Digital Tool

Thought Record (Evidence For And Against)

This worksheet helps clients re-evaluate their automatic thoughts by exploring the evidence for and against these cognitions.

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Psychology Tools resource: Thought Record (Evidence For And Against)

Thought Record (Evidence For And Against)

Hundreds of ‘automatic’ thoughts pop into our minds every day, often without us noticing. Depending on their content, these thoughts can lead us to feel different emotions, like joy, anxiety, anger, or sadness (to name a few). Our thoughts can also be biased: not every thought we have is 100% accurate or helpful. 

The Thought Record (Evidence For And Against) will help you become more aware of your negative automatic thoughts. It will also guide you in examining the evidence for and against these thoughts.

Complete this thought record whenever notice a negative automatic thought or experience a significant change in your mood.

Overview

The Thought Record - Evidence For And Against is a resource designed to help clients examine distressing or problematic automatic thoughts. Based on Beck’s cognitive model, this worksheet supports cognitive restructuring by encouraging clients to document triggering events, identify automatic thoughts, analyze supporting and opposing evidence, and produce balanced appraisals. This approach aligns with cognitive therapy's goal of promoting accurate thinking rather than simply replacing negative thoughts with positive ones.

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