Positive experiences worksheet
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Looking for a positive experiences worksheet to share with therapy clients?
There is tremendous value in helping clients identify and build upon past positive experiences. This type of work can be facilitated through a positive experiences worksheet.
This article includes positive experiences examples along with a free downloadable positive experiences worksheet that you can save to your electronic health record (EHR) and use in your therapy practice.
Benefits of using a positive experiences worksheet
The field of psychotherapy has been traditionally focused on pathology—identifying and centering treatment around the problems a client is facing.
Over time, however, therapists have discovered value in not only trying to help clients work on their problems, but also in identifying their strengths.
There are various benefits to pointing clients toward their positive experiences.
First, clients are encouraged to activate, strengthen, and generalize helpful neural networks in the brain. The emphasis on these adaptive neural networks can help strengthen neural pathways in the client’s brain that can facilitate and sustain cognitive and emotional changes.
Another benefit of using a positive experiences worksheet is that it can help clients improve their sense of self and self talk. When a client focuses on practical examples from their personal history, this can create an authentic boost in self-worth.
Rather than just thinking of positive affirmations, the client is asked to consider what are some positive experiences that have actually occurred in their life.
This exercise can help a client remember times they successfully navigated a similar situation or embodied a specific trait, which can boost their confidence and motivate them to tackle new challenges.
Clients who can identify their own positive experience examples can harness their reinforced confidence and adaptive neural networks into creating behavioral change. When a client feels stuck or is seeking change, reviewing their previous positive experiences can spark more action and facilitate the change they’re seeking.
How to use the positive experiences worksheet
There are many positive worksheets for adults that can help clients engage with these adaptive networks.
The positive experiences worksheet attached to this article helps guide clients through the following steps.
1. Identify positive traits
First, clients are prompted to identify some positive attributes that they want to identify within previous experiences.
The positive experiences worksheet includes a list of some positive traits to choose from, or clients can identify traits on their own.
Traits they can base their positive experience examples on may include kindness, courage, love, joy, etc.
2. Recall positive experiences
Once the client chooses those traits, they are encouraged to recall a specific experience with as much detail as possible where they embodied that trait.
The more details the client can remember, the greater the activation of that neural network in their brain.
It can be helpful to invite clients to go through the experience as though they were currently there and recall what they are seeing, hearing, smelling, thinking, and feeling in that moment.
Clients are prompted to recall multiple positive experiences examples with the space provided on the worksheet.
3. Visualizing the past
At the bottom of the positive experiences worksheet, clients are prompted to go through a visualization exercise.
They are asked to think of a current situation in which they need one of the positive traits from the list. They can select a positive trait and visualize a previous experience where they demonstrated it. Clients are encouraged to recall that experience with as much detail as possible.
4. Visually connecting the past to present
Once they have connected to that positive experience, they are prompted to remind themselves that they’re still capable of acting similarly, with a positive affirmation, such as: I am the same person who did that. What I did then, I can also do now.
The final step of the visualization prompt is for the client to imagine applying the trait in their current situation, as if playing a short movie in their mind.
This type of visualization helps the brain develop pathways that make the possibility of acting out these traits more likely.
Positive experiences examples
Clients can draw positive experience examples from various areas of life, such as positive experiences at work examples, home life examples, friendship examples, or any other areas of life.
Here are some positive experience examples of various positive traits, that can be used in the positive experiences worksheet:
Compassion
Previous experience of this trait: I was on the phone with my sister, and she confessed to me for the first time about her recent struggles with substance use. I felt scared when she told me and angry at her about the substance use. I also felt warmth and compassion for her. Rather than letting my anger and fear control the conversation, I asked her questions to try and understand, which further deepened my compassion for her. I was able to ask her what she needed and how I could best support her. She told me that she just needed someone to listen without judgment, so that is what I did for the rest of the conversation. I could feel the anxiety and anger decreasing in my body, while my compassion continued to grow as I listened and connected with her.
Grit
Previous experience of this trait: I was looking for work and a new job. I knew the type of job I was looking for. I applied to many different jobs and sent out dozens of copies of my resume, and initially, I only heard back from three jobs. I was turned down by all three of those jobs and was very discouraged by the results. I wanted to just give up and take any job, but decided to keep trying at least a bit longer. Two job interviews later, I got a job that has been a really great fit for me.
Maturity
Previous experience of this trait: A coworker and I got into a disagreement at work. We did not see things eye to eye. She started to get critical of me and made some passive aggressive comments. I felt my blood pressure increasing and a desire to be defensive. Even though I had passive aggressive responses in my mind, I was able to communicate directly, honestly, and calmly. We still didn’t see eye to eye at the end of the conversation, but I felt good about how I handled the situation.
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