Self-Monitoring Record - Universal

The Self-Monitoring Record - Universal helps clients systematically observe and record specific targets such as their thoughts, body feelings, emotions, and behaviors.

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Language

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.

Editable version (PPT)

An editable Microsoft PowerPoint version of the resource.

Editable version (DOC)

An editable Microsoft Word version of the resource.

Overview

Self-monitoring is a key intervention in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), allowing clients to record specific targets such as problematic thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. By increasing clients' awareness of these experiences, self-monitoring can provide insights into these difficulties, support collaboration, and test hypotheses in therapy.

This resource provides regular and extended self-monitoring forms, catering to different therapeutic needs.

Why Use This Resource?

Self-monitoring is a dual-purpose technique that can support both assessment and intervention in CBT.

Increases awareness and understanding of symptoms.
Provides data for informing case conceptualizations and testing hypotheses.
Help clients decentre from distressing experiences.
Identifies contextual factors influencing symptoms.

Key Benefits

Engagement

Encourages client participation in therapy.

Insight

Supports self-awareness and insight into troubling symptoms.

Assessment

Can be used as a tool to measure symptoms throughout therapy.

Socialisation

Introduces and familiarizes clients with key concepts.

Who is this for?

Depression

Monitor self-critical and ruminatory thoughts.

Anxiety Disorders

Track triggers of anxiety symptoms.

Eating Disorders

Understand the situations, thoughts, and emotions linked to disordered eating.

Integrating it into your practice

Identify

Agree a specific target for monitoring (e.g., feeling anxious).

Prompt

Choose situations or cues as will act as a prompt for data collection.

Record

Encourage clients to document relevant situations, thoughts, emotions, and responses.

Review

Use records to identify patterns and develop hypotheses.

Theoretical Background & Therapist Guidance

Self-monitoring can inform assessment and intervention, and is often used in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). It is designed to enhance awareness of experiences that might go unnoticed or may not be easily observed.

Self-monitoring involves two key steps. It begins with discrimination, where clients learn to identify and recognize specific target phenomena. This is followed by the recording phase, which consists of systematically documenting these occurrences. For effective self-monitoring, training and consistency are important so that clients can get the most from tool.

What's inside

A comprehensive guide to implementing self-monitoring.
Worksheets for recording thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
Extended forms for examining consequences of specific coping strategies.
Suggestions and questions to guide client reflection.

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FAQs

Self-monitoring is a method where clients observe and record specific targets like thoughts and behaviors to enhance awareness and inform therapy.

Clients should complete self-monitoring during or shortly after events, focusing on well-defined targets, and review these records within therapy.

Make sure the client understands the process and consider simplifying it. Other recording techniques can be used to fit the client's needs.

It can be used to inform case conceptualizations, identify problematic triggers or patterns, increase self-awareness, and plan interventions.

How This Resource Improves Clinical Outcomes

By incorporating structured self-monitoring, therapists and clients can:

Better understand symptom patterns and contexts.
Build more accurate and comprehensive formulations.
Plan and adapt interventions based on the collected data.

Therapists benefit from:

An easy to use tool that can be used for various presentations.
Data that can help inform and guide therapy.
Real-time insights into how clients experience their difficulties.

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References And Further Reading

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. Guilford Press, London.
Proudfoot, J., & Nicholas, J. (2010). Monitoring and evaluation in low intensity CBT interventions. In J. Bennett-Levy, D. Richards, P. Farrand, et al. (Eds.), Oxford guide to low intensity CBT interventions (pp. 97-104). Oxford University Press.

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