Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most popular and well-proven psychotherapy treatment in the world. While it is most associated with an effective treatment for anxiety and depression, its techniques can be used for a variety of disorders and other problems. One of the great things about CBT is that you don’t have to drop hundreds of dollars in therapy to use it. A basic CBT workbook has most of the resources you need and can serve as your guide. To learn a bit more about CBT, check out my previous blog. Here are 20 CBT techniques you can use on your own:

Journaling

In CBT, journaling is more than just scribbling down whatever is on your mind; it has a specific purpose. You record your thoughts and actions to identify patterns that may be harmful. Keeping a thought record, for instance, is a form of journaling. Thought records ask you to record your thoughts and subsequent feelings when you encounter a specific situation.

Cognitive Restructuring

Cognitive restructuring is the logical next step after journaling. After you identify thought patterns in your thought record, you are asked to evaluate their rationality and challenge them with more realistic thinking. The process of cognitive restructuring is the heart of CBT and can be done for most problems.

Conduct a Behavioral Experiment

This is an effective technique to combat anxiety. Sometimes we are reluctant to perform an activity because we are worried about the potential consequences. But instead of running away from it, do an experiment and see what happens when you try it. You are likely to find that the outcome is more positive than expected.

Exposure

Exposure is one of the basic behavioral techniques of CBT. It is especially helpful for anxiety disorders, PTSD, and OCD. The premise is that you cannot overcome anxiety through avoidance. You must confront what you fear to learn that it will not harm you. Most therapists recommend an incremental process of exposure so as not to get overwhelmed.

Relaxation

Relaxation techniques are primarily used to reduce anxiety symptoms but they are a generally good stress buster. The easiest and most commonly used type of relaxation is deep abdominal breathing, such as you would do with yoga. Another regularly used exercise is progressive muscle relaxation. Relaxation techniques can be used as a preventative exercise to keep baseline anxiety down or in the moment to reduce anxiety in stress-provoking situations.

Imagery

Imagery can be used as a relaxation technique but also to shift mood and institute calm. You are asked to imagine a place where you feel safe and happy. It might be a place where you have fond memories (your “happy place”) or somewhere you have always dreamed of going.

Roleplay

Role-playing is a classic technique to help someone prepare for a situation where they feel unsure and have anxiety. In role-playing, you enact the same behavior that you will soon encounter in reality to get yourself ready to face it. Role-playing can be used for almost anything, from practicing for a difficult confrontation with a loved one to performing new behaviors to cope with a phobia.

Brainstorming/Problem Solving

Brainstorming is not just a CBT technique. You have probably used it in school or at work as a way to come up with ideas. To brainstorm, you consider every option without passing judgment. After brainstorming, you are ready to evaluate your choices. What are the pros and cons? Will this work in your given situation? How will I implement it? This step-by-step process helps anyone who has made poor choices. It is especially helpful for those people who act impulsively, such as those with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Thought Stopping

Thought-stopping is a CBT technique used for people who constantly worry and have difficulty turning off their minds. A common way to implement it is to wear a rubber band around your wrist and flick yourself when you find yourself ruminating. The brief sting takes your focus off your worries and helps you break the chain of rumination.

Worry Time

Worry Time is another technique to help prevent rumination. It is especially helpful if your anxiety keeps you from falling asleep. About an hour before you are ready for bed, take about 10-15 minutes (time it out) and write down all your worries. Then stop when your time is up. You are then asked not to worry anymore until you have Worry Time again the next day.

Mood Thermometer

Mood thermometers are often used with individuals to gauge how they feel in a group setting or as part of anger management. Usually, a “thermometer” is drawn on a worksheet and, like a thermometer, it has different levels that signify increasing degrees of a particular emotion. For example, children in an anger management group might be asked to reveal how angry they are by pointing to the different degrees of the thermometer. It helps individuals visualize the differences in the intensity of their emotions.

Feelings Charts

Similarly, feelings charts are used to help people identify their feelings. You might be surprised how many people have difficulty recognizing more than just a few emotions. Feelings charts usually list at least 16 different emotions with corresponding drawings of faces that exhibit said feelings. Not only do these charts help people identify their present feelings but they often give a name to other emotions that people had difficulty describing. Feelings charts are especially helpful for children and populations with limited vocabulary or difficulty identifying and expressing feelings.

Activity Scheduling

Activity scheduling is a behavioral technique that helps you engage in something that you know will be good for you. There are plenty of behaviors that are beneficial that we avoid for various reasons. But when you put those activities on a schedule it makes them much harder to ignore. For example, let’s say you have been avoiding exercise that was recommended by your doctor. Instead of acting like it doesn’t exist, you can put those workouts in your schedule. You may still find a way to avoid it but you will—at the very least—be forced to think about it.

Distraction

Distraction is not going to cure any problem but it is a highly useful technique to help cope with a variety of concerns. There are many instances where it is better to distract than engage in harmful behavior. For example, distraction can help someone avoid participating in addictive behavior when they have an urge. Or, someone can distract rather than get into an angry exchange with their partner. Sometimes, distraction is exactly what you need to buy enough time to make a better decision.

Successive Approximation

Successive approximation is a fancy way of describing the process where you break up a task into more manageable parts. This makes it seem less overwhelming and, therefore, more likely you will take it on and complete it.

Self-Monitoring

Self-monitoring is an essential technique used to help you keep track of your behavior. Most commonly used for eating disorders and weight management, it involves writing down data at different times of day to better understand behavior patterns. For example, someone with an eating disorder might keep track of what they eat each day to identify eating patterns.

Reframing

Reframing is the bread and butter of cognitive therapy. It refers to looking at a situation from a different (and usually more positive) perspective. For example, you might initially complain about how your mother is interfering in your romantic relationship. But you can then reframe the situation by thinking about how nice it is that your mother cares enough to be involved in your life.

Mindfulness

You can’t mention a list of CBT techniques without mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness is a mainstay of many variations of CBT and has been shown to reduce both anxiety and depressive symptoms. Google mindfulness for a ton of free resources.

What Is The Worst That Can Happen?

This is a simple cognitive technique that is a single question. When you have apprehension about performing a behavior, it is often because you have an overly negative view of the consequences of that action. By asking “what is the worst that can happen?”, you are forced to think about whether the consequences are actually as bad as you fear. Since they rarely are, you will end up more likely to perform the behavior.

Affirmation

Affirmation is positive self-talk. Saturday Night Live mocked affirmations (Stuart Smalley anyone?) but they can be quite useful when done correctly. You are encouraged to give yourself daily messages that serve to motivate you and boost your self-esteem (e.g., “ I can do it”). The key is to keep the affirmations realistic. If you don’t believe what you are saying, it won’t work.

Help Yourself With CBT

As you can see, these CBT techniques don’t require loads of effort. Even better, you may not need a therapist. It is never a bad idea to try to tackle problems on your own. I mean, you can’t go to therapy for everything. So, grab a workbook or look on the internet for a reliable CBT resource. If you are willing to work at it, you can help yourself with many everyday problems. But, if you are struggling with serious issues, seeing a professional is always recommended.