CBT Exercises & Worksheets

The foundational CBT exercise. Identify a triggering situation, capture your automatic thoughts and emotions, identify cognitive distortions, examine the evidence, and develop a balanced alternative thought.

1. Write the situation (just facts)
2. Rate emotion intensity 0–100%
3. Identify automatic thoughts
4. Label cognitive distortions
5. List evidence for and against
6. Write a balanced thought, re-rate emotion

A faster, lighter exercise. Take a single hot thought and identify which of the 11 common thinking traps (cognitive distortions) you're using. Each distortion comes with a reframe prompt.

1. Capture the thought
2. Match against the 11 distortion patterns
3. Read the reframe prompt for each match
4. Write a more balanced version

Test your negative predictions against reality. Define what you predict will happen, do the experiment, and compare the actual outcome. This is one of the most powerful CBT techniques for anxiety because direct experience overrides intellectual reasoning.

1. Write the prediction: "If I do X, then Y will happen"
2. Rate confidence in the prediction (0–100%)
3. Carry out the experiment
4. Record what actually happened
5. Compare prediction vs. outcome — what did you learn?

Build a ladder of feared situations from least to most anxiety-provoking. Gradually face each one, staying until anxiety drops by at least 50% before moving up. This is the gold-standard technique for phobias and avoidance-based anxiety.

1. List all situations you avoid
2. Rate anxiety for each (0–100)
3. Sort from lowest to highest
4. Start with the easiest, stay until anxiety halves
5. Move up one rung only after the current one feels manageable

Plan specific activities for specific time slots. Combines behavioral activation with structure. Especially effective for depression, where withdrawal and inactivity reinforce low mood.

1. List activities that give you mastery or pleasure
2. Assign each to a specific day/time slot
3. Do the activity at the scheduled time (regardless of mood)
4. Rate actual pleasure and accomplishment after each
5. Review weekly — adjust the schedule

Track daily activities and rate each for pleasure (P) and mastery/accomplishment (M) on a 0–10 scale. Over 1–2 weeks, patterns emerge showing which activities boost mood — do more of those.

1. Log each activity at end of day
2. Rate pleasure (P) 0–10 and mastery (M) 0–10
3. After 7–14 days, identify high-P/high-M activities
4. Schedule more of those, reduce low-P/low-M ones

Systematically question a hot thought using Socratic questions. This is the cognitive restructuring engine inside a thought record, done as a standalone quick exercise.

1. What is the evidence for this thought?
2. What is the evidence against it?
3. What would I tell a friend in this situation?
4. Is there another way to see this?
5. What is the worst/best/most realistic outcome?

Contain worry to a fixed 15–30 minute slot each day. When worries arise outside that slot, note them and defer to worry time. Paradoxically, scheduling worry reduces total worry time and gives a sense of control.

1. Pick a daily worry time (e.g. 6:00–6:20 PM, not near bedtime)
2. When worries pop up earlier, jot a keyword and defer
3. At worry time, worry intensely about everything on the list
4. Stop when the slot ends — defer new worries to tomorrow

A sensory grounding technique for acute anxiety or panic. Engage all five senses to pull attention back to the present moment. Works in under 60 seconds.

1. Name 5 things you can see
2. Name 4 things you can touch
3. Name 3 things you can hear
4. Name 2 things you can smell
5. Name 1 thing you can taste

Identify what matters most to you across life domains, then choose actions aligned with those values — even when uncomfortable. Bridges CBT with acceptance-based approaches.

1. List domains: relationships, work, health, growth, community
2. For each, write what kind of person you want to be
3. Identify one concrete action aligned with a value this week
4. Do it, noting any discomfort that arose