Play The Script Till The End is a therapeutic exercise to help clients identify and process underlying fears by examining the cascade of potential outcomes.
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.
An editable Microsoft PowerPoint version of the resource.
Developed by Scott Waltman, PsyD, and Erin Murphy, PsyD, this technique addresses some of the limitations of traditional arrow methods by encouraging clients to extend their exploration beyond immediate anxieties. By 'playing the script till the end,' clients can discover core fears that often lie at the root of their worries. This method is particularly useful for clients whose fears are magnified by imagination and can be clarified by identifying feared outcomes and their consequences.
This exercise offers a structured approach to:
Explore potential consequences of various worries.
Dissect the 'what if' scenarios typically involved in obsessions.
Examine fears about social perceptions or judgments.
Navigate fears related to failure or underperformance in crucial tasks.
Present the concept of 'playing the script till the end' to the client.
Encourage the client to explore potential outcomes and their consequences.
Have the client document the feared situations and the resulting consequences.
Facilitate reflection on how realistic the feared outcomes are.
Help the client dissect whether these are rational fears.
The Play The Script Till The End exercise is grounded in cognitive-behavioral theory, particularly the idea that distorted or exaggerated thinking patterns fuel anxiety and avoidance. One key mechanism underlying anxiety disorders is the tendency to catastrophize — to overestimate the likelihood and severity of feared outcomes. This exercise directly targets that process by guiding clients to visualize their feared scenarios through to their ultimate conclusion, allowing for a deeper, reality-based appraisal of those fears.
By encouraging clients to fully imagine and articulate the cascade of feared events, the exercise facilitates cognitive restructuring — allowing clients to assess whether their fears are realistic, survivable, or even meaningful in context. Importantly, this often leads to the realization that even if their worst fears were realized, they could cope, adapt, or seek support. This supports metacognitive awareness and emotion regulation, reducing the perceived threat and urgency of feared scenarios.
The technique is also consistent with metacognitive models of worry, particularly in generalized anxiety disorder (Wells, 1995), where individuals often avoid fully thinking through their fears to prevent distress. Playing The Script Till The End challenges this avoidance pattern and facilitates emotional processing by gently confronting the worry sequence rather than interrupting or suppressing it.
Therapists using this approach should adopt a stance of collaborative curiosity, helping clients slow down and engage with their internal narratives. Rather than jumping to reassurance or avoidance, clients are encouraged to sit with discomfort, trace the fear to its source, and discover insight. Over time, this fosters increased tolerance of uncertainty and internal distress — capacities that are central to recovery from anxiety.
