Window of Tolerance
Updated 2026-08-01
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Coined by psychiatrist Dan Siegel, the window of tolerance describes the band of arousal within which a person can think clearly, feel emotion without being overwhelmed, and handle stress. Above the window, arousal tips into fight or flight: anxiety, rage, panic. Below it, arousal collapses into freeze: numbness, depression, dissociation. The width of the window varies with temperament, trauma history, sleep and current stress load, and it narrows under strain. The model is a clinical heuristic rather than a diagnostic category, used to choose between calming and activating interventions.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Overheating Check: notice when you have tipped above the window into anxiety or rage - Cooling Down: use movement, slow breathing or cold water to bring arousal back down - Warming Up: use sensory input, rhythm or social contact to lift yourself out of numbness
Anchor fast decisions
Arousal is a dose-response system, not a linear good-bad scale. Too little activation starves the prefrontal cortex of the input it needs for planning and speech, which produces numbness; too much floods it with limbic alarm and shuts reflection down. Both extremes impair the same higher functions, which is why calming down and waking up are one operation seen from opposite sides, and why the corrective move depends on which side you are on.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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