Prompt Library

Do the Work Between the Sessions

25 copy-paste prompts

35 therapy journal prompts based on CBT, DBT, and ACT principles. Your therapist sees you for one hour a week — these prompts fill the other 167.

CBT-Based: Thoughts & Beliefs

5 prompts

The Thought Record

1/25

Identify a situation that triggered a strong negative emotion today. Write: 1) The situation (just facts), 2) The automatic thought that came up, 3) The emotion and its intensity (0-100), 4) Evidence supporting the thought, 5) Evidence against the thought, 6) A more balanced alternative thought, 7) Re-rate the emotion intensity. How did it shift?

The classic CBT thought record — the most evidence-based journaling exercise in psychotherapy.

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Pro tip: The magic is in step 5. Finding evidence against the thought is hard, which is exactly why it's therapeutic. Your brain defaults to confirming, not challenging.

Identify the Cognitive Distortion

2/25

Write down three negative thoughts you had today. For each one, identify which cognitive distortion is at play: all-or-nothing thinking, catastrophizing, mind-reading, emotional reasoning, "should" statements, personalization, overgeneralization, or mental filter. Just naming the distortion is the exercise — you don't have to fix it yet.

Trains pattern recognition for cognitive distortions — the thinking errors that fuel anxiety and depression.

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Pro tip: Most people have 2-3 "favorite" distortions they default to. After a few weeks of this exercise, you'll know yours.

The Core Belief Excavation

3/25

Start with a negative thought you had today. Ask "what does this mean about me?" Write the answer. Then ask the same question about that answer. Keep going until you hit bedrock — a core belief about yourself ("I'm unlovable," "I'm not good enough," "I'm broken"). Write the belief. Sit with it. Then write: "When did I first learn this belief?" and "Is it a fact or a story?"

The downward arrow technique — drilling through surface thoughts to reach the core beliefs driving them.

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Pro tip: Core beliefs often feel too "obvious" to question — that's what makes them powerful. "Of course I'm not enough" feels like a fact, not a belief. Name it as a belief.

Behavioral Experiment Planning

4/25

Identify a belief that's holding you back (e.g., "If I speak up, people will think I'm stupid"). Design a small experiment to test it: what will you do, when, what's your prediction, and what would count as evidence for or against the belief? After conducting the experiment, record: what actually happened? Was your prediction accurate?

Turns beliefs into testable hypotheses — the behavioral experiment is one of CBT's most powerful tools.

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Pro tip: Start with low-stakes experiments. Testing "people will hate me if I disagree" at a casual dinner is better than testing it with your boss.

The Worry Decision Tree

5/25

Write down your current worry. Ask: "Is this something I can control?" If yes, write one specific action you can take today. If no, write: "What would I tell a friend who was worried about this?" Then: "Can I accept that this is uncertain and focus on what I can control right now?" Name one thing in your control to focus on instead.

A structured decision framework that sorts worries into actionable and acceptance categories.

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Pro tip: Most chronic worries fail the control test. The acceptance step is where the real work happens — and it gets easier with practice.

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DBT-Based: Emotions & Regulation

5 prompts

Emotion Diary Card

6/25

For the strongest emotion you felt today, record: 1) The emotion name (be specific — "frustrated" not "bad"), 2) Intensity (0-10), 3) What triggered it, 4) Physical sensations that accompanied it, 5) What you did in response (behavior), 6) What you wish you had done instead. No judgment — just observation.

The DBT diary card adapted for journaling — builds emotional granularity and self-monitoring skills.

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Pro tip: Emotional granularity (knowing the difference between irritated, frustrated, and furious) is a learnable skill that directly improves emotional regulation.

TIPP Skills Reflection

7/25

Think of a moment today when your emotions were intense. Write about which TIPP skills could have helped: Temperature change (cold water, ice), Intense exercise (burning off adrenaline), Paced breathing (slow exhale), Progressive muscle relaxation. Which of these have you tried? Which could you try next time? What gets in the way of using these in the moment?

Reviews crisis survival skills and identifies barriers to using them in real-time.

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Pro tip: The biggest barrier to using DBT skills in crisis is remembering they exist. This journal prompt is rehearsal for the real moment.

Opposite Action Practice

8/25

Identify an emotion you felt today that was unjustified by the facts (or justified but unhelpful to act on). What did the emotion urge you to do? What would the opposite action be? Did you try it? If yes, what happened? If no, what stopped you? Plan: next time this emotion shows up, what specific opposite action will you take?

Practices the DBT skill of acting opposite to emotional urges when those urges are counterproductive.

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Pro tip: Opposite action works because emotions drive behavior in predictable ways. Sadness says "withdraw." The opposite: reach out. The reaching out changes the sadness.

Radical Acceptance Check-In

9/25

What is one thing in your life right now that you are fighting against — a reality you wish were different, a circumstance you can't change, a loss you haven't accepted? Write about the cost of non-acceptance: what energy does the fighting consume? What would change if you accepted this reality (not approved of it, not liked it — just stopped fighting it)?

Explores the DBT concept of radical acceptance — ending the suffering that comes from refusing to accept reality.

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Pro tip: Acceptance is not agreement. "I accept that this happened" is not "I'm glad this happened." This distinction is crucial and worth revisiting often.

Wise Mind vs. Emotion Mind vs. Reasonable Mind

10/25

Think of a decision you're facing. Write three responses: 1) What Emotion Mind says (pure feeling, no logic), 2) What Reasonable Mind says (pure logic, no feeling), 3) What Wise Mind says (the integration of both). Which voice is loudest right now? What would it take to let Wise Mind lead?

Practices the DBT framework of three mind states and the integration that constitutes Wise Mind.

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Pro tip: Wise Mind is not a compromise between the two — it's a synthesis. It honors both the emotion and the facts without being dominated by either.

ACT-Based: Values & Acceptance

5 prompts

Values Compass Check

11/25

Choose three areas of life: relationships, work, and personal growth. For each, write: what do I value most here? On a scale of 1-10, how aligned is my current behavior with this value? What is one small action I could take this week to move one point closer on the scale?

The ACT values-based living assessment — measures the gap between values and behavior to guide meaningful action.

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Pro tip: The question isn't whether you're living perfectly according to your values — it's whether you're moving toward them. Direction matters more than distance.

Defusion Exercise

12/25

Write down a painful thought you're fused with — one that feels absolutely true and impossible to separate from. Now rewrite it three ways: 1) "I notice I'm having the thought that ___," 2) "My mind is telling me the story that ___," 3) Sing the thought to the tune of "Happy Birthday." Write about how each version changes your relationship to the thought — not its content, but its grip on you.

Practices cognitive defusion — creating distance from thoughts without trying to change or suppress them.

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Pro tip: The singing exercise sounds ridiculous, which is the point. It's nearly impossible to be dominated by a thought you've just sung to a birthday tune.

The Passengers on the Bus

13/25

Imagine you're driving a bus toward your values. The passengers are your difficult thoughts, emotions, memories, and urges. They shout at you to change direction. Write about who your loudest passengers are (name them — Anxiety, Shame, the Inner Critic). What do they yell? What happens when you keep driving toward your values anyway, even with them shouting?

The classic ACT metaphor that teaches willingness — making room for difficult experiences without letting them steer.

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Pro tip: Give your passengers personalities and names. "Anxiety" is abstract. "Gerald, the panicky one who catastrophizes everything" is someone you can negotiate with.

Committed Action Planning

14/25

Choose one value that matters to you. Write one specific action you will take in the next 24 hours that serves this value. Make it small enough to definitely accomplish. Then write: what internal obstacle (thought, feeling, urge) might show up to stop me? How will I make room for that obstacle while still taking the action?

Converts values into concrete behavior with built-in obstacle planning.

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Pro tip: ACT doesn't ask you to feel good before acting on your values. It asks you to act on your values while feeling however you feel. That's the radical part.

Expansion and Willingness

15/25

Identify an uncomfortable feeling you've been avoiding. Instead of writing about how to get rid of it, write about what it would mean to make room for it. Describe the feeling with curiosity rather than hostility. Where does it live in your body? What shape, color, and texture does it have? What would happen if you let it be there without trying to fix, fight, or flee from it?

Practices acceptance and willingness — the ACT alternative to avoidance and suppression.

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Pro tip: This prompt feels counterintuitive: why would I welcome an uncomfortable feeling? Because fighting it creates a secondary layer of suffering. Acceptance removes that layer.

Relationship Patterns

5 prompts

Your Attachment Style in Action

16/25

Think about your closest relationship. When conflict arises, what is your instinct: to pursue (call, text, demand resolution immediately), to withdraw (go silent, need space, shut down), or to oscillate between both? Write about a recent example. Describe the trigger, your automatic response, and what you actually needed beneath the behavior. What would a secure response have looked like?

Applies attachment theory to a real relational moment — making abstract psychology concrete and personal.

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Pro tip: Attachment styles aren't fixed identities. They're patterns that can be changed through awareness and practice. Identifying the pattern is step one.

The Relationship You Replay

17/25

Write about a past relationship (romantic, friendship, or family) that you find yourself still analyzing. What question about it remains unresolved? What do you wish you had understood at the time? What pattern from this relationship have you carried into current ones? Write what you know now that you couldn't know then.

Processes unresolved relational material that occupies mental space long after the relationship ended.

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Pro tip: If you're still replaying a relationship years later, there's usually an unanswered question at its center. Name the question explicitly — that's what needs processing.

How You Handle Conflict

18/25

Describe your typical conflict response pattern: what triggers it, what you do first (attack, withdraw, people-please, intellectualize, cry, go numb), what you do next, and how the conflict usually ends. Then write about where this pattern came from — what did conflict look like in your family growing up? How was anger handled? Were disagreements resolved or avoided?

Maps conflict behavior to its origin, creating the awareness needed to choose a different response.

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Pro tip: Most conflict patterns were adaptive in childhood (withdrawal kept you safe; people-pleasing kept the peace) but are maladaptive in adult relationships. The pattern made sense once. It may not anymore.

What You Need vs. What You Ask For

19/25

In your closest relationships, is there a gap between what you need and what you ask for? Do you need reassurance but ask for space? Need help but insist you're fine? Need closeness but create distance? Write about the gap. Why is the real need hard to express? What fear keeps you from asking directly? What would it sound like to ask for what you actually need?

Examines the self-protective communication patterns that prevent genuine needs from being met.

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Pro tip: The sentence "what I actually need is ___" is one of the most therapeutically powerful things you can write. Most people have never said it clearly, even to themselves.

Boundaries You've Set (or Need to Set)

20/25

Write about one boundary you've successfully set and how it changed the relationship. Then write about one boundary you need to set but haven't. What is the boundary? With whom? What stops you? What do you fear will happen? Now write the boundary as a clear statement: "I need ___ because ___." You don't have to deliver it today. Just write it.

Practices boundary articulation in the safety of the journal before the vulnerability of the conversation.

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Pro tip: Boundaries are not ultimatums. "I need you to stop criticizing me in front of others" is a boundary. "Stop or I'm leaving" is a consequence. Know the difference.

Session Preparation & Integration

5 prompts

Pre-Session Check-In

21/25

Before your next therapy session, write: 1) The most important thing that happened since last session, 2) The emotion that has been loudest this week, 3) One thing from last session that stuck with you, 4) What you want to talk about today (the thing you're tempted NOT to bring up is probably the most important), 5) One question for your therapist.

Structures session preparation so you use your therapy hour on what matters most, not what's most recent.

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Pro tip: Without preparation, therapy sessions default to reporting the week's events. Prepared sessions go deeper because you've already done the surface processing in writing.

Post-Session Integration

22/25

Within 24 hours of your therapy session, write: 1) The moment in session that felt most significant, 2) Something your therapist said that you want to remember, 3) An insight that emerged during conversation, 4) A feeling that came up that you want to sit with longer, 5) One thing you want to try or practice before next session.

Captures therapeutic material before it fades — extending the session's impact through written integration.

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Pro tip: Therapy insights evaporate faster than you'd think. By the following week, you may remember the topic but not the breakthrough. This prompt preserves the breakthroughs.

The Pattern My Therapist Sees

23/25

Has your therapist pointed out a pattern you keep repeating — in relationships, in self-talk, in behavior, in the stories you tell? Write about the pattern as they described it. Do you agree? Where do you see it showing up? When did you first notice it? What function does the pattern serve (protection, control, connection, avoidance)? What would life look like without it?

Deepens engagement with therapist observations by exploring them in private writing.

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Pro tip: Patterns your therapist identifies often feel both surprising and obvious — you didn't see it, but once named, you see it everywhere. Track where it shows up this week.

What I'm Not Telling My Therapist

24/25

Write about the thing you haven't told your therapist — the topic you skirt around, the truth you minimize, the feeling you perform instead of express. Why are you withholding it? Fear of judgment? Shame? Not wanting to seem dramatic? Worry about their reaction? Write it here first. Sometimes writing the unsayable is the bridge to saying it.

Addresses the therapeutic hiding that can stall progress — using private writing as a stepping stone to disclosure.

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Pro tip: The thing you most want to hide from your therapist is usually the thing that would create the most therapeutic progress. They've heard worse. They won't judge you.

Measuring Progress

25/25

Therapy progress is often invisible from the inside. Write about: one thing you handle differently now than when you started therapy, one belief about yourself that has shifted, one relationship that has improved, one coping skill you actually use in real life, and one thing that still feels stuck. The stuck part isn't a failure — it's the next frontier.

Creates tangible evidence of therapeutic progress for clients who feel like "nothing is changing."

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Pro tip: Reread this entry during discouraging weeks. Progress in therapy is nonlinear — you need written evidence of growth for the moments when it feels like you're going backward.

Frequently Asked Questions

This depends on your therapeutic relationship and goals. Many therapists welcome journal entries as a bridge between sessions — they provide raw material for discussion and reveal patterns that might not emerge in a 50-minute conversation. You might share specific entries that captured a breakthrough or a struggle, use your journal to prepare for sessions (reviewing the week's entries to identify what to discuss), or bring your thought records for collaborative review. However, you should never feel obligated to share everything. Some entries serve their purpose in the writing alone. A good approach: keep your journal private by default, and actively choose specific entries to bring to sessions. Tell your therapist "I wrote about something this week that I'd like to explore" — this puts you in control of what enters the therapeutic space. If your therapist insists on reading your entire journal, that's worth discussing as a boundary issue.

Regular journaling is open-ended self-expression: writing about your day, your thoughts, your feelings, your creative ideas. It's valuable for general wellbeing and self-awareness. Therapy journaling is structured, goal-directed writing that applies specific therapeutic techniques to specific issues. The prompts on this page are therapy journaling — they use CBT thought records, DBT emotion diary cards, and ACT defusion exercises that are the same tools your therapist would use in session. The key differences: therapy journaling targets specific patterns (not just "how do I feel?" but "what cognitive distortion is this?"), uses structured frameworks (not free-writing), and aims to change your relationship with thoughts and emotions (not just express them). Both types are valuable, and many people benefit from doing both: free-journaling for daily expression and therapy-journaling for focused therapeutic work.

For maximum therapeutic benefit, brief daily practice (10-15 minutes) outperforms longer, less frequent sessions. Daily thought records (CBT), emotion diary cards (DBT), and values check-ins (ACT) build the skills incrementally — like practicing an instrument. The skills become automatic with repetition, which is the goal: you want to catch cognitive distortions in real-time, not just on paper. If daily feels too much, three to four times per week is still highly effective. Many therapists recommend journaling on the day of your session (to prepare) and the day after (to process what emerged). Some people find it helpful to do light journaling daily (a single thought record or emotion check-in) with one deeper session per week using a more intensive prompt. The most important factor is consistency — 10 minutes daily for a month produces more therapeutic change than one 60-minute session per week.

No. AI can support therapeutic journaling by guiding you through structured exercises (CBT thought records, cognitive distortion identification, values clarification), generating follow-up questions, and helping you spot patterns in your journal entries. Some people find AI useful as a "practice partner" for cognitive restructuring — presenting anxious thoughts and asking AI to help identify the distortion and generate balanced alternatives. However, AI fundamentally cannot provide: the relational healing that occurs in a therapeutic relationship, accurate clinical assessment of your mental health, personalized treatment planning, crisis intervention, or the empathetic witnessing that makes therapy transformative. AI can serve as a tool within a broader therapeutic framework, not as a replacement for it. If you're using these prompts and finding that your struggles feel beyond what self-guided journaling can address, that's a signal to seek professional support, not to ask more of AI.

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