Practise noticing and tolerating everyday uncertainty to build your tolerance muscle.
Each day, identify one moment of uncertainty and practise sitting with it rather than seeking reassurance or trying to resolve it.
Use when intolerance of uncertainty has been identified as a core maintaining factor in the client's worry, typically within Dugas' intolerance of uncertainty model. Introduce after psychoeducation about the role of uncertainty intolerance in GAD.
Use the analogy of building a tolerance through gradual exposure, similar to building physical stamina. Frame the exercises as experiments in learning to sit with not-knowing rather than trying to eliminate uncertainty.
Start with lower-stakes uncertainty situations (e.g., trying a new restaurant without reading reviews) before progressing to more personally meaningful domains. Tailor the hierarchy to the client's specific areas of intolerance.
Not appropriate if the client has not yet developed a basic understanding of how intolerance of uncertainty maintains their worry. Premature exposure to uncertainty without adequate rationale may increase distress without therapeutic benefit.
Monitor for subtle neutralising behaviours that undermine the exposure (e.g., mentally rehearsing contingency plans while ostensibly tolerating uncertainty). The most effective exercises are those that leave the outcome genuinely unknown for an extended period rather than those resolved quickly.
Suitable for clients working with uncertainty, gad, anxiety, tolerance, exposure. This tool can be used as a standalone worksheet or as part of a structured homework plan.
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Identify and challenge negative beliefs about worry — the beliefs that worry is uncontrollable or dangerous.
Track Attention Training Technique (ATT) practice sessions with focus ratings and observations.
A formulation based on Wells' metacognitive model of GAD — mapping the role of positive and negative beliefs about worry in maintaining the worry cycle.
Work through a structured process to decide whether a worry is practical (take action) or hypothetical (practise letting go).