CBT skills for the middle/high school student, designed to help them recognize and challenge their core beliefs

1. CBT FOR THE APATHETIC STUDENT
Challenging your challenging students

2. AUTOMATIC THOUGHTS
• What is an automatic thought?
- The thoughts we think without realizing them, that have an impact on our
moods/feelings/behaviors
- An example: You are walking to class when you realize you forgot your homework in
your locker. You know the teacher is strict and will not let you go back to your locker for
it. This makes you angry. You may think, “This teacher is stupid, this is why I don’t like
him.” You may also think, “I am such an idiot, why am I so forgetful all the time?” You
walk into your class in a bad mood, with a poor attitude and feeling bad about yourself.
- This is also a type of cognitive distortion.

3. WHAT ON EARTH IS A COGNITIVE
DISTORTION?
Here are 10 common cognitive distortions:
1. Filtering
2. Polarized Thinking
3. Overgeneralization
4. Jumping to Conclusions
5. Catastrophizing/Magnifying
6. Personalization
7. Labeling
8. Should/Must
9. Emotional Reasoning
10. Magnifying/Minimizing

4. FILTERING
• Filtering is when you take a situation and
look at the negative side of things, ignoring
the positive, filtering the good and holding
on to the bad.
- With the example used earlier, you may not
have your homework with you, but it is done.
You may not be able to get full credit, but at
least you will get some if you hand it in the next
day or after school.

5. POLARIZED THINKING
• This is also known as seeing things as
black or white, there is no gray area.
Thinking that you’ve made a mistake so
you must be stupid is a perfect
example.
- “Forgetting my homework is such a
bonehead move, so I must be an idiot.
There is no point in trying”
-Give yourself room to make mistakes
without sentencing yourself to a life of
self-depreciation over a small part of a
much bigger picture.

6. OVERGENERALIZATION
• Making a general decision based off of
minimal evidence.
- ““This teacher is stupid, this is why I
don’t like him.” This is an overgeneralization.
- This teacher has rules set in place. They
are there for a reason, in this case, to help show
you that there are consequences to being
unprepared. Generalizing that he must be
stupid based off of one rule he has is a
cognitive distortion.

7. JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS
• This distortion is very common and
something most people do without realizing
it. Jumping to conclusions is assuming you
know something, with little to no actual fact
to prove it.
- You assumed your teacher wouldn’t let you
get your homework, based off of the fact that
he has told students ‘NO’ before when they
have asked. But consider that he may be in a
good mood, he may know that for the next
lesson you need that homework, he may allow
you to get it but take -5 points for lateness.
The fact is that you do not know what could
happen if you would just ask.

8. CATASTROPHIZING/MAGNIFYING
• Catastrophizing is when you take a
situation and make it feel like it is a lot
worse than it actually is.
-”I forgot my homework, I’m
gonna fail this class, I don’t like school,
this is stupid anyway, why do I bother
wasting my time?”
-The fact of the matter is that one
missed homework assignment isn’t
going to cause you to fail, but deciding
not to try because of one mistake you
made will. This is not a waste of time.

9. PERSONALIZATION
• Taking the blame for things that are out of
your control and taking general things
other people say or do personally is called
personalization.
- Say you get to class and your teacher
doesn’t let you get your homework from
your locker, just as you expected. You might
think, “This teacher probably hates me,
that’s why he wont let me go.”
-This is silly. Your teacher may be
disappointed in you at that moment, but
thinking he completely dislikes you is
irrational.

10. LABELING
• This is taking one thing about a person and
labeling them as a whole. If a person is
having a bad day and you pass them in the
hallway and say ‘hello’ and they don’t
respond, you may think that person is rude.
- You should never base your opinion
of someone on one negative interaction you
have with them. You can also choose how you
respond to this person if the negativity
continues; you can ignore them, you can try
to make them smile, but whatever you do,
don’t label them as something based off of a
single incident.

11. SHOULD/MUST• This cognitive distortion is a tough one.
Should/Must thought patterns are not the
same thing as goals. Goals are realistic and
achievable. Goals are positive and have a real
purpose.
- Should/Must thought patterns often
lead to depression. This is because most times
the things we think we should be able to do are
irrational and when we can’t achieve them we
feel bad about ourselves.
- ex: “ I should always be prepared,
there is no reason that I shouldn’t come to class
with what I need, I do this every day.” You
aren’t perfect. Everyone makes mistakes,
everyone has the potential to be forgetful. You
can set a goal to try and be more mindful, but
you can’t set a goal to be perfect all of the time.

12. EMOTIONAL REASONING
• Emotional reasoning Is another tough
one. We have a tendency to let how we
are feeling have a direct impact on
how we view the world around us.
-Since you forgot your homework and
weren’t allowed to get it, you go to class
with a poor attitude and don’t pay
attention. You’re too angry to engage
yourself with the rest of your class so
when you get your next homework
assignment, you don’t even understand
it. Who is this helping?

13. MAGNIFYING/MINIMIZING
• This is a tendency to magnify the
positive attributes of another
person, while minimizing yours.
Comparing yourself to anyone else
is unhealthy to your self-esteem.
- You might look at a student who
has good grades and attendance
and think that you aren’t as good as
they are. This just isn’t true.
Everyone has good and bad
qualities. Focusing on someone
else’s good qualities while also
focusing on your bad qualities can
lead to depression and anxiety.

14. WHAT CAN WE DO TO
CHALLENGE THESE
DISTORTED THOUGHTS?!
I’m so glad you asked…

15. Challenging these thoughts can be very difficult. The first step is recognizing what cognitive distortions
you are having problems with; most people have more than one.
The next step, and best way to challenge these distortions is to be mindful. So much happens
throughout the day, and sometimes itś difficult to take it all in. A lot of our time is also spent thinking
about things that have already happened, or things that may happen in the future. This is inevitable,
something we all do, however, when itś becoming an issue and having an impact on your daily life, you
need to use tools such as mindfulness exercises and socratic questioning.

16. The first I’m going to show you, and my all-time favorite, is
the Wonder Woman pose.
Stand with your legs apart, make a fist with both hands,
place them on your hips, and keep your chin up.
Studies show that our mood and attitude are created by
our behaviors, so standing in this pose can improve your
mood and self-esteem.
MINDFULNESS TECHNIQUES

17. MORE SUPERHEROS
Speaking of superheros, this next one is pretty fun. You
have 5 senses. Sight, touch, taste, smell, and sound. Use
your spidey senses.
By this I mean, when you feel like you are starting to over
think, start paying more attention to your senses. Feel the
way your feet feel inside of your shoes, listen hard to the
sounds they make as they walk, really take a look at
everything around you and try to notice something you
haven't before, take a deep breath through your nose and
let it out slowly.

18. PLAYING WITH YOUR SENSES
5,4,3,2,1 Exercise
Start by taking a deep, cleansing breath,
then find…
5 Things you can see
4 Things you can touch
3 Things you can hear
2 Things you can smell
1 Thing you can taste
4 x 4 Breathing Exercise
Inside of your head, count to 4 while you
breathe in through your nose, hold that
breath and count to 4 in your head again,
release your breath counting 4 seconds
in your head, then count to 4 again
before taking another breath in. Repeat
this 3 times, or until you feel better.

19. SOCRATIC QUESTIONING
You may be wondering what the heck Socratic Questioning is, and it’s really interesting
once you start using it as a tool.
A little background information: the word Socratic comes from the name Socrates.
Socrates was a philosopher, he died in the year 399 B.C. He began questioning why we
think the way that we do. What brings on our thoughts and how can we change them?
This type of thinking takes a lot of self discipline. You have to realize your automatic
thoughts, question them by asking what the evidence is to prove them, and if there isn’t
any, you need to make a change.
So lets begin… pick a negative thought you have often. Ask yourself these questions.

20. SOCRATIC QUESTIONS
• Where and when did this thought begin?
• Is this thought realistic?
• Is this thought based off of fact or a belief?
• Is it exaggerated?
• What is the evidence for this thought?
• Does anyone besides you enforce this thought?
• What if I looked at this as if it were a friends words instead of my own?
• What are the costs and benefits from this thought?
• Am I thinking in terms of black-and-white? What are some gray areas?

21. LET’S CHALLENGE A THOUGHT!
So, we’ve discussed that there are questions you can ask yourself to prove that this
thought holds any value. Let’s say, you fail math class. This makes you feel bad about
yourself and you start to think that you are a failure altogether. You begin to mentally
beat yourself up about this when you stop. You remember Socratic questioning. What
evidence is there to prove that you’re a failure? You might say the fact you failed a
class, but you passed all of your other classes. Are you thinking in black and white,
skipping over the gray areas? Are you exaggerating this thought? What if a friend
failed one out of 8 classes and was beating themselves up over it? Would you tell
them that it’s not that big a deal, not everyone is good at math, some people can be
great things without ever having to use math? Why not tell yourself these things?
Why not ask yourself if you can make a change, without mentally abusing yourself
through the process.

22. CORE BELIEFS
Core beliefs are the beliefs that we develop throughout our childhood. These are the values
that we hold for ourselves, other people, and the world as a whole.
For some people, their personal core beliefs are mostly negative. Here are a few:
I am unlovable I am stupid
I’m not good enough I am ugly
I’m boring I am worthless
I’m undeserving I’m abnormal
I am a bad person I don’t deserve good things

23. WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE?
A key part of changing your negative thoughts and core beliefs is finding the
evidence that proves these to be true.
Let’s take the negative core belief “I am unlovable”
This thought may come from a person being mistreated as a child. This thought may
come from a relationship gone wrong. This thought may come from being bullied at a
young age.
The dangerous part about these thoughts are the feelings they cause. Feelings turn
into actions and behaviors. They create more thoughts, and the vicious cycle
continues.

24. ACTIONS THOUGHTS FEELINGS BEHAVIORS
There is a vicious cycle of actions, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. An external
action will happen, and it will cause you to have thoughts about it or yourself. These
thoughts cause feelings. And our behaviors tend to follow how we are feeling. Finally,
those behaviors cause actions for ourselves and others, and the cycle continues.
We can’t control external actions, but we can control how we react to them. We can
control our thoughts, and question what evidence we have to prove that our negative
ones are true, before we react to them.
Doing this can have a very positive impact on how we interpret things in our daily
lives.

25. TAKE A LOOK BACK
Let’s take a step back and look at what we’ve learned so far.
We have learned that we all develop core beliefs throughout our lives. We all have
different perceptions of the world because of these core beliefs, which cause our
automatic thoughts. Our automatic thoughts, paired with our cognitive distortions,
can cause our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to be negative. This causes us to
feeling things like anxiety and depression and low self-esteem.
But there’s great news, and I think you already know it…

26. WE CAN CHANGE
We can start at the root of the problem, and those are our core beliefs. We can begin
by changing the way we feel about ourselves and the world around us. Question the
evidence of every bad thought you have about yourself and others. If there isn’t
enough evidence, change that thought and the feelings and behavior that follows will
change too.
Now that you have the tools and the information, you can begin working on
becoming the best version of yourself that you can be. And remember, if you want to
change the way others see you, you first have to change the way you see yourself.