Cognitive Restructuring

Cognitive restructuring refers to any methods which help people to think differently about a situation/event/thought/belief. Really, this could apply to anything done in (or outside of) a therapy session. Typical approaches to promote cognitive restructuring in therapy include:

traditional CBT thought records which help clients to challenge unhelpful Negative Automatic Thoughts
behavioural experiments which help clients to test beliefs which may be unhelpful
socratic questioning to explore a client's beliefs

PsychologyTools Worksheets

Behavioural Experiment Planning Worksheet
Form for planning and evaluating behavioural experiments

CBT Thought Record
Record the situation, emotion and thought, then examine the evidence for and against the thought

Dysfunctional Thought Record
An REBT tool. Similar to CBT thought record, but specify the cognitive distortion instead of judging evidence for and against the thought

Health Anxiety Thought Record
Thought record specific to health anxiety concerns

Theory A / Theory B
Hypothesis A / Hypothesis B
Dual Model Strategy
A method for reframing a problem as a result of belief or worry, rather than as a result of a situation/fact. Includes 2 different versions of the worksheet, and two worked examples illustrating how to use it

Simple Thought Record
Simple illustrated three-column thought record

Definition of cognitive restructuring Download from commonlanguagepsychotherapy.org

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