An accessible self-monitoring worksheet that helps clients identify automatic thoughts and common cognitive distortions.
Offers theory, guidance, and prompts for mental health professionals. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
Includes client-friendly guidance. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
Self-monitoring is a technique in which clients learn to systematically observe and record specific targets such as their own thoughts, body feelings, emotions, and behaviors. The aim is to improve clients’ awareness of their experiences and the contexts in which they occur to help them gain insight into their symptoms and difficulties. Self-monitoring supports collaboration between the therapist and client, creating opportunities to formulate and test hypotheses about these difficulties. It is usually introduced early in therapy, providing an inexpensive and continuous measure of problem symptoms and behaviors throughout treatment.
The Cognitive Distortions – Self-Monitoring Record is designed to help clients become more aware of their negative automatic thoughts, and any cognitive distortions (unhelpful thinking styles) which are present within them.
Helps identify cognitive distortions that contribute to feelings of hopelessness.
Supports recognition of anxiety-provoking thinking patterns, such as catastrophizing.
Identifies self-critical thinking styles, such as labelling and personalization.
Highlights cognitive distortions linked to perfectionism, such as “should” statements and all-or-nothing thinking.
Suitable for clients experiencing PTSD, OCD, and interpersonal difficulties.
Introduce clients to common cognitive distortions.
Collaboratively agree a target event or emotional cue for initiating self-monitoring.
Encourage clients to identify their automatic thoughts, associated emotions, and relevant cognitive distortions.
Review clients' self-monitoring records and help them reflect on the content.
Encourage ongoing monitoring to track changes during treatment.
Self-monitoring serves as both an assessment method and an intervention in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), supporting various evidence-based treatments (Korotitsch & Nelson-Gray, 1999; Proudfoot & Nicholas, 2010). It involves two key components: discrimination (identifying key symptoms, thoughts, or feelings) and recording (documenting occurrences in writing, allowing clients to track when symptoms happen, their duration, and the context).
Self-monitoring can utilize various tools, such as diaries for events, logs for behavior frequency, and records for thoughts or symptoms. Encouraging self-monitoring helps clients actively engage in therapy, fostering autonomy and understanding of their challenges, which lays a foundation for effective intervention (Bornstein et al., 1986; Proudfoot & Nicholas, 2010). Self-monitoring also assists therapists in identifying influential factors that might not be visible during sessions (Korotitsch & Nelson-Gray, 1999).
A common technique in CBT involves teaching clients to recognize and evaluate automatic thoughts – the rapid, often unexamined cognitive content that arises in response to everyday events. Many of these thoughts are shaped by cognitive distortions such as catastophizing, personalization, all-or-nothing thinking, or overgeneralizing (Beck, 1963; Beck et al, 1979; Burns, 1980). By learning to spot these distortions in real-time, clients can begin to question the accuracy of their automatic thoughts and move towards more balanced, flexible thinking.
The Cognitive Distortions – Self-Monitoring Record worksheet is designed to help clients identify cognitive distortions present in their automatic thoughts. It includes columns to record information about the client’s automatic thoughts and emotions in a particular situation. It also provides illustrated descriptions of common cognitive distortions and clients are encouraged to record distortions which might be present in their automatic thoughts.
