Willingness

When refusal is held as much in your body as in your thoughts. It’s one of the DBT distress tolerance skills, and the skills picker can route a client here in the moment.

Not sure this is the right skill?

The free DBT skills picker asks what’s happening right now and routes to a skill to try.

Open the skills picker

When to reach for Willingness

When refusal is held as much in your body as in your thoughts.

How to practice Willingness

Notice your hands. Are they fists? Tight? Held away?
Open them. Palms up if it fits. Let them rest.
Notice: this small body change is willingness in physical form.
From open hands, ask what willingness would look like in action. Take one small step.

If it doesn’t help: the DBT skills picker routes next to Loving-Kindness. Different skills land for different people and moments — trying the next-best fit is part of the method, not a failure.

Tracking Willingness on a diary card

Whether a client used Willingness — and whether it helped — is exactly what a DBT diary card captures. Recording skill use day by day is how you see, in session, whether distress tolerance skills are generalizing.

Track skill use for free

Build a custom diary card that tracks the skills you’re working on, or track it digitally in Theracharts.

Build a diary card All DBT skills

FAQ

What is Willingness in DBT?

Willingness is a DBT distress tolerance skill. When refusal is held as much in your body as in your thoughts.

When should I use Willingness?

Reach for willingness when refusal is held as much in your body as in your thoughts.

In crisis? Call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, US) — free, confidential, 24/7. This page is educational and is not therapy, diagnosis, or a substitute for professional care.