CBT session agenda

Use the CBT agenda worksheet to help you to plan for your next therapy session and to reflect on it afterwards.


CBT is thought to work best when we plan the session quite carefully. This helps us to focus on the most important areas of difficulty and to keep our focus on the changes you want to make.


It is useful to think about the session in separate parts or stages. First, arriving at the session and checking how you have been - is there anything urgent or an emergency that we need to attend to straight away? If not, how have you been since the previous session? Is anything better or worse and why do you think that is? What have you noticed about changes in the difficulties you've been experiencing?


Second, asking about the impact of the previous session: what was useful that stayed with you; what, if anything, was unhelpful?


Third, what did you do differently or try out after the last session with the aim of helping yourself? Was it something you had planned with your therapist or something you came up with yourself?


Fourth, what are the most important items to put on the agenda and why; how do they fit with our plan for therapy?


Fifth, what ideas can we come up with together to help you to take what you've learned in the session back into your life; what problems might we need to anticipate and what strategies can we devise to help overcome them?


Sixth, after the session, you might like to take some time to reflect on what was most important for you about the session. Were there any ideas or strategies that you found helpful? Was anything unhelpful? Bring these thoughts back to the next session to discuss with your therapist.


Show instructions

If you would prefer to use this worksheet offline you can download a blank version for Word or a pdf by clicking on the links.

Check-in: how have I been doing since the last session? Is there anything we need to attend to straight away?
Bridge: what were the most significant points about the previous session? Was there anything I didn't understand or that I found unhelpful?
Assignments: what assignments did I attempt? What was useful or successful, or less useful or successful, and why do I think that was?
Agenda items: what do I want to discuss today? Which items are most important? How do they fit into our plan for therapy?
New assignments: what could I do before the next session to put into practice the things we discussed today?
Complete the following section after your CBT session
Reflections: what was significant about today's session? Do I have any questions or need to clarify anything?


You can email the details of the form to yourself (or your CBT therapist, if appropriate), print it out, or download it as a pdf. If you want to save your entries so that you can work on them later, you can click "Save". You can delete your settings by clicking on "Cancel" when the page is reloaded and they will be deleted automatically. You can also click the "Clear" button at any time to reset the form and delete your saved data. Saving the data uses local storage, which means your data is never passed to us. Some browsers do not allow local storage. If you have a problem saving, check whether a different browser, or a different device, might work better. Your confidentiality is very important to us so your saved data will never be sent to us or shared. If you use a shared device, or think that another person might get access to it, please consider the risk of accidentally breaching your own privacy before choosing to save, email or download your use of these resources.

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