DBT · Emotion Regulation

Cope Ahead Plan

DBT — rehearse the coping before the situation arrives

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Cope Ahead is the DBT skill of rehearsing the coping before the situation arrives. Not just planning — mentally walking through it, feeling the emotion, and seeing yourself use the skills successfully. Works for anniversaries, holidays, court dates, family visits, and any known-hard moment on the calendar.

The upcoming situation — when, where, who (facts only)

Emotion I predict I'll feel, at what intensity (0–100)

Action urge that will come with it (avoid, attack, isolate, use, hide)

Coping moves I'll use — in order

If the first move doesn't work, my backup

What 'coping successfully' looks like — specific behavior, not just 'staying calm'

Rehearsal notes — walk through the whole scene in my head, twice, before the day

Confidence I can cope this way (0–100), after rehearsing

none

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About this worksheet

Cope Ahead is the DBT emotion-regulation skill built for situations you know are coming — the anniversary, the holiday dinner, the court date, the discharge appointment, the difficult meeting. The client names the situation with clinical specificity, predicts the emotion and its intensity, names the action urge that will come with it, chooses the coping moves in advance, and then — this is the part clients skip on their own — mentally rehearses the whole sequence: the situation, the emotion arriving, the urge, and the client using the skills successfully. Rehearsal isn't visualization for calmness; it's building the neural pathway for the target behavior before the amygdala takes the wheel. This worksheet gives the client a single page to work through the whole skill and a confidence rating before and after rehearsal so both client and clinician can see whether one pass was enough or whether more rehearsal is needed.

When to use it

Any known-hard moment on the calendar — anniversaries, holidays, court dates, family visits, medical procedures.
Discharge from higher levels of care, when the client is about to face situations without the daily scaffolding.
Before a client re-enters a high-risk environment (visiting family, returning to a workplace, seeing an ex).
In DBT emotion-regulation skill sequencing, after Check the Facts and Opposite Action are established.

How to use it

1
Name the situation with facts
When, where, who — the way a neutral observer would report it. Not the story, just the setup.
2
Predict the emotion and intensity
One-word emotion, 0–100 intensity. Prediction accuracy improves with repetition; imprecision here is data.
3
Name the action urge
Withdraw, attack, hide, use, isolate. The urge is what the coping plan has to interrupt.
4
Choose coping moves in order
First move, backup move, and one more. Not a menu — a sequence the client will actually run.
5
Rehearse the whole scene, twice
In imagery: situation, emotion arriving, urge, client using the skills, situation resolving. Second pass locks it in.
6
Re-rate confidence
Confidence rating 0–100 after rehearsal. Below 60 means more rehearsal, not a different plan.

Frequently asked questions

What is Cope Ahead in DBT?+

A DBT emotion-regulation skill for pre-rehearsing coping before a known-difficult situation. The client predicts the emotion and urge, chooses coping moves in advance, then mentally rehearses the whole sequence including successful skill use.

How is Cope Ahead different from problem-solving?+

Problem-solving addresses what the client can change about the situation. Cope Ahead addresses the emotional and behavioral response to a situation the client can't change or opts not to avoid. They're complementary, not overlapping.

Is imagery rehearsal actually effective?+

Yes — imagery rehearsal has meaningful evidence in behavioral practice (surgical prep, athletic performance, exposure therapy, PTSD nightmare work). The mechanism is the same in Cope Ahead: pre-building the response pathway lowers the reactive threshold.

When shouldn't I use Cope Ahead?+

For unpredictable acute situations there's nothing to plan against — use the crisis-survival ACCEPTS or TIPP skills instead. Cope Ahead is for the calendar-visible hard moments.

Is this worksheet free?+

Yes. Free clinician PDF. Sign in to TherapistAssist to send as a secure client link.