To complete a thought diary, ask your client to: Capturing your thoughts in a thought diaryĪ thought diary can be simple, requiring only four columns to capture sufficient detail around unhelpful thinking, such as:Ĭolumn 3 – Emotion and a rating of emotional intensityĬolumn 4 – Thought and a rating of the strength of belief in the thought Its strengths lie in highlighting consistent patterns of how we respond to both commonplace and exceptional events. Negative interpretations of events are often automatic, resulting in feelings of anxiety, depression, stress, and anger, and lowering our self-esteem (Myles & Shafran, 2015).Ī thought diary does more than capture a single event, emotion, or thought it records how we handle multiple situations over time. What events have triggered your anger, stress, and anxiety? If we identify when they happen and change how we think, we can reduce heightened emotion. Overly focusing on one aspect that may have gone wrong while ignoring all that has gone well. We often judge situations according to our feelings. Thinking things are worse than they are, often accompanied by underplaying strengths while focusing on weaknesses. Many common patterns, referred to as thinking errors, lead to emotional problems and can be both limiting and upsetting they include (Myles & Shafran, 2015):Īpplying the outcome of one specific event to many others in your life. The thought diary helps by providing a way to capture thinking patterns (individual and collections of thoughts over time) and the opportunity to revisit and revise them. Indeed, most of the problems we face are less a result of the event itself and more a response to its interpretation. Our thoughts impact our feelings, behavior, and what happens to our body. In The CBT Handbook, Pamela Myles and Roz Shafran (2015) describe the importance of capturing such thinking. Not only is a thought diary valuable for ongoing review, but it highlights the need for interventions, such as replacing negative thoughts with alternative, positive ones and creating realistic goals. In one study at a hospice offering palliative care and community service, one patient was quoted as saying, “the diary was helpful when I read it back to myself I can see the patterns of things that happened” (Dobson, 2013). As therapists, we ask our clients to “step back from momentary experience and to observe and record it” (Dobson, 2013).Īnd it can have some very positive results. One such activity is the completion of a thought diary. How do we make clients central to their recovery?Ī crucial aspect of CBT is giving clients homework, providing the opportunity to collect more information about the connection between thought and action. Indeed, for several clinical problems, it is the preferred treatment (Dobson, 2013). Cognitive change can lead to desired behavioral change.Ĭognitive techniques encourage the client to identify and challenge negative thoughts and find different ways of thinking (Anderson et al., 2008).Īnd it works.We can monitor and alter cognitive activity.While there are several distinct approaches within CBT, they all center on the following principles (Dobson, 2013): Thought Diaries for Depression and AnxietyĬBT helps clients form connections between their feelings, thoughts, behaviors, and physical symptoms (Anderson, Watson, & Davidson, 2008).
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