Diary cards and chain analysis, between every session.
Track emotions, urges, target behaviors, and skills with a free diary card and chain-analysis tool — in a chart that keeps the whole picture between sessions.
The DBT toolkit.
Understanding DBT
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) runs on between-session data: diary cards that track urges, emotions, and skills use, and chain analyses that map the links from a prompting event to a target behavior and its consequences.
The challenge is continuity — reviewing a week of diary-card data at the start of each session and running a chain analysis without losing the thread. Paper cards and freeform notes make that slow and easy to drop.
CoralEHR gives DBT clinicians a free digital diary card and a chain-analysis builder, so the week’s data is ready to review and the chain is captured in a structured form that drafts into the note. No recording, you sign every note.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a DBT diary card? +
A daily self-monitoring tool where the client tracks emotions, urges (such as self-harm or substance use), target behaviors, and skills practiced. The therapist reviews it at the start of each session to set the agenda.
What is a chain analysis in DBT? +
A step-by-step map of the links leading to a target behavior — the vulnerability factors, prompting event, thoughts, emotions, actions, and consequences — used to find where skills could interrupt the chain.
Is there a free DBT diary card tool? +
Yes. CoralEHR offers a free digital diary card and a chain-analysis builder, free to use and connected to the chart in the EHR.
Keep going
See the EHR built for DBT
Diary cards, chain analysis, and notes that write themselves — so the between-session work actually shows up in the chart.
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