Feelings thermometer worksheet

If you’re looking for a worksheet to help you explain emotional awareness and regulation to therapy clients, especially kids, this feelings thermometer PDF can help. 

This guide to the emotional thermometer gives mental health therapists a brief overview of this tool, how to use it and with what population, and the benefits of using a feelings thermometer to regulate emotions. 

You can also download a free feelings thermometer printable PDF to save to your electronic health record (EHR) for future use. 

What is a feelings thermometer and who is it for?

There is a documented relationship between emotions and temperature through embodied processes. 

For example, high temperatures are often associated with high-arousal emotions, like aggression or hostility. 

We also use temperature-related language to describe behavior, such as:

• “I found that person to be cold.”
• “My therapist was warm and welcoming.”
• “I felt extremely hot, almost like I was on fire with my rage.”
• “That movie was heartwarming.”

Thus, a feelings thermometer is a useful visual aid to help children identify and communicate their feelings as their temperature rises. 

The emotional thermometer tool illustrates a temperature gauge, with more neutral feelings at the bottom of the thermometer that rise to moderate and high-intensity emotions as you get to the top of the scale.

For instance, Dave is in class, sitting calmly. He marks feeling at the “cool” end of the emotional thermometer: relaxed, calm, and content. 

However, when there is a disruption during class, Dave starts to experience more moderate emotions, like anxiety, because he is worried classmates might start fighting. Unfortunately, the teacher isn’t available to quiet the disruption, which intensifies. 

Dave feels the classroom is unbearable. His classmates start roughhousing, and Dave starts feeling hot, overwhelmed, and frightened—bringing his emotions to the very top of the feelings thermometer.

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Benefits of teaching kids about emotional thermometers

Teaching kids about the feelings thermometer has several benefits:

Enhances emotional awareness 

The feelings thermometer works as a visual aid to help children become familiar with identifying and naming their emotions. Assigning a temperature to their feelings helps kids to recognize the full range of emotions and identify their intensity levels. 

Improves emotional regulation 

After becoming familiar with identifying their emotions, kids can use the tool as an emotional regulation thermometer. For example, a child might recognize feeling worried, ask for help, or use a coping strategy to prevent the situation from escalating.

Reduces stress and anxiety 

When children can recognize and label what they are feeling, they gain a sense of control, reducing stress and anxiety.

Enhances communication skills 

An emotional thermometer gives kids a tool to describe their feelings. For example, they might use the tool to tell their teacher they are a seven on the scale, which conveys their feelings without needing to explain themselves.

Improves problem-solving skills 

Feelings thermometers, like an anger thermometer, can help kids identify triggers that may cause heightened feelings and emotions. 

Strengthens interoception 

A feelings thermometer helps children connect physical sensations and feelings, and gives them the words to describe their feelings. 

Builds empathy 

By increasing their emotional awareness, kids may identify when their classmates are experiencing intense emotions. 

Enhances mindfulness 

By regularly checking in with their feelings and emotions, pausing, and using coping strategies, children are practicing mindfulness. 

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When to use the feelings thermometer

Therapists can use the feelings thermometer PDF in several ways:

• As a screening tool to detect levels of distress, anxiety, and depression during intake
• In-session, the tool can be used as a visual aid used to provide psychoeducation about emotions and to identify neutral, moderate, and escalating emotions collaboratively
• Once familiar with emotions, you can identify coping strategies with the client
• Clients can stick their emotional thermometer to their refrigerator and use it as a check-in tool in the mornings and when they get home from school
• Clients can keep a log of their feelings and difficult situations 

You can download the feelings thermometer (printable version) at the top of this article. 

Sources

• Barbosa Escobar, F., Velasco, C., Motoki, K., Byrne, D. V., & Wang, Q. J. (2021). The temperature of emotions. PloS one. 
• Harju, E., Michel, G., & Roser, K. (2019). A systematic review on the use of the emotion thermometer in individuals diagnosed with cancer. Psycho-oncology. 
• Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. (2020). Feelings thermometer: take your emotional temperature.

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