BEHAVIOUR EXPERIMENT — WORKSHEET
Test your thoughts. Learn from experience.
Sometimes you can understand a more balanced thought logically and still not quite believe it.
A Behaviour Experiment helps you test a prediction in real life and gather new information from what actually happens.
Rather than endlessly asking, “But what if...?”, you create a small, safe experiment.
Inside the full guide you will find:
• an explanation of CBT behavioural experiments
• examples of beliefs that can be tested
• a full experiment-planning worksheet
• before-and-after belief ratings
• prediction and outcome prompts
• safety-behaviour identification
• guidance for deciding what can safely be reduced
• before, peak and after anxiety ratings
• space to record observable evidence
• coping and surprise reflections
• a before-versus-after learning table
• balanced-belief prompts
• planning for the next experiment
• a Quick Behaviour Experiment Record
• a personal message from me
• important safety guidance
The purpose is not to prove yourself wrong.
It is to be curious.
What do I predict?
How strongly do I believe it?
What could I safely do to test it?
What actually happens?
What can I learn?
Sometimes the feared outcome does not happen.
Sometimes part of it happens, but you discover you can cope better than you predicted.
And sometimes the most important learning is simply that uncertainty is manageable.
Start small.
Observe rather than judge yourself.
One experiment gives you information. Repeating it can help new learning become stronger.
Small steps can create big insights.
Space to Breathe Therapy
