Practising a healthy adult response
Choose a caring and realistic response to a difficult state, combining protection, limits, practical support and space for connection or enjoyment.
Written by Tarun Vermani, Trainee Clinical Psychologist Last reviewed
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Practising a healthy adult response
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Care in action
You can use a different name for this response. Feelings do not have to disappear.
Try it here — nothing you type is saved. Sign up to assign it and let clients complete it on any device.
When to use ‘Practising a healthy adult response’
‘Practising a healthy adult response’ is an interactive schema therapy worksheet. Consider this resource when exploring long-standing patterns in relationships, emotions or coping, and how unmet needs and earlier experiences may connect with a client’s current difficulties.
It is designed to be used within therapy rather than as a standalone self-help tool: a therapist introduces it, works through it collaboratively, and helps make sense of what it surfaces. You can preview the full worksheet above, then assign it digitally for clients to complete between sessions on any device or download it as a print-ready PDF.
How it works
Most people work through it in around 10 minutes. It centres on one focused exercise:
- Care in action: You can use a different name for this response. Feelings do not have to disappear.
Completed on the Formulate platform, your client's answers are saved automatically and shared straight back to you, so you can review them before the next session rather than waiting for a paper copy to come back.
The schema therapy approach behind it
‘Practising a healthy adult response’ draws on schema therapy. Schema therapy explores long-standing patterns linked to unmet emotional needs. Schemas describe broad patterns of meaning; modes describe emotional states and coping responses that become active in particular situations. Coping styles include surrendering to a pattern, avoiding it or trying to counter it. The therapist and client can explore these responses alongside the needs they may reflect.
It is intended as one part of a wider course of therapy rather than as advice or a diagnosis. The therapist can help decide how it fits the work and discuss what emerges.
Evidence & sources
This worksheet draws on schema therapy. Key sources include:
- Young, J. E., Klosko, J. S., & Weishaar, M. E. (2003). Schema Therapy: A Practitioner's Guide. Guilford Press.
- Arntz, A., & Jacob, G. (2013). Schema Therapy in Practice: An Introductory Guide to the Schema Mode Approach. Wiley-Blackwell.
For use alongside professional support
Formulate provides educational CBT resources for use with a qualified therapist. They are not a substitute for professional assessment, diagnosis, or crisis care.
If you need urgent help now:
- Emergency services: 999 — if you or someone else is in immediate danger
- NHS 111 (NHS 24 in Scotland): 111 — choose the mental health option for urgent help, in England, Scotland and Wales (in Wales, press 2)
- Lifeline: 0808 808 8000 — for urgent help in Northern Ireland, free, day or night
- Samaritans: 116 123 — free, day or night, 365 days a year
- Shout: 85258 — text SHOUT, free, day or night
- SANEline: 0300 304 7000 — 4pm–10pm, every day
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