When To Use It
Use this after a confusing, intense, or hard-to-regulate emotional episode when the practitioner and client need to understand the sequence.
Model for Describing Emotions Flow Map Tool
The Model for Describing Emotions is a DBT emotion regulation tool for practitioners helping clients understand a specific emotional episode. It helps map vulnerabilities, prompting event, interpretations, biological changes, body sensations, action urges, expressions or actions, secondary emotions, aftereffects, and the emotion name so possible intervention points are visible.
Explore a sample emotion map
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Tool guide
Learn more about this tool
Use this background section to understand when the tool fits, how practitioners use it, and what to consider before sharing it with clients.
History And Partial Maps
Partial maps remain useful but visibly incomplete. Completed maps are preserved as separate episodes for later review.
Relevant Limitation
The tool does not automatically interpret the episode, rank interventions, or decide treatment.
Can the emotion name be uncertain?
Yes. The tool allows tentative emotion labeling rather than forcing certainty.
Can multiple emotions be mapped?
The tool keeps one primary episode map and can note secondary emotions instead of becoming a generic multi-emotion tracker.
Does the system choose the intervention?
No. Practitioner or client marking can show possible intervention points, but the system does not prescribe or rank interventions.