Therapy goals worksheet
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You've landed in the right place if you’re a therapist looking for a therapy goals worksheet.
This guide to goals for therapy worksheets provides behavioral health therapists with a handy tool for collaborative treatment planning.
This article includes an overview of how to use therapy goals worksheets with clients, sample goals, and a free downloadable treatment planning worksheet to use in sessions.
What are the main goals of therapy?
Therapeutic goals are an essential part of the treatment process. They are the purpose of the client seeking therapy or a desired outcome.
More specifically, you might explain to your client that defining treatment goals using a therapy goals worksheet can provide an overall action plan for your work together, detailing the actionable steps you’ll take to achieve the client’s objective(s).
When devised collaboratively, therapy becomes a joint effort, actively involving the client in their treatment planning and fostering a shared sense of responsibility for achieving their goals.
The main benefits of using therapy goals worksheets include:
Provides focus and direction
Therapeutic goals provide sessions with focus and a framework to ensure the client and therapist are actively working toward achieving the client’s desired outcome.
For example, a client might seek out a specific therapist who provides eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, which follows a specific format and structure.
Allows progress measurement
Setting specific, measurable goals (usually following the SMART goal format, explained below) allows the clinician and client to monitor progress, acknowledge and celebrate successes (e.g., symptom reduction), and adjust the treatment plan to focus on areas that might need more attention.
Promotes collaboration
By fostering collaborative goal setting, the therapist and client work in partnership to set goals, direction, and interventions, and take shared responsibility for achieving the client’s desired outcome(s).
Enhances motivation
Well-defined goals outlined in the therapy goals worksheet can motivate both client and therapist to achieve the client’s goals, and they highlight which interventions may be most effective.
Increases effectiveness of treatment
Research suggests that personalized therapy goals can be more effective at helping clients achieve their goals than reducing scores on standardized checklists that measure symptoms.
Additionally, if you are paneled with insurance, diagnosis and treatment planning are critical parts of demonstrating the medical necessity to justify providing your services and ensuring you have recorded the required documentation.
Therapy goals examples
Individuals usually seek therapy to improve certain aspects of their emotional and mental well-being and relationships.
Typical goals they might consider in their goals for therapy worksheet include:
- Processing unresolved trauma
- Learning how to identify emotions and improve emotional regulation
- Strengthen coping skills and the ability to handle stress and improve distress tolerance skills
- Work through relational problems and make difficult decisions
- Improve communication skills
- Better understand family dynamics and strengthen boundaries
- Changing certain behaviors, such as substance use
Many clinicians use the SMART goal format when planning treatment goals.
The acronym stands for:
- Specific: Clearly defined goals that specify an outcome (a target activity or behavior).
- Measurable: How you’ll track progress toward the goal, such as frequency, duration, or logs.
- Achievable: Considers if the goals are realistic based on the client’s internal and external resources and circumstances.
- Relevant: Ensures the goal is aligned with the client’s mental health needs and priorities.
- Time-bound: Provides a clear timeframe to achieve the goal.
Examples of SMART goals to help clients in completing a goals for therapy worksheet include:
Anxiety management
Non-SMART goal: “I want to feel less anxious.”
SMART goal: “I will practice progressive muscle relaxation twice a day, on my lunch break and when getting into bed, for the next two weeks to reduce symptoms of anxiety, which will be measured by an anxiety scale (GAD-7) taken at the beginning of starting this goal and after two weeks.”
Improve emotional regulation
Non-SMART goal: “I need to reduce my emotional outbursts.”
SMART goal: "I will practice identifying my emotions using the emotions wheel when I feel an overwhelming feeling and practice deep breathing for five minutes at least three times a day for the next month. Progress will be measured by journaling my emotional responses and rating my ability to manage them on a scale of 1 to 10 daily."
Depression management
Non-SMART goal: “I want to feel less depressed all the time.”
SMART goal: "I will attend four therapy sessions in the next month and complete at least one activity in my behavioral activation plan for self-care per week to improve my mood."
You might further measure the effectiveness of this goal with a PHQ-9 taken before the goal and at the end of the month.
You’ll also find these examples in our therapy goal-setting worksheet, which you can download at the top of this article.
Using a goals for therapy worksheet with clients
You can download and use the goals for therapy worksheet with clients in several ways:
- In the session to explain the goal-setting process
- To collaboratively devise treatment goals
- You can use the therapy goals worksheet to outline the client's agreed goals, which serves as a reminder or focus for future sessions
Sources
- Bailey, RR. (2017). Goal Setting and Action Planning for Health Behavior Change. American journal of lifestyle medicine.
- Bovend'Eerdt, TJ, Botell, RE, & Wade, DT. (2009). Writing SMART rehabilitation goals and achieving goal attainment scaling: a practical guide. Clinical rehabilitation.
- Lindhiem, O, Bennett, CB, Orimoto, TE, & Kolko, DJ. (2016). A Meta-Analysis of Personalized Treatment Goals in Psychotherapy: A Preliminary Report and Call for More Studies. Clinical psychology: a publication of the Division of Clinical Psychology of the American Psychological Association.
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