Personalization cognitive distortion worksheet
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Looking for a personalization cognitive distortion worksheet for therapy clients? This CBT cognitive distortion personalization guide provides examples of common maladaptive thoughts and practical strategies to challenge this distortion.
Personalization cognitive distortion worksheets can be valuable tools for therapists to use in their practice to help clients gain insight into unhelpful thoughts.
This guide to cognitive distortion personalization provides more information about this specific thought process, examples of personalization, and ways to challenge and restructure unhelpful thoughts.
This article also includes a free, downloadable cognitive distortion worksheet PDF to save to your electronic health record (EHR) for repeated use with clients.
What is the personalization cognitive distortion?
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) works on the premise that our beliefs impact our thoughts and behaviors. Cognitive distortions are negative thought patterns that present a skewed perception of oneself, others, and the world.
For instance, a person with depression might believe they are unloveable and assume others view them in a negative light, leading them to avoid dating and seeking new experiences.
The CBT personalization cognitive distortion involves believing you are the cause of a negative event, or assuming that others’ actions are a reflection of yourself, or perceived shortcomings, without solid evidence.
Here are 10 other types of common thought distortions:
All-or-nothing thinking
This includes thinking about situations in black-and-white terms without recognizing any middle ground. For example, a client might think, "If I’m not perfect, I’m a failure."
Overgeneralization
With overgeneralization, people make broad, sweeping conclusions based on a single incident or evidence. For instance, "I’ll never get the job I want."
Mental filtering
This involves focusing solely on the negative aspects of a situation while ignoring any positive information. For example, this might look like obsessing over a negative piece of feedback in a review while dismissing any positive feedback.
Mind reading
Mind reading involves believing you know what others are thinking. For example, "She must think I’m stupid."
Catastrophizing
This distortion is about expecting the worst possible outcome or viewing a situation as far worse than it is in reality. For example, "If I mess up this date, she’ll dump me."
Disqualifying the positive
This involves discounting positive experiences or qualities as flukes. For example, "That was just luck."
Emotional reasoning
Emotional reasoning includes believing it must be true because you feel a certain way. For example, "I feel rejected, so I must be unlovable."
Should statements
This distortion places unrealistic demands on yourself or others with "should," "must," or "have to" statements. For example, "I should always be successful" or "They should know how I feel."
Labeling and mislabeling
This includes attaching a negative label to yourself or others based on a single event. For example, "I’m a loser" or "He’s a jerk."
Examples of the cognitive distortion personalization
Clients might demonstrate the cognitive distortion personalization in the following ways:
- Taking undue responsibility for things outside of their control. For example, a coworker did not acknowledge their contribution to a project in a team meeting, and the client thinks, “They didn’t mention my work, so they must think my work is terrible.”
- Believing someone's behavior reflects one's shortcomings. For instance, the client’s partner is unusually quiet, and the client thinks it must be because they did something wrong and they’re a terrible husband.
- Thinking that they are the cause of adverse events. For example, "It’s my fault my mom crashed her car."
Tips for challenging this cognitive distortion
Therapists can challenge the cognitive distortion personalization with clients in several ways:
Identify the distortion
This might first involve psychoeducation about the CBT triangle and thought distortions in general. Then clients can identify when they’re engaging in personalization during and outside of sessions using the personalization cognitive distortion worksheet.
Ask the client to examine the validity of their statement
Help them identify evidence in support of their belief and evidence that contradicts the distortion.
Identify alternative explanations
Encourage the client to consider other possibilities to describe the situation, like their coworker experiencing a crisis at home, arriving at work late, and not reviewing all of the contributions to the team project.
Consider the impact of the distortion
Ask the client to identify the ways personalization affects their thoughts, feelings, and behavior. It may also be contributing to unnecessary guilt or shame, anxiety, or depression.
Cognitive restructuring
Work with the client to replace personalization with more adaptive and helpful thinking, like “There could be several explanations why my colleague didn’t mention my contribution. I can mention it to the team now, as I think it could be helpful.”
Focus on areas of control
Support the client to identify areas within their control and outside of their control with the goal of empowering them to focus less on rumination.
Use a personalization cognitive distortion worksheet
Assign the personalization cognitive distortion worksheet as homework for clients to identify when they are engaging in personalization. You could also ask them to use a thought record to note challenging thoughts, which they can discuss in therapy.
How to use the personalization cognitive distortion worksheet
You can use the cognitive distortion personalization worksheet in session as a psychoeducational tool or give to the client for homework to record their thoughts and how they challenged them.
You can also provide the personalization cognitive distortion worksheet to clients as a handout that describes what they worked on in their session.
Sources
- Dumsch, A. (2018) Cognitive distortions create imposter fears. National Institutes of Health.
- Grinspoon, P. (2022). How to recognize and tame your cognitive distortions. Harvard Health Publishing.
- Rnic, K., Dozois, D. J., & Martin, R. A. (2016). Cognitive Distortions, Humor Styles, and Depression. Europe's journal of psychology, 12(3), 348–362.
- Sokol, L., Fox, M., G. (2019). The comprehensive clinician's guide to cognitive behavioral therapy. PESI Publishing.
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