Crisis planning is of particular importance in personality disorder and should be a task considered very early in any treatment process. When people with personality disorder experience intense emotions, the ability to think clearly is reduced even more than it would be for other people. Hence a crisis self-management plan, with options and contacts for dealing with a crisis situation clearly listed, can be invaluable. Although a crisis may be produced in collaboration with a clinician, it necessarily remains the patient’s document. However, clearly it is likely to be beneficial for the patient to share copies with relevant people. Examples of template crisis self-management plans can be found in the Appendix.