Psychoeducation & Clinical Guides
Evidence-based articles on therapeutic approaches, clinical assessments, and coping strategies. Written for therapists and their clients.
Mindfulness Techniques for Therapy Sessions: Scripts and Exercises
Every mindfulness script, breathing exercise and guided tool on this site in one place, with when to use each in session: body scan, progressive muscle relaxation, grounding, RAIN, leaves on a stream, urge surfing, and versions for kids.
DBTBorderline Personality Disorder: Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment
What borderline personality disorder is, the nine diagnostic criteria in plain language, how clinicians screen for and diagnose it, and how it is treated, with DBT as the most studied therapy. Includes a free MSI-BPD screen.
CBTCore Beliefs Worksheets: Identifying and Restructuring the Beliefs Under the Thoughts
A clinical guide to core beliefs in CBT: how they differ from automatic thoughts, how to find them, how to test and modify them, and which worksheet to use at each step, from the cognitive model through thought logs to evidence testing.
RelationshipsAssertive Communication Worksheets: I-Statements, Communication Styles, Listening, and Repair
A clinical guide to teaching assertive communication: the four styles, why I-statements work, listening skills, soft startups and fair fighting from the Gottman research, DEAR MAN, boundaries, and apology, with the worksheet for each step.
DBTDBT Worksheets by Module: The Complete Clinical Guide
Every DBT worksheet on this site organized by module: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness, with the diary card and chain analysis. What the evidence supports, which sheet teaches which skill, and a sequence for using them.
ACTACT Values Worksheets: Clarifying What Matters and Turning It Into Action
A clinical guide to values work in acceptance and commitment therapy: how values differ from goals, the sheets for discovering and ranking them, the two acceptance exercises that make values-based action possible, and a sequence for using them in session.
Perinatal Mental HealthPostpartum and Perinatal Mental Health Worksheets: A Clinical Guide to Depression, Anxiety, OCD, and Psychosis
A hub for the perinatal cluster: how postpartum depression, anxiety, OCD, and psychosis differ, how to screen with the EPDS, which free worksheets and open-access manuals fit each presentation, and how to sequence them in session.
ACTAcceptance and Commitment Therapy Worksheets: The Complete Clinical Guide
Every ACT worksheet on this site organized by process: acceptance, defusion, present-moment contact, self-as-context, values, and committed action. What the evidence supports, which sheet to reach for, and how to sequence them with a new client.
Anxiety & OCDOCD Worksheets and ERP: A Practical Guide to Exposure and Response Prevention
Exposure and response prevention for OCD: hierarchy building, exposure types, mental rituals, family accommodation, and printable ERP worksheets.
Expressive ArtsArt Therapy Activities: Evidence, Mechanisms, and How to Run Them
What controlled research shows about art-making in therapy, why it works, and how to run six activities: masks, values shields, postcards, strengths frames, identity work, and a couples drawing exercise.
AngerAnger Management Worksheets: Which One, for Whom, and When
A clinical map of the anger toolkit: assessment and tracking, the anger iceberg, thermometers and warning signs, in-the-moment skills, and the kid versions.
DBTRadical Acceptance in DBT: What It Is, What It Isn't, and How to Teach It
A clinical guide to radical acceptance from dialectical behavior therapy: the theory behind it, what acceptance does not mean, turning the mind, coping statements, and how to teach the skill without invalidating the client.
DBTWise Mind: Teaching DBT's Three States of Mind
A clinical guide to wise mind in dialectical behavior therapy: emotion mind, reasonable mind, and the integrated state between them, with teaching metaphors, access practices, and the common mistakes that flatten the concept.
Grief & LossThe Four Tasks of Mourning: Worden's Model in Clinical Grief Work
A clinical guide to William Worden's four tasks of mourning: why tasks replaced stages, what each task looks like in session, the dual process model, common grief myths, and when grief needs formal treatment.
Anxiety & OCDHow to Build an Exposure Hierarchy (Fear Ladder), Step by Step
A clinical guide to building and running an exposure hierarchy: SUDS ratings, choosing step sizes, inhibitory learning principles, worked examples for social anxiety, OCD, and panic, and the mistakes that stall exposure work.
ACTCognitive Defusion: ACT Techniques That Change Your Relationship to Thoughts
What cognitive fusion is, how defusion works in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, the evidence behind it, and eight defusion techniques you can run in session today, with scripts and worksheets.
ACTThe Choice Point in ACT: A Practical Clinical Guide
How to use the Choice Point, the one-page ACT tool by Russ Harris, Joseph Ciarrochi, and Ann Bailey: towards and away moves, hooks, unhooking skills, a first-session walkthrough, and how it compares to the ACT Matrix.
Positive PsychologyCharacter Strengths: The Complete List and How to Use It in Therapy
The full list of 24 character strengths, organized by virtue, with evidence-based strategies for identifying and using client strengths in therapy.
DBTDEAR MAN DBT Skill: Scripts, Worked Examples, and Common Mistakes
The DBT DEAR MAN skill explained step by step, with three fully scripted examples, how to dial intensity up or down, the mistakes that make it fail, and the free printable worksheet.
DepressionBehavioral Activation: An Evidence-Based Treatment for Depression
A clinical guide to behavioral activation, including its theoretical foundations in Lewinsohn and Martell, its evidence base relative to cognitive therapy, and practical implementation strategies.
CBTThe Thought Record: A Core CBT Skill for Cognitive Restructuring
An in-depth guide to the thought record, its origins in Beck's cognitive model, its role in cognitive restructuring, and how to complete one effectively.
AnxietyEvidence-Based Grounding Techniques for Anxiety, Panic, and Dissociation
A clinical overview of sensory-based grounding strategies, their neurobiological mechanisms, and practical implementation for managing acute anxiety, panic attacks, and dissociative symptoms.
CBTCognitive Distortions: Identifying and Restructuring Maladaptive Thinking Patterns
The cognitive distortions identified in CBT: where they come from in Beck and Burns, and how to recognize and challenge them in session.
Therapy ApproachesCBT and DBT: Comparing Two Evidence-Based Psychotherapy Approaches
A clinical comparison of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy, including their theoretical foundations, treatment structures, evidence bases, and appropriate populations.
The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI): Scoring, the 50-Point Cutoff, and What Scores Mean
A guide to the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory: how its three scales are built and scored, the 50-point research line for high burnout, comparison averages from the Danish PUMA study, and how clinicians use it, including for their own burnout.
AssessmentY-BOCS Scoring and Interpretation: What Yale-Brown Scores Mean
How the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale is scored, what each severity band from 0 to 40 means, and the score change that defines treatment response and remission in OCD.
AssessmentDASS-21 Scoring and Interpretation: What the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Numbers Mean
A clinical guide to the 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scales: how the three scales are scored, why raw totals are doubled, what each severity band means, and why DASS severity labels answer a different question than PHQ-9 severity labels.
AssessmentThe PCL-5: Scoring, the 31-33 Cutoff, and Clinical Use
A clinical guide to the PCL-5 PTSD checklist: development, psychometrics, scoring and interpretation, the provisional diagnosis rules, and how to use it in treatment monitoring.
AssessmentReading O*NET Interest Profiler Results: Holland Codes and the Six RIASEC Areas
How to interpret Interest Profiler scores: what the six RIASEC areas measure, how to read a three-letter Holland code, what Job Zones mean, and what interests can and cannot predict.
AssessmentThe AUDIT: Scoring, Risk Zones, and Clinical Use
How the AUDIT is scored and interpreted, including the ten items, the 0-40 range, the standard cutoff of 8, and what each of the four WHO risk zones means in practice.
AssessmentThe CES-D: Scoring, the 16-Point Cutoff, and Clinical Use
How the CES-D is scored and interpreted, including the four reverse-scored items, the 0-60 range, the 16-point cutoff, and what each severity band means clinically.
AssessmentThe WHO-5 Well-Being Index: Scoring, the Percentage Score, and Clinical Use
A clinical guide to scoring and interpreting the WHO-5 Well-Being Index, including the raw-to-percentage conversion, the 50 percent cutoff, what each severity band means, and how the scale differs from symptom measures like the PHQ-9.
AssessmentThe OASIS: Scoring, the 8-Point Cutoff, and Clinical Use
A clinical guide to scoring and interpreting the Overall Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale, including the five past-week items, the validated cutoff of 8, what each severity band means, and why a transdiagnostic anxiety measure tracks differently from the GAD-7.
AssessmentThe PSS-10 and K10: Measuring Stress and Distress, and What the Scores Mean
A clinical guide to the Perceived Stress Scale and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, covering their development, psychometric properties, scoring, band-by-band interpretation, and how the two measures answer different questions.
AssessmentThe Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: Scoring, Normal Ranges, and Clinical Use
A clinical guide to the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, covering its development, psychometric properties, reverse scoring, band-by-band interpretation of the 0-30 range, and how self-esteem scores are used in treatment.
AssessmentThe MSI-BPD (McLean Screening Instrument): Scoring, the 7-Point Cutoff, and What a Positive Screen Means
A clinical guide to the McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder, covering its development, psychometric properties, scoring against the 7-point cutoff, and what a positive screen does and does not indicate.
AssessmentThe PHQ-9 and GAD-7: Brief Screening Measures for Depression and Anxiety
A clinical guide to the two most widely used brief screening instruments in mental health, including their development, psychometric properties, scoring interpretation, and appropriate clinical use.
Giving Effective Commands and Using Time-Out: A Behavioral Parent Training Guide
A behavioral parent training protocol for giving commands, waiting for compliance, running time-out, and returning to the original instruction.
Child & AdolescentRewards, Consequences, and the Path of Least Resistance
How to make the expected behavior the path of least resistance: contingencies, the Premack principle, planned ignoring, and labeled praise.
Child & AdolescentBuilding Rapport With Child Clients: Why Games and Breaks Are Still Therapy
The therapeutic alliance is one of the strongest predictors of outcome, and with kids it is often the precondition for any work at all. Why a short game or break is clinical time well spent, and how to use it on purpose.
The Best Therapy Tools Online for Remote and In-Person Sessions
The best therapy tools work on telehealth and in the room, take no prep, keep homework on one link clients can't lose, and cost less. A tour, limits included.
Clinical PracticeUnderstanding the DSM-5-TR: What Every Clinician Should Know and Where to Read It
What the DSM-5-TR is, why fluency in it matters for diagnosis, specifiers, billing, and supervision, and where to read it legally, including the free official APA materials and the fully free ICD-11 browser embedded on this page.
In PracticeCareer Counseling Is Clinical Work: The Case for Keeping It in Your Toolkit
The evidence linking work and mental health, and how career counseling earns its place in general therapy practice: recovery, young adults, midlife, and beyond.
In PracticeSetting Up Your Private Practice Paperwork: The Complete Forms Stack
The forms a private practice actually needs, in order: informed consent, intake, telehealth, Good Faith Estimate, ROI, notes, treatment plans, closure.
In PracticeBuilding Therapy Sessions Around Worksheets: A Time-Saving Workflow
A repeatable, low-prep session workflow: open with a brief measure, teach a skill with a worksheet, assign it as homework, and track change over time.
TelehealthScreen Sharing, Sound, and Client Control: Running Interactive Tools in Telehealth
A practical guide for therapists: sharing video and audio correctly in Zoom, handing clients control of interactives, sending tool links mid-session, and the in-person equivalents of each setup.