SELF HARM RESOURCES

Chain Analysis

 

A Chain Analysis is for after you have engaged in a behavior you'd like to stop doing.  So, if you are trying to recover from self-harm, you could fill out one of these worksheets after engaging in self-harm.  The goal of a Chain Analysis is to better understand why the behavior occured and then evaluate what could be done to prevent the behavior in the future.  

 

The sheet seeks to find:

What prompted this behavior?  

What factors made you more vulnerable to this behavior?  

What thoughts were you thinking throughout this experience?  

What were you feeling and how did that change?  

What were the consequences (positive and negative) of this behavior?  

And, most importantly (The second part!) What could you have done differently, and what can you do in the future to prevent and respond to these or similar experiences, thoughts, and feelings?

 

A Behavioral Chain Analysis comes from DBT and is used by many therapists.  It can be a difficult worksheet to fill out on your own because it has many parts, and the analysis it asks for can be difficult sometimes.  But, it is also an incredibly useful tool.  In an attempt to make it more accessible to you, I've compiled a few worksheets for you to choose from and some resources to try to help explain and walk you through this process.

 

 

 

 

 

The above are both the same DBT Chain Analysis Worksheet, just in two different formats.  The first worksheet in each document is blank, the second is filled in with the instructions on what to write about in each box.  For additional explanation of how to use the worksheet, there is this video (TRIGGER WARNING).  It is lengthy, but uses a personal example of how to fill it out and then how to use it to make changes.

 

Another DBT Chain Analysis Worksheets (this) to help you review what happened and identify places in the sequence of events that you could've made different choices.

 

 This page explains Chain Analysis in more detail without any triggering details.