as it shows up in the room, names it or asks about it, briefly orients the client to staying with it, and keeps the client in contact with the cue (the topic, the request or the feedback) for a few more exchanges, with validation along the way.
| Level | Context | Client says |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | A 38-year-old woman, asked to read her diary card aloud, hesitates. | “Can you just read it yourself? I hate hearing myself say this stuff.” |
| Beginner | A 26-year-old man, asked to practice in session how he will ask his manager for a day off. | “This is embarrassing. Can we skip the practice part? I get the idea.” |
| Intermediate | A 31-year-old woman looks at the floor after the therapist praises a skill she used. | “Please don't do that. It makes me feel like a little kid getting a sticker.” |
| Intermediate | A 47-year-old man laughs and changes the subject each time his father's funeral comes up. | “Ha. Anyway, that's ancient history. So, my week was mostly fine.” |
| Advanced | A 35-year-old woman who has never used phone coaching, asked to practice a coaching call in session right now. | “I can't. I'm not calling you on a Saturday to bother you. Please don't make me do this.” |
| Advanced | A 40-year-old man, after the therapist points out that he arrived late again. | “Wow. So now you're keeping score too. I thought this was the one place I wouldn't get lectured.” |
What Does a Completed DBT Recording Review Look Like?
Lena, 28, is the invented client who appears across the toolkit's examples; she has been in standard DBT for about three months. Her individual therapist reviews eight minutes of session 14 in supervision. On the form she appears as Client 21. The segment comes from the chain analysis of Thursday's self-harm, which followed criticism from her supervisor in front of coworkers. Later in the session the two went back and filled in the evening, as the completed chain analysis worksheet shows.
Recording review form
| Segment | Details |
|---|---|
| Client code | Client 21 |
| Session number and date | Session 14, Tuesday |
| Segment start and end times | 18:00 to 26:00 (8 minutes) |
| Client's written consent to recording and review (date signed) | Signed at the second pretreatment session, for recording and review in supervision |
| Reviewed by (self, supervisor or team) | The therapist and a supervisor, in weekly supervision |
| What happened just before the segment | Diary card review: Lena filled in the card on four of the seven days and finished it in the waiting room. The therapist asked about Thursday's suicidal thoughts (rated 2, no intent), assessed risk with the clinic's protocol and named Thursday's self-harm as the first target. |
| Target being worked on (category and specific behavior) | Life-threatening behavior: self-harm on Thursday night (did not need medical care), worked through a chain analysis. |
| What the therapist was trying to do | Find the links from the supervisor's criticism to the self-harm, and the point where a coaching call could have changed the chain. |
What the therapist did
| Dimension | What the therapist did (times and words) | Next time |
|---|---|---|
| Validation and its level | 19:40 “Being criticized in front of your coworkers is the kind of thing that makes most people want to disappear” (Level 5). 21:15 “So when you got home the shame was still at a 5, and the urge was building” (Level 2). No validation after 22:40. | When the shame shows up in the room, validate it before the next question, at Level 3 or Level 5. |
| Behavioral specificity in problem assessment | Pinned the prompting event to about 3:15 p.m. Thursday, at the front desk, and got ratings for shame (5) and the urge (4). 21:40 asked “Then what happened?” about the evening and heard “I just sat in my room.” After the exit at 22:40, the hours between getting home at about 5:45 p.m. and the self-harm at about 9:30 p.m. stayed blank. | Ask for the next link in that gap: what she was thinking, what she did, and when the urge rose. |
| Generating and troubleshooting solutions | 24:10 Suggested calling or texting for coaching the next time shame rises at work. Lena said “Maybe.” No check on what would stop her from reaching out, and no practice of the call or text. | Ask what would get in the way of reaching out, then write and rehearse the coaching text in the session. |
| Staying with emotion in informal exposure | 22:40 Asked why she did not call for coaching, Lena looked down, her voice dropped, and she said “Can we not do this part?” The therapist said “Okay” and moved to Friday's drinking within about 20 seconds. | Name the shame, orient her to staying with it for a minute, and keep the topic of asking for help in the room for a few more exchanges. |
| Balance of acceptance and change | 18:00 to 22:40: questions mixed with two validating statements, and Lena answered in full sentences. After 22:40: change strategies only (questions about Friday, then a suggested solution), and her answers shrank to a word or two. | When her answers shorten, return to validation before the next change strategy. |
One skill to rehearse
| Next step | Entry |
|---|---|
| What worked (two or three moments, with times) | 18:20 brought the chain back to Thursday when Lena started on Friday's sick day. 19:00 to 21:30 pinned the prompting event to a time and got shame and urge ratings. 19:40 Level 5 validation of the shame at work. |
| The one skill to rehearse next | Staying with shame in the room (informal emotional exposure) when Lena moves away from talking about asking for help. |
| Why this skill | The missed coaching call is the link the chain points to, and the therapist left it as soon as shame showed up. The blank evening and the weak solution both followed from that moment. |
| Matching Practice Time episode (16, 17 or 18) | Ep 18: Informal Emotional Exposure |
| Practice plan: statements, level, partner and when | Watch Ep 18 before next week's supervision. Rehearse the informal emotional exposure statements with the supervisor playing the client: the two beginner statements, then the two intermediate ones, then the advanced statement about practicing a coaching call. Review the same moment in the next recorded chain analysis. |
How Do Recording Review and Rehearsal Work Together?
Used together for deliberate practice, the review finds the skill and rehearsal builds it. A recording shows the therapist's exact words, the client's response and the moment a session turned, so the form keeps the review short and observable: one segment of 5 to 10 minutes, five dimensions, the times and words that mattered, and one skill to practice next. Rehearsal then works on that skill directly. A partner plays the client, the therapist responds, feedback follows, and the same statement runs again until the response comes easily. The next recording shows whether the skill carried into a real session, and the cycle starts again.
Each dimension on the form ties to DBT's own strategies. Linehan (1993) presents validation and problem solving as the two core strategies of DBT, and the form looks at both and at the balance between them. Validation is noted by level, using the six levels Linehan (1997) described, from staying awake to radical genuineness. Behavioral specificity follows chain analysis, which pins down what controls a particular episode of a target behavior by working through its links: thoughts, emotions and their intensity, urges and events. Solutions count when they target a specific link, as solution analysis does, and informal exposure counts when the therapist keeps the client in contact with a cue present in the session, such as fear of asking the therapist for help, without building an exposure hierarchy.
How Do You Use the Practice Set with Practice Time and the Webinar?
Each skill in the practice set matches one free Practice Time episode: problem assessment is episode 16, problem solving is episode 17 and informal emotional exposure is episode 18. The episodes walk through the three skills as Linehan's manual describes them, so a therapist can watch the episode for the skill a review picked and then rehearse the same skill with a partner and new statements.
The free Deliberate Practice in DBT webinar, with Tali Boritz and Shelley McMain in dialogue with Tony Rousmaniere and Alexandre Vaz, gives the wider frame. Its skill targets include delivering validation at the right level, running a chain analysis that stays useful, balancing acceptance and change strategies, and fitting DBT skill-building into supervision or a consultation team. The recording is designed to pair with a supervisor, a peer or a team. Behavioral Tech lists behavioral rehearsal among the activities that suit a consultation team meeting, so a team can set aside part of its meeting for the practice set and record the request on the consultation team agenda.
The webinar accompanies the APA book Deliberate Practice in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, which contains the full set of exercises the video demonstrates. For faculty, APA's page for the book offers free PDFs of a Deliberate Practice Reaction Form, a Deliberate Practice Diary Form, difficulty assessments and a sample DBT syllabus, for personal use in clinical training or teaching.
Practice the Skill
Each free Practice Time episode walks through one of the three skills. Pick the episode that matches the skill your review chose, watch it, then work through that skill's statements in the practice set, starting at the beginner level.
Ep 16: Problem AssessmentEp 17: Problem SolvingEp 18: Informal Emotional Exposure
Keep reading
DBT Consultation Team Agenda and Notes Form, a weekly team agenda with room for rehearsal, the team agreements and a completed example meeting
DBT Validation Levels, Linehan's six levels of validation, with examples
DBT Chain Analysis Worksheet, a worksheet for the link-by-link assessment that problem assessment rehearses
Free DBT Toolkit, every template in the series, each with a completed example
Frequently Asked Questions
What are DBT role play scenarios for therapists?
DBT role play scenarios for therapists are short client statements, each with a line of context, that a partner says aloud so a therapist can rehearse one DBT skill and get feedback. The practice set has six statements for each of three skills (problem assessment, problem solving and informal emotional exposure), two at each of three levels. Every statement is new and written for the toolkit.
When can I use the recording review form?
Use the recording review form only with a session the client has agreed in writing to have recorded and reviewed, and follow your clinic's or program's policy on storing, sharing and deleting recordings. The form records the consent date, identifies the client by code only and covers one segment of 5 to 10 minutes, so a review fits in a supervision hour or part of a team meeting.
Which Practice Time episode goes with each DBT skill?
Practice Time episode 16 covers problem assessment, episode 17 covers problem solving and episode 18 covers informal emotional exposure. The three free episodes walk through the skills as Linehan's manual describes them, and the practice set gives new client statements for each, so a therapist can watch an episode and then rehearse the same skill with a partner.
What is informal exposure in DBT?
In DBT, exposure is often applied informally: the therapist exposes the client to a cue present in the session itself, such as fear of asking the therapist for help, without building an exposure hierarchy, while still orienting the client to the procedure. Exposure is chosen when a cue sets off an unwarranted emotion that drives a target behavior or blocks the use of skills.
How do you make a DBT role play easier or harder?
Move up a level when the therapist handles both statements at a level well, and make it easier when the therapist freezes or drifts from the skill twice in a row: drop a level, give the therapist a moment to plan, or have a coach show one response first. To make it harder, the client stays in role and pushes back for two or three more exchanges.
Are the practice statements from the APA book on deliberate practice in DBT?
No. Every client statement in the practice set is new and written for the toolkit. The APA book Deliberate Practice in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, by Tali Z. Boritz, Shelley McMain, Alexandre Vaz and Tony Rousmaniere, contains the full set of exercises that Sentio's DBT webinar demonstrates, and APA's page for the book offers free PDFs for personal use in clinical training or teaching.
References
Behavioral Tech Institute. (n.d.). Consultation team. Retrieved November 9, 2026, from https://behavioraltech.org/?p=71072
Boritz, T. Z., McMain, S., Vaz, A., & Rousmaniere, T. (2023). Deliberate practice in dialectical behavior therapy. American Psychological Association. ISBN 978-1-4338-3789-0. https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/deliberate-practice-dialectical-behavior-therapy
Heard, H. L., & Swales, M. A. (2016). Changing behavior in DBT: Problem solving in action. Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-4625-2264-4. https://www.guilford.com/books/Changing-Behavior-in-DBT/Heard-Swales/9781462522644
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. (1993). Cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder. Guilford Press. ISBN 978-0-89862-183-9. https://www.guilford.com/books/Cognitive-Behavioral-Treatment-of-Borderline-Personality-Disorder/Marsha-Linehan/9780898621839
Linehan, M. M. (1997). Validation and psychotherapy. In A. C. Bohart & L. S. Greenberg (Eds.), Empathy reconsidered: New directions in psychotherapy (pp. 353-392). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10226-016
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
About This Template
Corrections and suggestions: mabundez@sentio.org.
