A cognitive distortion is a way of thinking that affects your feelings and behaviors in a negative way. You may believe these thoughts are true, but upon further inspection, you would find that they are exaggerations or not based in reality. These distortions affect our lives by impacting how we feel and how we act. We can make changes in our lives by challenging the thoughts that lead to these distortions.
Every day, we have certain thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are part of our normal lives. Each one of these affects the others. For example, if you feel tired and depressed, you might think you can’t do very much and you might avoid any activities that seem like work. You might stay in bed or go to the movies. If you’ve been staying in bed for a few days, you might start to feel worse physically and think that it’s too hard to do anything.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) helps us become aware of these thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and how they are connected. It shows us how to change our thoughts and behaviors in ways that will help us feel better emotionally and physically. It also helps us learn new skills so we can face life problems more directly and take charge of our lives.
These CBT worksheets, information handouts, and therapy resources have been carefully designed for you to use in your clinical work or as self-help. There are many CBT worksheets available on the internet, however, this list has been carefully curated by a group of mental health professionals. The worksheets include informational handouts, therapy worksheets, CBT exercises and modules, and much more.
The following are five CBT worksheets that can help you practice Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques. If you are working with a therapist, make sure that you take these worksheets to your appointments and discuss them with your therapist. While CBT is very effective when practiced alone, it is even more effective when combined with the guidance of a licensed professional.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a problem-solving technique based on the idea that our thoughts influence our feelings and behavior. This means that if we can challenge our negative thinking patterns, we will experience less negative emotions and feel better about ourselves. CBT is an evidence-based treatment with a good success rate.
Each of the worksheets below are designed to help you identify your thought patterns, the evidence to support those thoughts, and how they make you feel. You may want to consider using the Thought Record or Identifying Core Beliefs worksheets first. These will help you identify thoughts that are impacting your mood and behavior. Once you have identified these thoughts, you can use the Challenging Thoughts or Changing Core Beliefs worksheets to challenge them.
This is a worksheet to help you record the different situations (activating events), thoughts, feelings and actions that occur in your life. By recording these different elements of your experiences, you can learn to see the relationship between them, and begin to make changes that result in the positive outcomes you desire.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) worksheets, handouts, and self-help resources. Welcome to Psychology Tools. These CBT worksheets, handouts, information sheets, and self-help guides have been carefully designed for you to use in your therapy sessions.
These CBT resources are designed to help you manage negative thoughts and feelings that get in the way of your ability to enjoy a happier more fulfilling life. This is achieved by helping you learn how to stop negative thinking patterns and replace them with positive thoughts and behaviors.
CBT provides you with an understanding of why you think the way that you do and offers practical self-help strategies that you can implement right away. Often these techniques can be used as part of a self-help plan for managing your own problems without the need for therapy or counseling.