Cognitive Behavioral Therapy worksheets
The most studied talk therapy on earth — focused on the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy was developed by Aaron Beck in the 1960s and has since become the most empirically supported form of psychotherapy in the world. CBT rests on a single working hypothesis: the meaning we make of an event has more influence on how we feel than the event itself.
The approach is structured, time-limited, and skills-oriented.
All Cognitive Behavioral Therapy worksheets (119)
Thought Record
A structured five-column worksheet for capturing a difficult moment, the thoughts that arose, and a more balanced alternative.
ABC Worksheet
The Activating event → Belief → Consequence framework that sits at the heart of cognitive therapy, drawn from Albert Ellis.
Cognitive Distortions Checklist
A reference list of common thinking traps — catastrophizing, all-or-nothing thinking, mind-reading — used to label and disarm unhelpful pat…
Downward Arrow Technique
A guided prompt for following an upsetting thought down to the underlying belief that gives it power.
Behavioral Experiment Worksheet
A planner for testing predictions in the real world rather than arguing with them in your head.
Evidence For and Against
A two-column tool for gathering observable data that supports or contradicts a hot thought.
Reframing Negative Thoughts
A worked-example handout teaching the move from a catastrophic thought to a fairer alternative.
Cost-Benefit Analysis of a Belief
A structured way to weigh what holding a particular belief gives you and what it costs you.
Core Beliefs Worksheet
A guided exercise for identifying and gently testing the deep "I am ___" beliefs that color daily experience.
Pie Chart of Responsibility
A graphical tool that breaks down "I caused this" thinking into all the contributing factors that were actually involved.
Worry Postponement Worksheet
A scheduling technique that asks worries to wait for a designated worry window rather than colonizing the day.
Probability vs. Possibility
A worksheet for separating "this could happen" from "this is likely to happen" in anxious thinking.
Cognitive Triangle Diagram
A printable diagram of the thought–feeling–behavior triangle with prompts for filling it in from a real moment.
Decatastrophizing Worksheet
A four-question prompt: What is the worst case? What is the best case? What is most likely? What would you do if it happened?
Should-Statement Audit
A worksheet for finding hidden "should" rules in your thinking and replacing them with preferences.
Personalization Worksheet
A reflection on the cognitive distortion of taking impersonal events personally.
Magnification and Minimization Log
A two-column log for catching the habit of inflating problems and shrinking strengths.
Emotional Reasoning Worksheet
A guided check on the assumption that "if I feel it, it must be true."
Fortune-Telling Thought Worksheet
A worksheet for noticing predictions about the future presented as if they were facts.
Mind-Reading Audit
A check on assumptions about what other people are thinking about you.
Labeling and Mislabeling Worksheet
A worksheet for catching global judgments ("I am a failure") and returning to specific behavior.
Disqualifying the Positive
A worksheet for noticing the habit of dismissing good news as luck or coincidence.
Mental Filter Worksheet
A guided exercise on attention to the negative slice of an experience while filtering out the rest.
Hot Thought Identification
A short worksheet for finding the single thought that carried the most emotional charge in a difficult moment.
Two-Column Belief Test
A side-by-side comparison of an old belief and a more workable one after gathering evidence for both.
Continuum Technique
A worksheet for moving rigid black-and-white judgments onto a 0–100 continuum.
Cognitive Conceptualization Diagram
A clinician-style diagram for mapping core beliefs, intermediate beliefs, and situations.
Coping Card Template
A wallet-sized printable card for capturing your most useful reframes in advance.
Reattribution Worksheet
A worksheet for redistributing perceived causes of an outcome more fairly across factors.
Surveys as Evidence
A behavioral experiment template for gathering opinions from real people instead of relying on imagined ones.
Sleep Diary Two-Week Tracker
A two-week tracker for sleep onset, awakenings, total sleep time, and daytime sleepiness — the foundation of CBT-I.
Sleep Restriction Calculator
A worksheet for calculating your time-in-bed window based on actual sleep efficiency, the core CBT-I behavioral move.
Stimulus Control Plan
A printable card with the CBT-I stimulus control rules for re-establishing the bed as a sleep cue.
Bedtime Worry Dump
A pre-bed writing exercise for emptying the mental to-do list onto paper before lights out.
Sleep Hygiene Audit
A checklist of behavioral and environmental factors that affect sleep quality, with action steps.
Constructive Worry Sheet
A two-step bedtime worksheet — list the worry, list the next concrete step — used to reduce nighttime cognitive arousal.
Wind-Down Routine Builder
A planner for designing a 60-minute pre-sleep routine that actually fits your life.
Sleep Belief Audit
A worksheet for identifying and gently testing the dysfunctional beliefs about sleep that maintain insomnia.
Caffeine and Alcohol Audit
A weekly audit for spotting the timing patterns of substances that erode sleep quality.
Inner Critic vs. Compassionate Self Dialogue
A two-column worksheet for writing back to a harsh inner critic in a compassionate voice.
Core Belief Restructuring Sheet
A long-form worksheet for examining and gently revising a long-held negative core belief.
Inner Critic Naming Sheet
A practical worksheet for giving your inner critic a name and a voice you can talk back to.
Comparison Trap Worksheet
A short worksheet for catching social-media-driven comparison thinking and putting it in context.
Anger Thermometer
A self-monitoring tool with a 0–10 scale, body cues at each level, and pre-decided actions for the upper end.
Anger Trigger Map
A worksheet for mapping recent anger episodes and looking for shared situational triggers.
Time-Out Plan for Adults
A pre-agreed plan for stepping out of an escalating conversation, used in couples and individual work.
Anger Iceberg Worksheet
A diagram and prompt for identifying the softer emotions (hurt, fear, shame) that often sit beneath anger.
Conflict Cooling-Down Plan
A worksheet for designing a personal protocol for the first 30 minutes of post-conflict cooldown.
Provocation Test Log
A log for tracking real-world provocations and the strategies you used in response.
Driving Anger Worksheet
A targeted worksheet for road-rage triggers and the cognitions that fuel them.
Trigger Tracking Sheet
A trauma-informed worksheet for mapping triggers, body cues, and coping responses without going into trauma content.
Anniversary Reaction Plan
A worksheet for naming and planning around predictable grief triggers — birthdays, holidays, anniversaries.
Dual Process Mapping
A worksheet derived from the dual-process model of grief — what loss-focused and restoration-focused activity looks like for you.
Roles and Identity After Loss
A reflection worksheet for the identity work that often follows the loss of a close person.
Active Listening Practice Sheet
A structured exercise in reflective listening, designed for couples to do together.
Repair Attempts Inventory
A worksheet drawn from Gottman research for cataloging the small moves you and a partner use to step back from conflict.
Soft Start-Up Worksheet
A practice worksheet for opening a difficult conversation without criticism or blame.
Four Horsemen Self-Audit
A self-audit covering criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling in your relationships.
Bids for Connection Tracker
A tracker for noticing the small bids for attention you and a partner make and how often you turn toward them.
Attachment Style Reflection
A reflection on your patterns under stress — anxious, avoidant, secure, disorganized — and what they ask of you.
Panic Cycle Diagram Worksheet
A printable diagram of the panic loop with prompts for identifying your own catastrophic interpretations.
Worry Tree
A flowchart for triaging a worry into "actionable now" vs. "let it go" vs. "schedule for later."
Social Anxiety Attention Training
A worksheet from the Clark and Wells protocol for shifting attention outward during social interactions.
Behavioral Experiment Log for Social Anxiety
A specialized behavioral experiment template for testing predictions about social situations.
Post-Event Rumination Worksheet
A structured prompt for working with the long mental replays that follow social interactions.
Panic Survival Card
A wallet-sized card with reframes, breathing instructions, and the reminder that panic is finite.
Generalized Worry Diary
A daily worry log used to surface themes and the gap between worried predictions and actual outcomes.
Health Anxiety Reassurance Audit
A worksheet for cataloging reassurance-seeking behaviors and planning to reduce them.
Performance Anxiety Pre-Event Plan
A pre-event worksheet for managing predictable performance situations — presentations, exams, interviews.
Public Speaking Behavioral Experiment
A worksheet for designing a real-world test of a public-speaking prediction.
Goal Setting Worksheet
A printable worksheet for translating a vague intention into a specific, measurable, scheduled goal.
Functional Analysis Worksheet
A behavioral worksheet for mapping the antecedents, behavior, and consequences of a problem pattern.
Problem-Solving Worksheet
A six-step worksheet (define, brainstorm, evaluate, choose, plan, review) for working a real problem through to action.
Worry Diary
A daily worry log used to surface themes and the gap between worried predictions and actual outcomes.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation Script
A printable script for the classic 16-muscle-group relaxation protocol.
Diaphragmatic Breathing Practice Sheet
Step-by-step instructions for a 4-7-8 or paced breathing practice with daily logging.
Catastrophizing Worksheet
A two-column worksheet for catching worst-case predictions and writing a fairer alternative.
Chronic Pain Activity Pacing
A worksheet for designing a pacing plan that balances activity and rest in chronic pain.
Identifying Avoidance Patterns
A weekly review worksheet for spotting subtle avoidance moves before they consolidate.
Sleep Cognitions Worksheet
A worksheet for catching catastrophic thinking about sleep that paradoxically prolongs insomnia.
Daily Mood Log
A simple printable mood log used to gather data over a few weeks for patterns.
Safety Plan Template
A printable Stanley-Brown safety plan template — warning signs, internal coping, distractions, supports, professionals, lethal-means safety.
Suicide Crisis Coping Card
A wallet-sized printable card with your specific coping steps, emergency contacts, and reasons for living.
Flashback Halt Card
A pocket-sized printable for use when flashbacks begin — orienting prompts, breathing, name, date, location.
Trichotillomania Habit Reversal Sheet
A habit-reversal-training worksheet for tracking pulling episodes and pre-deciding competing responses.
Skin Picking Awareness Log
A daily log for skin picking — triggers, location, duration, competing response used.
Procrastination Functional Analysis
A worksheet for mapping the relief that procrastination provides and what it actually costs.
Implementation Intention Planner
A planner for converting vague goals into "if X happens, I will Y" statements that boost follow-through.
Eating Patterns Diary
A non-judgmental food diary capturing situation, food, emotion, and behavior — used in CBT-E.
Body Image Diary
A body-image-focused worksheet for tracking when checking, avoidance, or comparison flares up.
Anxiety Sensitivity Index Reflection
A reflection worksheet on the meanings you attach to specific bodily sensations.
Health Behavior Change Plan
A six-step planner for changing a health behavior — exercise, diet, screen time — with relapse handling built in.
Workplace Conflict Map
A worksheet for mapping a difficult workplace dynamic and your range of moves within it.
Burnout Inventory
A reflection worksheet for spotting the early warning signs of burnout and naming what needs to change.
Imposter Syndrome Worksheet
A targeted thought-record variant for the specific cognitive patterns of imposter syndrome.
Emotional Eating Plan
A structured worksheet for identifying emotional triggers for eating and rehearsing alternative responses.
Behavioral Experiment Audit
A monthly review for cataloguing your behavioral experiments, what they tested, and what you learned.
Self-Monitoring of Avoidance
A daily check-in for noticing subtle avoidance — distractions, busywork, "I'll do it later" — before it consolidates.
Worry Time Schedule
A worksheet for setting up a daily worry-time window and a system for postponing worries until then.
Relapse Prevention Plan
A standard CBT relapse prevention plan covering early warning signs, coping moves, supports, and a written agreement.
Self-Talk Replacement Card
A printable two-column wallet card with your most common harsh self-statements and their pre-written replacements.
Decision Matrix Worksheet
A weighted decision-making worksheet for weighing options against personally chosen criteria.
Loneliness Mapping Worksheet
A reflective worksheet for distinguishing different kinds of loneliness — social, emotional, existential — and what each one calls for.
Holiday Coping Plan
A worksheet for predicting and pre-deciding your responses to predictably hard moments during the holiday season.
Money Worry Worksheet
A targeted worry-focused worksheet for financial anxiety, separating actionable steps from rumination.
Caregiver Burnout Plan
A worksheet for identifying the early signs of caregiver burnout and building a sustainable support plan.
Postpartum Mood Check-In
A weekly mood and support check-in worksheet for the first year postpartum.
Adolescent Mood Map
A teen-friendly worksheet for mapping daily mood and the activities and people connected to it.
Medication Adherence Plan
A planner for sustaining a medication routine, including barriers, supports, and re-start procedures after lapses.
Substance Use Trigger Map
A relapse-prevention worksheet for mapping substance-use triggers and pre-deciding alternative responses.
Anxiety vs. Excitement Reframe
A short worksheet for reframing the same physiological arousal as excitement instead of anxiety.
Pacing for Energy Conditions
A pacing worksheet for chronic fatigue and post-viral conditions, balancing activity and recovery.
BDD Mirror Retraining Plan
A targeted mirror-use plan for body dysmorphia, replacing checking with neutral mirror retraining.
Gender Dysphoria Coping Sheet
A worksheet for tracking dysphoria triggers and the coping moves you have available.
Chronic Illness Identity Worksheet
A reflection on the identity work involved in living with a chronic illness diagnosis.
Trauma Anniversary Plan
A pre-anniversary worksheet for naming the date, the anticipated reactions, and the supports you want in place.
Therapy Session Note
A printable post-session note template for writing down takeaways and the homework you committed to.
Therapy Goals Worksheet
A first-session worksheet for articulating what you want a course of therapy to accomplish.
Symptom Outcome Tracker
A printable graph for tracking weekly PHQ-9, GAD-7, or other measure scores over time.