Detective Thinking Worksheet
By
HappierTherapy
Author bio
The Happier Therapy editorial team is made up of Masters and PhD counselling psychologists. Each worksheet is created by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter. The worksheet then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the subject matter and highly cited published material.
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What is the theory behind this Detective Thinking Worksheet?
Detective Thinking is at the core of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It allows individuals to question and challenge their thoughts so that they can identify faulty patterns and irrational beliefs and test how true they actually are. It also helps individuals calm their anxiety and worry by considering positive options and also preparing for the worst outcome. It can work well for both children and adults.
How will the worksheet help?
This worksheet can help clients question their negative thoughts in a difficult situation. The series of detective questions can help them challenge their thoughts and reframe them into helpful alternatives instead of blindly letting them control their thoughts, emotions and behaviours negatively.
How to use the worksheet?
Instruct the client to note down the automatic negative thoughts that are bothering them about any difficult current situation then use the series of questions to challenge them. Instruct them to respond to the question in the given order, then based on the response they must reframe their thought to appear more realistic.
