Self-Blame

The Self-Blame information handout offers insights and strategies for clients experiencing this common cognitive distortion or 'unhelpful thinking style'.

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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.

Overview

Self-blame is a common cognitive distortion that leads individuals to inappropriately assign blame to themselves for negative events. This style of thinking is often accompanied by feelings of guilt and shame, impacting on people's mood, relationships, abd general well-being. The Self-Blame handout forms part of the cognitive distortions series, which is designed to address problematic thinking styles. It provides practical guidance on identifying, understanding, and reducing self-blame.

Why Use This Resource?

Excessive and automatic self-blame is associated with various psychological difficulties.

  • Provides clear psychoeducation about the nature and impact of self-blaming thoughts.
  • Helps clients recognize this cognitive distortion.
  • Offers practical strategies to help clients address self-blaming thoughts.

Key Benefits

Clear

Offers an easy-to-understand overview of this cognitive distortion.

Relatable

Provides informative examples of self-blame.

Practical

Describes practical tools such as pie charts to help reduce self-blame.

Who is this for?

Depression

Persistent self-blme and self-criticism affecting mood and motivation.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Blaming oneself for traumatic events.

Perfectionism

Excessive self-blame for perceived failures.

Integrating it into your practice

01

Educate

Explain what cognitive distortions are.

02

Identify

Help clients notice self-blaming thoughts as they arise.

03

Label

Encourage clients name these thoughts when they happen.

04

Address

Use tools such as pie charts and costs-benefits analysis to reduce self-blame.

Theoretical Background & Therapist Guidance

Self-blame is a cognitive distortion that often leads to cycles of shame, guilt, and self-criticism. As articulated by Beck et al. (1979), it involves misattributing blame for adverse events to oneself, resulting in psychological distress. Cognitive-behavioral interventions, such as reattribution and decentering, can help clients step back from these thoughts and develop more balanced ways of thinking.

What's inside

  • Insight into the role of cognitive distortions in mental health difficulties.
  • Detailed explanations of self-blame.
  • Effective strategies for addressing self-blaming thoughts.
Get access to this resource

FAQs

Help clients practice self-monitoring to increase awareness. Encourage them to label these thoughts when they arise.
Yes, the resource describes how pie charts, cost-benefit analyses, and role-play techniques can be used to address self-blame.
Self-blame involves unfairly attributing fault to oneself, whereas taking responsibility recognizes one's part in events without disproportionate self-criticism.

How This Resource Improves Clinical Outcomes

The Self-Blame resource can help clients:

  • Understand why excessive self-blame is problematic.
  • Recognise when they are thinking in this way.
  • Develop skills to address these unhelpful thinking patterns.

Therapists benefit from:

  • A tool that helps develop a shared understanding of self-blame.
  • Useful strategies to address common cognitive distortions.
  • A resource that clients can easily understand and relate to.

References And Further Reading

  • Beck, A. T. (1963). Thinking and depression: I. Idiosyncratic content and cognitive distortions. Archives of General Psychiatry, 9, 324-333. DOI: 10.1001/archpsyc.1963.01720160014002.
  • Beck, A. T., Freeman, A., Davis, D. D., & Associates. (2004). Cognitive therapy of personality disorders (2nd ed). New York: The Guilford Press.
  • Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. Guilford Press.
  • Beck, J. S. (2011). Cognitive behavior therapy: Basics and beyond (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
  • Clark, D. A. (2002). A cognitive perspective on obsessive compulsive disorder and depression: Distinct and related features. In: R. O. Frost & G. Steketee (Eds.), Cognitive approaches to obsessions and compulsions: Theory, assessment, and treatment (pp.233-250). Elsevier Science.
  • Flavell, J. H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry. American Psychologist, 34, 906. DOI: 10.1037/0003-066X.34.10.906.
  • Gilbert, P. (1998). The evolved basis and adaptive functions of cognitive distortions. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 71, 447-463. DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1998.tb01002.x.
  • Janoff-Bulman, R. (1979). Characterological versus behavioral self-blame: Inquiries into depression and rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1798-1809. DOI: 10.1037//0022-3514.37.10.1798.
  • Kline, N. K., Berke, D. S., Rhodes, C. A., Steenkamp, M. M., & Litz, B. T. (2021). Self-blame and PTSD following sexual assault: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36, NP3153-NP3168. DOI: 10.1177/0886260518770652.
  • Leahy, R. L. (2017). Cognitive therapy techniques: A practitioner's guide (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
  • Lee, D. A. (2005). The perfect nurturer: A model to develop a compassionate mind within the context of cognitive therapy. In P. Gilbert (Ed.), Compassion: Conceptualisations, research, and use in psychotherapy (pp. 326-351). Brunner-Routledge.
  • Nasiri, F., Mashhadi, A., Bigdeli, I., & Chamanabad, A. G. (2020). How to differentiate generalized anxiety disorder from worry: the role of cognitive strategies. Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 38, 44-55. DOI: 10.1007/s10942-019-00323-5.
  • Noël, V. A., Francis, S. E., Williams-Outerbridge, K., & Fung, S. L. (2012). Catastrophizing as a predictor of depressive and anxious symptoms in children. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 36, 311-320. DOI: 10.1007/s10608-011-9370-2.
  • Pugh, M. (2019). Cognitive behavioural chairwork: Distinctive features. Routledge.
  • Roberts, J. E., Gilboa, E., & Gotlib, I. H. (1998). Ruminative response styles and vulnerability to episodes of dysphoria: Gender, neuroticism, and episode duration. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 22, 401-423. DOI: 10.1023/A:1018713313894.
  • Rudolph, S. G., Flett, G. L., & Hewitt, P. L. (2007). Perfectionism and deficits in cognitive emotion regulation. Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 25, 343-357. DOI: 10.1007/s10942-007-0056-3.
  • Shafran, R., Thordarson, D. S., & Rachman, S. (1996). Thought-action fusion in obsessive compulsive disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 10, 379-391. DOI: 10.1016/0887-6185(96)00018-7.
  • Tilghman-Osborne, C., Cole, D. A., Felton, J. W., & Ciesla, J. A. (2008). Relation of guilt, shame, behavioral and characterological self-blame to depressive symptoms in adolescents over time. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 27, 809-842. DOI: 10.1521/jscp.2008.27.8.809.
  • Veen, G., & Arntz, A. (2000). Multidimensional dichotomous thinking characterizes borderline personality disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 24, 23-45. DOI: 10.1023/A:1005498824175.
  • Westbrook, D., Kennerley, H., & Kirk, J. (2011). An introduction to cognitive behaviour therapy: Skills and applications (2nd ed.). Sage.

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