Rumination - Self-Monitoring Record

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, in order to help them gain insight into their symptoms and difficulties. Self-monitoring supports collaboration between the therapist and client, and creates opportunities to formulate and test hypotheses about these difficulties. Self-monitoring is usually introduced early in therapy, and provides an inexpensive and continuous measure of problem symptoms and behaviors throughout treatment.

Psychology Tools self-monitoring records have been carefully designed to focus on particular targets. In most instances, there are:

• Regular versions of each form which focus on collecting essential data about the target.
• Extended versions of each form, which allow additional data to be collected about the consequences of client behaviors, and which can be used to form

Rumination-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (RFCBT) conceptualizes rumination as a habitual “escape and avoidance behavior that has been reinforced in the past by the removal of aversive experience, or because it has perceived or actual functions” (Watkins, 2016). It is typically maintained because it avoids short-term pain, although it can result in unintended negative consequences. An RFCBT approach analyzes the function of rumination rather than its content. It differs from a typical CBT cognitive restructuring approach by focusing on understanding the antecendents-rumination-consequences sequence and helping patients to find alternatives, rather than trying to break the chain by examining the accuracy of particular thoughts (Watkins, 2016). Consequently, self-monitoring for rumination follows a format more aligned to functional analysis, to allow for the identification of contingent environmental and behavioral factors that maintain rumination.

“To change a habit of rumination, you first have to be aware of when and why you are doing it,

• Bornstein, P.H., Hamilton, S.B. & Bornstein, M.T. (1986) Self-monitoring procedures. In A.R. Ciminero, K.S. Calhoun, & H.E. Adams (Eds) Handbook of behavioral assessment (2nd ed). New York: Wiley.
• Cohen, J.S., Edmunds, J.M., Brodman, D.M., Benjamin, C.L., Kendall, P.C. (2013), Using self-monitoring: implementation of collaborative empiricism in cognitive-behavioral therapy. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 20(4), 419-428.
• Kennerley, H., Kirk, J., & Westbrook, D. (2017) An Introduction to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: Skills & Applications. 3rd Edition. Sage, London.
• Korotitsch, W. J., & Nelson-Gray, R. O. (1999). An overview of self-monitoring research in assessment and treatment. Psychological Assessment, 11(4), 415.
• Persons, J.B. (2008) The Case Formulation Approach to Cognitive-Behavior Therapy. Guildford Press, London.
• Proudfoot, J., & Nicholas, J. (2010). Monitoring and evaluation in low intensity CBT interventions. Oxford guide to low intensity CBT interventions, 97-104.
• Watkins, E. R. (2016). Rumintion-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression. London: Guilford.