Coping plan

Use the coping plan worksheet to help you increase your confidence that you could cope with situations or activities that you have been avoiding or struggling with.


When we are afraid of certain situations or activities, we tend to avoid them, which is understandable. Unfortunately, the more we avoid them, the more difficult they can seem, which strengthens the urge to put them off or avoid them altogether. This creates a vicious cycle of anxiety and avoidance.


Situations or activities that we have been avoiding are not always as bad in reality as we imagine they might be. Alternatively, they are, in fact, so important to us that we need to overcome our fear and do them anyway.


The coping plan worksheet is a tool to help you think about these sorts of situations more clearly by anticipating the things that could happen and planning how you would cope. Anticipating and planning for difficult situations can make them feel more manageable.


Once you have come up with a range of specific predictions and coping strategies, rate your level of confidence and determination to tackle the situation or activity. It can be helpful to practise your responses either in imagination or with a trusted friend, family member or colleague.


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.

What situation or activity would I like to cope with better?
What makes this situation or activity important to me?

Concern 1
What am I concerned would happen if I tried this activity or went into this situation?
What strategy might be effective to cope with this situation?
Concern 2
What else am I concerned would happen if I tried this activity or went into this situation?
What strategy might be effective to cope with this situation?
Concern 3
What else am I concerned would happen if I tried this activity or went into this situation?
What strategy might be effective to cope with this situation?
Concern 4
What else am I concerned would happen if I tried this activity or went into this situation?
What strategy might be effective to cope with this situation?
Concern 5
What else am I concerned would happen if I tried this activity or went into this situation?
What strategy might be effective to cope with this situation?
How confident do I now feel to try this activity or go into this situation, where 10 is totally confident?
How determined do I now feel to try this activity or go into this situation, where 10 is totally determined?
How will I practise before trying this activity or going into this situation?


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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