The Assertiveness Ladder helps clients develop their assertive communication skills by practicing them in progressively challenging situations.
Offers theory, guidance, and prompts for mental health professionals. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
Includes client-friendly guidance. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
Assertive communication can have a positive impact on people’s mental health, relationships, and work life. A key component of assertiveness training is putting these skills into action. This Assertiveness Ladder can help therapists plan practice exercises, design behavioral experiments, and facilitate exposure for fears of being assertive. Clients can also use this tool to clarify their goals, identify relevant situations, and monitor their progress.
This resource provides a framework for developing assertiveness skills that helps clients:
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For clients struggling to express themselves due to fear of negative evaluation.
To encourage confident, respectful interaction with others.
Supports clients whose communication is hindered by guilt, hopelessness, or low self-worth.
Complements DBT work on interpersonal effectiveness.
For clients experiencing conflict, imbalance, or communication breakdowns in personal or professional settings.
Encourages development of self-respect and clear expression of needs.
Supports effective communication with colleagues and reduces vulnerability to bullying.
Help the client specify an assertiveness goal.
Develop a list of real or simulated scenarios that would help the client reach their goal.
Order the list from least to most challenging.
Use the ladder to guide assertiveness skills practice.
Discuss outcomes and update the ladder as confidence grows.
Effective communication is essential for sharing information, coordinating actions, and achieving personal and professional goals (Rohner & Schutz, 2024). It plays a key role in building healthy relationships, allowing individuals to express needs, build trust, and resolve conflicts (McKay et al., 2018).
Assertiveness is regarded as an effective communication style across many situations (Hayward et al., 2012; Jakubowski & Lange, 1978; Linehan, 1979; Paterson, 2022). Research has associated assertiveness with numerous benefits, including improved relationships, reduced work-related stress and burnout, and improved symptoms of anxiety and depression (e.g., Rakos, 1991; Speed et al., 2018; Suzuki et al., 2009).
Graded hierarchies or ‘ladders’ are used in many assertiveness training programmes (Rakos, 1991). A ladder is a personalised list of situations that are progressively more challenging. Creating a graded hierarchy involves generating a list of real or simulated scenarios where an assertive response would be suitable. Items are then ranked according to how challenging, anxiety-provoking, or anger-inducing they are (Gambrill, 2002; Rich & Schroeder, 1976).
Ladders can serve multiple purposes in assertiveness training, including identifying contexts where the client struggles to be assertive, guiding assertiveness skills practice, designing behavioural experiments, planning exposure exercises for fears of being assertive, and tracking clients’ progress over time.
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