Check the Facts: A DBT Skill for Managing Emotions and Challenging Assumptions

Check the Facts is a Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) emotion regulation skill that helps people examine whether an emotion, its intensity, and the urge connected to it fit the facts of a situation. Emotions are real and important, but they can be intensified by assumptions, past experiences, fear, shame, incomplete information, or interpretations that may not fully match what happened. This skill helps create space between the event itself and the story the mind may be telling about the event (Linehan, 2015a, 2015b; Lynch et al., 2006).

This intervention may be helpful when someone feels rejected, blamed, unsafe, ashamed, angry, panicked, betrayed, judged, or certain that the worst explanation is true. To practice, name what happened as clearly and neutrally as possible. Then identify the emotion, the action urge, and the assumptions attached to it. Ask what evidence supports the interpretation, what evidence may be missing, what other explanations are possible, and what response would fit the facts rather than the fear.

Check the Facts is not emotional invalidation. It does not ask people to dismiss their feelings, ignore intuition, excuse harmful behavior, or prove themselves wrong. Some emotions do fit the facts. Anger may fit when a boundary has been violated, fear may fit when there is real danger, guilt may fit when repair is needed, and sadness may fit when something meaningful has been lost. The purpose is to respond more accurately by separating facts, interpretations, possibilities, and assumptions.

DBT skills research supports skills practice as an important mechanism for improving emotion regulation. Broader emotion regulation research supports cognitive change strategies when they are used thoughtfully and in context (Kliem et al., 2010; Neacsiu et al., 2014; Webb et al., 2012). Check the Facts works best when paired with compassion. A person’s interpretation may make sense based on history or past experience, even when it does not fully fit the current situation. When emotions are intense, it may help to ground first, slow down, and return to the facts once you have a little more space to think clearly.

References

Kliem, S., Kröger, C., & Kosfelder, J. (2010). Dialectical behavior therapy for borderline personality disorder: A meta-analysis using mixed-effects modeling. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 78(6), 936-951. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021015

Linehan, M. M. (2015). DBT skills training handouts and worksheets (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.

Linehan, M. M. (2015). DBT skills training manual (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.

Lynch, T. R., Chapman, A. L., Rosenthal, M. Z., Kuo, J. R., & Linehan, M. M. (2006). Mechanisms of change in dialectical behavior therapy: Theoretical and empirical observations. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62(4), 459-480. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20243

Neacsiu, A. D., Eberle, J. W., Kramer, R., Wiesmann, T., & Linehan, M. M. (2014). Dialectical behavior therapy skills for transdiagnostic emotion dysregulation: A pilot randomized controlled trial. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 59, 40-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2014.05.005

Webb, T. L., Miles, E., & Sheeran, P. (2012). Dealing with feeling: A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation. Psychological Bulletin, 138(4), 775-808. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027600