Download the Free Challenging Negative Thoughts Worksheet (PDF)
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What is the Challenging Negative Thoughts worksheet?
The challenging negative thoughts worksheet works through two labeled steps on a single page. Step 1: Identify Negative Thoughts asks the client to record a recent situation and the thoughts that came with it. Step 2: Challenge Negative Thoughts supplies six questions for testing each thought against the record.
How to use the Challenging Negative Thoughts worksheet
Use this sheet both in session and as homework. Take the first pass in session, writing the situation and the thought in the client’s own wording rather than a tidier paraphrase. Work the two evidence questions before the interpretation ones, since “Am I thinking in all-or-nothing terms?” only lands once the evidence is on paper. Your clients can take blank copies away and complete one per incident during the week. Read the balanced alternative aloud together and check whether the client believes it.
Challenging Negative Thoughts Worksheet Download – What’s Included
The download is one printable page. A short paragraph at the top frames the exercise, then Step 1 gives writing space for the situation and the thoughts it produced. Step 2 lists six challenge questions. They cover supporting and contradicting evidence, all-or-nothing thinking, assumptions made without concrete evidence, the view a calmer observer would take, and a more balanced reading.
Based on Aaron Beck’s cognitive therapy (CBT). Beck, J. S. (2020). Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Basics and Beyond (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
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