Check the Facts Worksheet for Therapists

Authored by Dr. Hannah Lin, counseling psychologist trained in CBT, ACT, and IFS, with over a decade of clinical practice across anxiety and complex trauma.

Twelve minutes left. Marcus named the feeling already: anxiety at 85 after his supervisor said, “Let’s talk Friday.” The extra story arrived in the same breath: he is getting fired, the note will be in his file, he should draft a resignation. You could spend the rest of the hour collecting evidence for and against “I am incompetent.” That is a thought record. You could skip to a body-level opposite. That is a different sheet this week. What he needs on paper is the prompting event, the interpretation, the check, the emotion that fits the facts, and the intensity that fits.

A check the facts worksheet is the record for that hour. You write camera facts first, then the extra story, then what would have to be true for this emotion at this intensity. You mark known versus guessed. You name the emotion that actually fits, and a number that fits that emotion. The page is assigned paper. It is not a lecture on being rational.

This guide is for licensed therapists using DBT or DBT-informed work with adults who can stay with one emotion long enough to separate an event from a story. It is not a self-help article and it is not a protocol for unsupervised use.

Educational content for licensed therapists, not clinical, legal, or emergency advice. Worksheet selection sits inside formulation, consent, and risk review. These sheets do not replace supervision, diagnosis, or a safety plan.

What this sheet is and is not

The parent DBT worksheets pack already covers diary card, chain analysis, crisis-skill planning, and DEAR MAN. This page fills one gap that pack leaves open: a five-field emotion-versus-facts record. When the hour is the sequence that led to the emotion, walk it on the behavior chain analysis worksheet instead of this facts record. Keep diary-card review on that pack. Keep this sheet for one prompting event.

This sheet is	This sheet is not
One prompting event in camera facts	A CBT thought record with evidence columns
The extra interpretation sitting on top	A seven-column cognitive-restructuring grid
A check: what would have to be true, known vs guessed	An opposite-action trial in posture, face, and voice
The emotion that fits those facts	A slogan that feelings are wrong
The intensity that fits, 0-100	A crisis plan, diary card, or DEAR MAN rehearsal
Paper under a DBT or DBT-informed formulation	Unsupervised self-help or a skills-manual reprint

Behavioral Tech trainer Sara Schmidt uses a three-word frame for emotion work: valid, justified, and effective. Justified, in that teaching, means the emotion seems to fit the facts of the situation (Behavioral Tech Institute). This page does not reprint a publisher handout. It hands you a record that follows that check for one assigned trial.

When the assignment fits

Use a check the facts worksheet when three things are true at once.

1. One emotion can be named, with an intensity.
2. The prompting event can be written in camera facts, and an extra interpretation is already in the room.
3. The client can stay with the story long enough to mark known versus guessed, rather than needing a crisis-survival skill first.

Marcus’s anxiety after a one-sentence meeting request fits. Fear while a car is coming does not. Anger at a delayed email that is not an attack can fit. Anger at ongoing coercion can fit; if acting on it would help, use a boundary or safety plan. Grief after a death is usually the wrong job for this page.

Schmidt also notes that the way a person interprets a situation impacts the emotion they will experience, and that you can experience an emotion without acting on it (Behavioral Tech Institute). That is the clinical job here: split the event from the extra story before anyone picks a next skill.

Skip or pause when:

• acute risk, intoxication, or dissociation is in the room
• the emotion fits the facts and acting on it would help (leave a dangerous alley, report harm, keep a real boundary)
• the page would be used to talk someone out of warranted anger, grief, or repair
• checking has become a reassurance loop (rereading the same email, asking the same question, needing one more “are you sure”)
• the indicated tool is a diary card, a chain, a crisis plan, a CBT thought record worksheet, or an opposite action worksheet

The record you assign

Keep the check the facts worksheet on one page. Five fields. No extra columns for evidence lists, balanced thoughts, or a timed opposite. Those belong on other sheets.

Do not add evidence-for and evidence-against columns. That quietly turns the page into a thought record. Do not add an opposite-action row. That quietly turns it into this week’s other sheet. If you need those, assign those sheets instead.

The printable pack sheet also asks for a next move after the check. Keep that as one line: a question they will actually ask, a fact they will look up once, or a stop. Do not turn the next-move line into a behavioral experiment log.

How to walk it in session

Start with the prompting event before anyone argues with the feeling. “I am getting fired” is not an event. “Supervisor said let’s talk Friday” is.

Then write the interpretation in one sentence. You are not collecting a week of related slights. You need the extra story that is driving this intensity.

Only then run the check. Two questions, in this order:

• What would have to be true for this emotion to fit at this intensity?
• Of that list, what is known, and what is guessed?

Keep the check time-boxed. If they start hunting for one more piece of proof, that is a reassurance loop. Stop.

Stay on the last two fields until they include:

• one emotion that fits the camera facts (it may be the same emotion, a smaller version, or a different one)
• a 0-100 intensity that fits that emotion, not the original spike
• one next move that is not “think about it more”

Schmidt’s opposite-action teaching is for a later hour: when emotions do not fit the facts of the situation, or acting on the emotion is not effective, act opposite all the way in body language, vocal tone, and actions (Behavioral Tech Institute). Do not steal that hour on this page. Name the fitted emotion and intensity here. If the next job is the opposite, send that sheet next week.

Marsha Linehan developed Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Skills groups in that frame teach a skill, assign practice, and bring the practice back into the room (Linehan Institute). Cite that teaching. Do not photocopy publisher Check the Facts homework pages.

A worked example

Notice what the example does not do. It does not list evidence for and against “I am incompetent.” It does not rate the thought “I am a fraud.” It does not schedule a ten-minute opposite-action trial at the desk. Those are other worksheets. This page only has to produce a prompting event, an interpretation, a check, a fitted emotion, and a fitted intensity.

Between sessions and the next-hour review

Assign one trial on the check the facts worksheet. If you send two events, you will get a rumination log.

Write the dose on the sheet: complete event through intensity before leaving the room when you can. Between sessions, the client only reruns the check on one new event and brings back known versus guessed. Fully, halfway, or not are all data. A perfectly filled page that still treats the guess as known is also data. It usually means the check stayed inside the story.

Reopen with the fitted intensity, not with “did you do your homework.” Ask what was known, what stayed guessed, and whether the extra story shrank. If they wrote camera facts and the number dropped, keep the same skill and shrink the next event or repeat it. If they wrote a thought-record grid in the margins, the row was the wrong form. If the session turns into a debate about whether they are allowed to feel anxiety, you have left this sheet.

The pack’s last page is a next-session review with chart stems. Use it so the worksheet does not get pasted into the note.

If follow-up is the missing piece rather than another form, keep therapy worksheet follow-up in view so the next hour reopens what happened, including a skipped try.

The APA Ethics Code keeps informed consent and competence in view when you send work home. Say what the sheet is for, who will see it, when you will read it, and that it is not monitored between sessions.

What goes in the note

Do not dump the grid into the chart. Capture the clinical signal:

• emotion named and starting intensity
• prompting event in one clause
• extra interpretation in one clause
• known versus guessed, in one line
• emotion that fits, intensity that fits, and the next move
• or the reason you switched tools

A sufficient line: “Assigned check the facts worksheet for anxiety 85 after supervisor said talk Friday. Camera facts: the sentence, no other content. Extra story: termination. Known: a meeting. Guessed: the reason. Fitted emotion: unease at 40. Next move: two questions Friday. Not a thought-record or opposite-action target.”

That shows modality fit, a specific intervention, and continuity. It does not store the client’s catastrophe in a place that is easier to subpoena than it is to use.

Where Emosapien fits

The clinical work is the prompting event, the extra story, the check, and the fitted emotion and intensity. The admin work is remembering that a sheet went home and turning the return into a line in the note. Emosapien can hold the assignment, collect a short return (full / half / blank), and draft a stem you still have to edit. It does not decide that a guess is a fact, and it does not decide that a blank page is resistance.

If you want that loop connected to the next appointment, start for free and keep the worksheet inside the session where it belongs.

Related worksheets

Stay on this check the facts worksheet when the task is already an emotion-versus-facts record. Use the opposite-action sheet when the fit mark is already in, and the hour needs a timed body move. Use a thought record when the job is evidence for and against a thought.

References

• Schmidt, S. (n.d.). The Role of Emotion Regulation in DBT (Part 1). Behavioral Tech Institute.
• Schmidt, S. (n.d.). The Role of Emotion Regulation in DBT (Part 2). Behavioral Tech Institute.
• Linehan Institute. What are DBT and DBT skills?. Linehan as developer of DBT; skills groups assign practice exercises and review them.
• Linehan, M. M. DBT Skills Training Manual. Guilford. Skills practice inside a structured treatment frame (not this pack’s record).
• American Psychological Association. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (2017 PDF).