Home practice diary

Use the home practice diary to plan and complete your self-help assignments between therapy sessions.


Home practice is an important part of getting better and staying well. The evidence points to faster and more complete recovery if you complete self-help assignments that build on the insights you gain from your therapy sessions (Kazantzis et al., 2000). Use this worksheet to keep a record of activities you think would be helpful to do between sessions and any changes you notice as a result.


Start by making a note of the day and time you are planning to do your home practice. Before you start record whatever emotion you are feeling and how strong that feeling is. Then make a note of what your home practice activity is going to be. Home practice can take many forms. It could be daily relaxation or mindfulness; writing down each day three things that went well and why; completing a thought record; exposing yourself to feared situations and resisting the urge to act on unhelpful urges or compulsions; writing and reading a worry script; listening to a recording of your account of a traumatic event, and so on.


Once you have attempted your activity, make some notes about how the activity went: what problems did you encounter and how did you manage them? Record how long you spent on the activity and how you felt after attempting it and how strong that feeling was. Tick off the activity when you've finished. When you have attempted your home practice activities five times, print out the completed worksheet, download it, or email it to yourself. Soon you will see what difference regular home practice makes to how you feel.


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.

Home practice activity 1
Your home practice activity
Notes and reflections: how did the activity go? What problems did you encounter (if any) and how did you manage them? What have you learned?
Home practice activity 2
Your home practice activity
Notes and reflections: how did the activity go? What problems did you encounter (if any) and how did you manage them? What have you learned?
Home practice activity 3
Your home practice activity
Notes and reflections: how did the activity go? What problems did you encounter (if any) and how did you manage them? What have you learned?
Home practice activity 4
Your home practice activity
Notes and reflections: how did the activity go? What problems did you encounter (if any) and how did you manage them? What have you learned?
Home practice activity 5
Your home practice activity
Notes and reflections: how did the activity go? What problems did you encounter (if any) and how did you manage them? What have you learned?


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.

Disclaimer: the resources and information contained in this website are for general information purposes only. The information is provided by Online CBT Resources and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk. Professional good practice guidelines require mental health professionals to work within their scope of competence. The resources and information supplied here are intended to support good practice, not to replace it. In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website. By using the website you are fully accepting the terms, conditions, and disclaimers contained in this notice.

Acknowledgements/References: all material supplied by Online CBT Resources is uniquely the work of the author(s). Where material draws on existing work we have tried as far as possible to reference all relevant sources. Please let us know if you believe that we have failed to acknowledge original work or that we have breached an existing copyright so that we can correct it.

© Andrew Grimmer 2017

Contact information: info@onlinecbtresources.co.uk

Site developed and maintained by Joel Grimmer Websites