Workbook (PDF)
A workbook containing elements of psychoeducation and skills-development.
Evaluating Unhelpful Automatic Thoughts
A comprehensive guide to evaluating unhelpful automatic thoughts, written specifically for clients.
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Overview
The Evaluating Unhelpful Automatic Thoughts guide is written for clients who struggle with negative automatic thoughts. It provides a comprehensive introduction to what thoughts are, and how they can be linked to feelings and behavior. It also teaches fundamental CBT skills, including how to identify and evaluate automatic thoughts.
Why Use This Resource?
This guide aims to help clients understand and address negative automatic thoughts (NATs). It explains what NATs are, how to identify them, and ways to re-evaluate them.
- Understand and identify unhelpful automatic thoughts.
- Learn how they contribute to emotional difficulties.
- Address unhelpful automatic thoughts using effective techniques.
Key Benefits
Comprehensive
Explores what unhelpful automatic thoughts are and the role they play in emotional difficulties.
Practical
Contains a variety of effective tools for addressing unhelpful automatic thoughts.
Relatable
Includes detailed examples and relatable case studies.
Supportive
Written in a friendly and accessible manner.
Who is this for?
Depression
Clients experiencing negative thoughts that lead to low mood.
Anxiety
Thoughts focusing on potential threats and dangers.
Low Self-Esteem
Persistent self-critical or deprecating thoughts.
Integrating it into your practice
01
Assess
Identify clients who experience unhelpful automatic thoughts.
02
Share
Introduce the guide to clients who could benefit from it.
03
Educate
Use the content to explore and normalize clients' patterns of thinking.
04
Address
Use the exercises in the guide to help clients address their negative automatic thoughts.
Theoretical Background & Therapist Guidance
Thinking allows people to plan, solve problems, create, or imagine, but it can cause problems when it leads to excessive worry, rumination, or self-criticism. Clients may often feel distressed or overwhelmed by their thoughts, and problems like anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, paranoia, and even reactions to physical pain can be the result of particular ways of thinking.
People often assume that the way they think is accurate, but in reality, thoughts are not facts. Thinking isn’t always slow or deliberate. In fact, it mostly consists of quick, automatic thoughts, which are called negative automatic thoughts (or ‘NATs’) when they cause distress. These thoughts may not be accurate, and are simply ‘best guesses’ or ‘opinions’ about the meaning of events. In this way, biases (typically called unhelpful thinking styles or cognitive distortions) can influence how people think.
While it may not be possible to prevent automatic thoughts, clients don’t have to accept them at face value, and can learn to interpret events differently. One of the best ways for them to do this is by learning to evaluate their thinking.
This guide is written for clients who are struggling with negative automatic thoughts. As well as providing a comprehensive introduction to the link between thoughts, feelings, and behavior, it teaches fundamental CBT skills including how to catch automatic thoughts, spot unhelpful thinking styles, and evaluate the evidence for and against automatic thoughts.
What's inside
- Introduction to unhelpful automatic thoughts.
- Guidance for introducing and using the resource with clients.
- Key references for learning more about cognitive restucturing.
FAQs
Automatic thoughts are quick, spontaneous thoughts that often influence emotional responses.
By consistently practicing the exercises in the guide, clients can reduce the impact of negative thoughts on their emotional state.
Yes, as with any skill, regular practice enhances the ability to identify and evaluate negative thoughts.
How This Resource Improves Clinical Outcomes
By integrating this resource into therapy, clients benefit from:
- Increased awareness of unhelpful thinking patterns.
- Effective tools that can improve their mood.
- Lasting cognitive and emotional change.
References And Further Reading
- Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. International Universities Press.
- Beck, A. T. (Ed.). (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. Guilford Press.
- Beck, A. T. (1963). Thinking and depression: I. Idiosyncratic content and cognitive distortions. Archives of General Psychiatry, 9(4), 324-333.
- Burns, M. D. (1980). Feeling good: the new mood therapy. NY: Signet Books.
- Clark, D. A., & Beck, A. T. (1989). Cognitive theory and therapy of anxiety and depression. In P. C. Kendall & D. Watson (Eds.), Anxiety and depression: Distinctive and overlapping features (pp. 379–411). San Diego: Academic Press.
- Frankl, V. E. (1963). Man’s search for meaning: an introduction to logotherapy. New York: Washington Square Press.
- Gilbert, P. (1998). The evolved basis and adaptive functions of cognitive distortions. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 71(4), 447-463.
- Kahneman, D., & Egan, P. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
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