CBT Model - Maintaining Processes

The CBT Model - Maintaining Processes worksheet provides a useful framework for explaining what triggers a problem and why it persists across time and situations.

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Professional version

Offers theory, guidance, and prompts for mental health professionals. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.

Client version

Includes client-friendly guidance. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.

Editable version (PPT)

An editable Microsoft PowerPoint version of the resource.

Overview

Psychological therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) use formulation to connect theory with practice. This worksheet helps therapists and clients explore what triggers a problem and why it persists over time. It focuses on key maintaining factors such as attentional biases, safety behaviors, and avoidance strategies.

This tool provides a framework for creating a personalized case conceptualization that helps clients understand their difficulties and identify patterns that perpetuate them.

Why Use This Resource?

Formulation is critical for understanding clients' difficulties and guiding the direction and process of CBT. It acts as a bridge between theory, research, and lived experiences, and makes therapy more personalized and effective.

Identifies key factors that maintain client difficulties.
Guides treatment planning and intervention choice.
Links theory to practice.
Ensures therapy is tailored to the clients' needs.

Key Benefits

Structure

Offers a simple framework for identifying triggers and maintaining factors.

Clarity

Breaks down complex issues into smaller, understandable elements.

Collaboration

Encourages clients to play an active role in developing case conceptualizations.

Evidence-base

Draws on well-researched factors that often maintain psychological difficulties.

Who is this for?

Anxiety

Catastrophic thinking and excessive avoidance.

Depression

Ruminative cycles and withdrawal behaviors.

Social Anxiety

Fear of social interactions and use of unhelpful coping strategies.

Low Self-Esteem

Self-criticism and unassertive behavior.

Integrating it into your practice

Identify

Begin with identifying events that trigger the client's difficulty.

Clarity

Explore key thoughts and images associated with the trigger event.

Understand

Help clients see how their feelings, attention, and behavior maintain these negative thoughts.

Reflect

Discuss the implications of the formulation and starting points for change.

Theoretical Background & Therapist Guidance

CBT formulations aim to comprehensively describe clients' difficulties using cognitive and behavioral theory. They tend to focus on key maintaining factors, including selective attention, emotions, sensations, safety behaviors, and avoidance, which have been shown to perpetuate psychological difficulties.

Maintenance cycles help simplify complex issues and highlight key areas for intervention. They enable therapists to draw on evidence-based interventions tailored to individual client needs, facilitating more effective therapy.

What's inside

An overview of case conceptualization in CBT.
Descriptions of key maintaining factors that often feature in psychological difficulties.
A structured framework for creating a personalized formulation that focuses on maintaining processes.
Prompts and therapist instructions for guiding the process of formulation.

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FAQs

A CBT formulation provides a comprehensive understanding of what maintains a clients' difficulties, strengthens the therapeutic alliance, and helps guide decision-making throughout treatment.

This worksheet aids therapists by organizating information about what is maintaining a problem, thereby enhance understanding of the clients' issues and guiding treatment.

Yes, it can be combined with longitudinal formulations that explore the development of client difficulties.

How This Resource Improves Clinical Outcomes

This resource can help therapists develop a comprehensive understanding of clients' difficulties, enabling more targeted and effective treatment interventions. By mapping maintenance cycles, clinicians can devise tailored interventions that break these negative patterns.

Therapists gain:

A versatile tool for making sense of complex psychological issues.
Detailed guidance for constructing a comprehensive case conceptualization.
Enhanced ability to develop personalized treatment plans.

Clients benefit through increased insight into their issues and a clearer path toward change.

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References And Further Reading

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