This tool is used to help clients begin to analyze their own emotional reactions and think about them in terms of the strength of each emotion. It is framed in terms of “stress” levels but could certainly be reframed in any emotional terms such as anger, sadness, frustration, etc.

It uses a 5-point scale, and I encourage clients to add a decimal point or halves and quarters which makes more sense to younger clients. I’ve coded the levels of stress as low (1), medium (2), high (3), critical (4), and maximum (5). It’s worth noting that the lowest score of 1 means that the client is experiencing less stress than is optimal or typical. Most of my clients live at a 3 and above!

You can download the Bear Clan Stress Thermometer here.

Tracking, in and of itself, tends to modify behaviors. Just the act of self-tracking encourages people to be more thoughtful and less reactive. Tracking also lends itself to the creation of simple reward contracts.

A tracking form can also expand upon simply using the stress thermometer tool to also identifying triggers. This further benefits executive skill development. You can download the Stress Thermometer Tracking Sheet here.