Our Cognitive Processing Therapy Worksheets

Evidence-Based Approaches to CPT Practice and Skills at Icarus

Post-traumatic stress disorder is complex to treat because there are so many options available to you. Sticking with evidence-based approaches and taking an active role in your treatment yields beneficial outcomes. Cognitive processing therapy worksheets can be completed on your own or within the safe confines of the therapy process.

There are several types of worksheets for cognitive processing therapy (CPT). They aim to help you identify stuck points, challenge your beliefs, write your trauma narratives, and create an impact statement that can help you to move forward.

Icarus Behavioral Health offers relief for PTSD symptoms through evidence-based practices, including CPT. Consider enrolling in our residential or intensive outpatient program for homework assignments. Keep reading to learn more about CPT worksheets and how they can help you move toward healing.

What is Cognitive Processing Therapy All About?

Cognitive processing therapy is an important component of treatment for anyone struggling with a post-traumatic event. It looks at the intersection of how your thoughts related to the trauma influence your actions and emotions.

Your feelings of self-efficacy may need some improvement–which is where a CPT coach comes in.

With cognitive processing therapy, research has proven that PTSD symptoms are significantly lessened. Those who were in the study group receiving CPT fared 89 percent better than those in the placebo or inactive groups. At follow-up, they had 82 percent better outcomes than the control group.

Fortunately, there are lots of things you do on your own to process traumatic experiences after your final session with a clinician. These worksheets can help you maintain gains made in the therapy room, allowing you to return to your healing journey again and again.

Types of Cognitive Processing Therapy Worksheets for PTSD Symptoms

Treating PTSD and other related mental health disorders can be tricky, and there are no cookie-cutter approaches to care. Your mental health provider needs an entire toolbox of activities to help you move ahead in your recovery journey. Here are a few worksheets you may try out.

Stuck Point Log to Challenge Preconceived Thoughts

In many cases, you might get hung up on certain thoughts. They can relate to your role in the trauma you experienced or changes in worldview following the event(s). If you find that the same thought is coming to mind again and again, it may be a stuck point that you are having trouble moving beyond.

The first thing you can do with a stuck point log is identify what thought holds you back. Therapists can help you phrase this as an if-then statement. If you get behind the wheel of a car, then you will crash. A trained counselor can help you see the room for grey areas.

Once you have a stuck point, you can keep a log of them throughout the day. Write down what comes to mind for you, and then write a second statement that counteracts the first. This is the first step toward cognitive restructuring and eliminating some of those automatic negative thoughts.

Challenging Beliefs Worksheet to Identify Patterns

If you have beliefs related to a traumatic event, then it may be time to focus on challenging them with helpful worksheets or exercises designed for this purpose. Challenging beliefs worksheets are similar to stuck point logs but give a little more guidance for your emotional processing.

Here are the five categories you’ll fill out on these worksheets:

• Situation: Describe what has just happened to you or a situation that is bothering you.
• Stuck Point: Write down the if-then statement that is keeping you stuck.
• Emotional Processing: Clearly identify which emotions you feel when that thought surfaces.
• Challenging Beliefs: This is where you will write down statements that are opposite of your stuck point. Challenge whether what you believe is fact or fiction and whether you have any evidence that it might be true.
• Patterns: Identify patterns of behavior that come from this belief.
• Alternative Thoughts: What could you tell yourself instead of your stuck point?
• Reassess: Reassess how much power your stuck point has over you now on a scale of one to ten and re-evaluate how you feel emotionally.

Take your time filling out each category as it comes. The more detailed you can be here, the better the outcome will be when you take your answers back to your mental health provider.

ABC Worksheets for Simple Assessments

If challenging beliefs worksheets seem like too much effort or require too much time, you can do a short version of the work on ABC worksheets. Take a single sheet of paper and fold it into thirds. In the first column, list the Activating event (the moment that caused your stuck point to surface).

Be detailed so that you can start to identify patterns.

In the middle column, write down your Beliefs related to that activating event. What words do you tell yourself when this situation arises? This is a time to be honest about what you really tell yourself. If it’s negative or self-defeating, list it here. Honesty allows a therapist to guide clients toward a more positive resolution.

In the final column, list the Consequences of that stuck point or limiting belief. It might be a feeling that makes you feel bad about yourself or relationships that are suffering because you can’t let them get close. Really take time to evaluate the negative consequences of your beliefs and see if you can live with them.

Chances are, you’ll find that you no longer want to live with the consequences of your trauma and will be more than willing to enter CPT treatment.

Written Trauma Account in Trauma-Focused Psychotherapy

Once you master ABC worksheets, it might be time for intensive work for symptom reduction. As part of your trauma-focused CBT, you might need to tell your trauma narratives. Oftentimes, these are told only to yourself and potentially shared with your therapist if you discuss it in advance.

You might write your trauma narratives down in their entirety (as much detailed information as you can tolerate) and choose which parts to work on in the therapy process.

Being able to talk about your experiences can be a major step forward on the healing journey. Sharing a trauma narrative is not associated with stronger PTSD symptoms, and it can help you move past some of the more challenging parts of your story.

Trauma Impact Questionnaire

Another way you can evaluate trauma-related challenges is through a quick and easy questionnaire. An assessment of how your trauma recovery impacts you day after day is important in cognitive processing therapy. Much like the ABC worksheets, you should divide your paper into thirds.

Answer these questions:

1. When have you felt the impact of trauma on your daily life?
2. Explain the complex relationship it caused between your thoughts, feelings, and actions.
3. What parts of your life are currently impacted by trauma?

This is a great resource for a new therapist who needs to see where things are going wrong. A CPT coach needs a baseline for creating new adaptive beliefs.

A trauma impact questionnaire is also a great time to come up with an impact statement. At the start of your CPT treatment, your therapist may ask you to write a short statement about how your trauma impacts you and how you would like to feel about your trauma. At the conclusion of therapy sessions, you may be asked to reevaluate your impact statement until it is something you can easily live with.

Prolonged Exposure to a Traumatic Event

One of the experiences you may have in cognitive processing therapy is prolonged exposure therapy. This is a very difficult experience for many people, but worksheets can help you to make sense of it. It provides a structured framework to get used to living with your trauma in a safer setting.

At the end, you may fill out another worksheet that prompts you for another impact statement. It proves that the therapy sessions are beneficial if you find the impact lessons after each prolonged exposure therapy session. This is also a good time to rate self-esteem, as trauma can decrease your self-esteem.

Choose Icarus for Trauma, PTSD, and Mental Health Support

Icarus Behavioral Health knows that you need relief from PTSD symptoms so that you can return to living your life in peace and happiness. We offer an array of treatment services, including cognitive processing therapy, with licensed clinicians who have experience in substance use, trauma, and mental health.

We can help anyone experiencing trauma to move on from a negative point in their lives with comprehensive care in a residential or outpatient setting. Our enrollment team can answer all of your questions and verify your insurance benefits in a quick and confidential phone call.

In the meantime, these complete worksheets will give you a solid starting point before your next session with your therapist. Reach out to us today to learn more about our programs!

References

1. Asmundson, G. J. G., Thorisdottir, A. S., Roden-Foreman, J. W., Baird, S. O., Witcraft, S. M., Stein, A. T., Smits, J. A. J., & Powers, M. B. (2019). A meta-analytic review of cognitive processing therapy for adults with posttraumatic stress disorder. Cognitive behaviour therapy, 48(1), 1–14.
2. Jaeger, J., Lindblom, K. M., Parker-Guilbert, K., & Zoellner, L. A. (2014). Trauma Narratives: It’s What You Say, Not How You Say It. Psychological trauma : theory, research, practice and policy, 6(5), 473–481.
3. Melamed, D. M., Botting, J., Lofthouse, K., Pass, L., & Meiser-Stedman, R. (2024). The Relationship Between Negative Self-Concept, Trauma, and Maltreatment in Children and Adolescents: A Meta-Analysis. Clinical child and family psychology review, 27(1), 220–234.