Map the trigger. Build the exit. Execute before the window closes.
The steps
- Situation what happened. Observable facts only, no interpretation.
- Automatic thought what your mind produced immediately. Unedited.
- Emotion name it, rate intensity 0–10.
- Evidence for what actually supports this thought?
- Evidence against what contradicts it, or provides context that changes the picture?
- Balanced thought a more accurate version that holds both. Re-rate the emotion.
Where it comes from
- Session 11 — the full handout
- Session 11 — Trigger Maps
Prefer it one step at a time? The same protocol as a guided runner in the app, which also keeps a private record if you want one.
This is one of the tools a seventeen-session series teaches, ninety minutes at a time, in a room of six to twelve people. It is peer-facilitated and free to host.
Check what stayed 3 questions
Answer in your own words, out loud or on paper. Nothing is scored, nothing is marked, and nothing is stored — this is for noticing what you have, not for anybody to grade.
What kind of thought needs a thought record rather than a thought reset?
What the material says
A strong automatic thought that needs a structured evidence check.
What goes in the situation row, and what must not?
What the material says
what happened. Observable facts only, no interpretation.
The last row is not the opposite of the automatic thought. What is it, and what do you do afterwards?
What the material says
a more accurate version that holds both. Re-rate the emotion.