Downloads

• Thought record, fillable PDFTwo pages, US Letter. Type into it in any PDF reader, then save or print. The nine steps with short prompts and 0 to 100 ratings.
• Thought record, printable PDFThe same layout with ruled lines for writing by hand.
• Thought record, Word documentOpens in Word, Pages, or Google Docs. Edit the prompts to fit your client, or type straight into it.
• How to do a thought record, client guideOne page on the method, with a worked example on the back. Good to hand over with the first worksheet.

The online worksheet is another option for clients who would rather type. It saves in their own browser and prints the same nine sections.

How the worksheet is laid out

The structure follows the seven-column record in Greenberger and Padesky's Mind Over Mood, with two additions. There is an explicit step for choosing the hot thought from the list of automatic thoughts, since picking the wrong one is the most common reason a record stalls. And there is a closing step for what the client noticed and any next step, which gives you something concrete to pick up in session. Feelings and belief are rated 0 to 100 at the start and again at the end.

All prompts and examples were written for this worksheet. The wording is plain on purpose, and each heading has one or two lines of guidance so a client can complete it without the book.

Introducing it in stages

Most clients do better when the record is built up over a few weeks rather than handed over whole. A common sequence:

1. After the cognitive model is familiar, ask for the first three sections only: situation, feelings with ratings, and thoughts. The aim is to notice the link.
2. Add the hot thought and the belief rating.
3. Add the two evidence sections, practicing the guiding questions aloud in session first.
4. Add the balanced thought and the re-ratings.

The app supports the first stage directly with a short capture mode for the first three parts, which the client can finish later.

What to look for when a record comes back

Thoughts in the feelings column

"I feel like nobody cares" is a thought. Ask what emotion came with it.

A cool hot thought

A thought rated low paired with a feeling rated high usually means the hot thought is still underneath. A few rounds of "and if that were true, what would it mean?" often find it.

Interpretations as evidence

The evidence sections are where mind reading hides. "Would a camera have caught it?" is a quick test clients can learn.

Affirmation-style balanced thoughts

If the balanced thought is rated at 10 or 20, it is not doing much yet. Look for what from the evidence-for column it leaves out.

Little or no change

Worth exploring rather than correcting. It may be the wrong hot thought, a core belief, a thought that is accurate and calls for problem solving, or knowing without believing, which a behavioral experiment often moves better than more writing.

When a record is the wrong tool

Repeated records about the same fear can function as reassurance seeking, particularly in OCD and health anxiety, where arguing with the content of a thought maintains the problem. The app watches for several recent records with much the same hot thought and suggests talking with a clinician. With trauma-related beliefs, protocols such as Cognitive Processing Therapy with their own worksheets are a better fit. And for clients prone to rumination, keep records concrete and tied to a specific moment. The client-facing article covers the same ground in plain language.

The app, alongside therapy

Clients can flag records to bring to their next session. A session summary PDF, made from Settings, lists the flagged records first and then the rest from a chosen period, each cut down to the hot thought, the ratings, the balanced thought, and what they noticed, with a short summary of the feelings and thinking styles that came up most. The client chooses where it goes. Nothing is sent automatically.

Not a HIPAA-covered service. There are no accounts and no server of ours. What a client writes stays on their device, or in their own iCloud if they turn sync on. Anything they share with you becomes part of your records and your obligations. Please don't ask clients to enter anything they wouldn't be comfortable keeping on their own phone.

The research

Between-session practice is associated with better outcomes in CBT, and the quality of that practice appears to matter at least as much as the amount. Thought records and behavioral experiments both shift beliefs, with experiments tending to feel more convincing at a gut level. The research page has the references, and the Learn articles are written for clients.