Consolidating ERT skills and building a personal plan for recognizing early warning signs: rumination, worry, avoidance, emotional flooding, and loss of regulatory flexibility.
Step-by-step guide
- Review the client's main emotional mechanisms
- Identify early warning signs of relapse
- List skills that worked: decentering, contrasting, sensory awareness, flexible regulation
- Plan what to do when rumination or worry returns
- Create a written maintenance plan
- Discuss how and when to seek additional support
When to use
- Final module, sessions 13-16
- Before planned ending
- After a relapse-like episode
Key phrases
What are your early signs that the old cycle is returning?
Follow-up questions
Which skill should come first?
How will you know you are ruminating rather than reflecting?
Who or what can support the new strategy?
Alternative phrasings
A setback is a signal to use the plan, not proof that therapy failed.
Warnings
- ⚠️ Do not present relapse prevention as a one-page form only
- ⚠️ The plan must be tied to the client's actual mechanisms and habits
Source: Mennin et al. 2018
Materials are informational and educational and summarize publicly available scientific sources. They are not medical or psychological advice, are not intended for self-diagnosis or self-treatment, and do not replace consultation with a qualified professional.