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Depression

84 techniques · 18 approaches
ACT
I Notice I'm Having the Thought
I Notice I'm Having the Thought
A core cognitive defusion technique in ACT. Adding the phrase "I notice I'm having the thought that.." creates distance between the thought…
ACT
Naming the Story
Naming the Story
Instead of following the content of a thought, the client notices that it is part of a familiar story, a narrative the mind tells again and …
ACT
Sensory Immersion / Raisin Exercise
Sensory Immersion / Raisin Exercise
An exercise in full presence, often done with a raisin or another small object or food. The client explores the object through all five sens…
BA
Activity Monitoring
Activity Monitoring
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on activity monitoring. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, avoidan…
BA
Activity Scheduling
Activity Scheduling
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on activity scheduling. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, avoidan…
BA
Alternative Coping Behaviors
Alternative Coping Behaviors
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on alternative coping behaviors. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal…
BA
Attention to Experience
Attention to Experience
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on attention to experience. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, avo…
BA
Avoidance Hierarchy
Avoidance Hierarchy
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on avoidance hierarchy. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, avoidan…
BA
Behavioral Contract
Behavioral Contract
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on behavioral contract. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, avoidan…
BA
Behavioral Experiments
Behavioral Experiments
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on behavioral experiments. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, avoi…
BA
Brief Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression
Brief Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on brief behavioral activation treatment for depression. It helps the therapist and client move fr…
BA
Contingency Management
Contingency Management
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on contingency management. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, avoi…
BA
Functional Analysis of Behavior
Functional Analysis of Behavior
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on functional analysis of behavior. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdra…
BA
Goal Setting
Goal Setting
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on goal setting. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, avoidance, or …
BA
Graded Task Assignment
Graded Task Assignment
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on graded task assignment. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, avoi…
BA
Mastery and Pleasure Ratings
Mastery and Pleasure Ratings
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on mastery and pleasure ratings. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal…
BA
Pleasant Events Schedule
Pleasant Events Schedule
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on pleasant events schedule. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, av…
BA
Problem Solving within BA
Problem Solving within BA
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on problem solving within ba. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, a…
BA
Reward Planning
Reward Planning
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on reward planning. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, avoidance, …
BA
Routine Building
Routine Building
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on routine building. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, avoidance,…
BA
Rumination-Cued Activation
Rumination-Cued Activation
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on rumination-cued activation. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, …
BA
Skills Training
Skills Training
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on skills training. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, avoidance, …
BA
Social Activation
Social Activation
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on social activation. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, avoidance…
BA
TRAP-TRAC Model
TRAP-TRAC Model
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on trap-trac model. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdrawal, avoidance, …
BA
Values and Life Areas Assessment
Values and Life Areas Assessment
A Behavioral Activation technique focused on values and life areas assessment. It helps the therapist and client move from depressive withdr…
BRIEF
Exception Finding
Exception Finding
A technique for finding moments when the problem was absent or less intense. De Shazer assumed that a problem is never completely constant; …
BRIEF
Prediction Task
Prediction Task
The client predicts each evening whether the next day will be better or worse, often on a 0-10 scale. The following evening they compare the…
CBASP
Behavioral Rehearsal
Behavioral Rehearsal
Practicing new behavior in session before applying it in life. After the remediation phase of SA — "let's try out how this would look".
CBASP
CBASP Relapse Prevention
CBASP Relapse Prevention
Preparing for the end of therapy: updated stamps, mastered SA skills, a plan in case of worsening. Chronic depression can return — the clien…
CBASP
Disciplined Personal Involvement
Disciplined Personal Involvement
The therapist disciplinedly uses their authentic reactions as an instrument: showing the client how their behavior affects another person.
CBASP
Hotspot Identification
Hotspot Identification
Identifying the situations in which the stamps activate most strongly — the "hotspots". Knowing them, the client can prepare in advance.
CBASP
Impact Message
Impact Message
The therapist describes to the client the concrete effect their behavior has on the therapist. The goal is to help the client see: "My actio…
CBASP
Interpersonal Discrimination Exercise
Interpersonal Discrimination Exercise
Helping the client discriminate the therapist (and other people in the present) from significant others of the past. "I am not your mother. …
CBASP
Preoperational to Formal Operations Shift
Preoperational to Formal Operations Shift
Helping the client move from preoperational thinking (global attributions, egocentrism, disconnection) toward formal operational thinking (c…
CBASP
Significant Other History
Significant Other History
A structured elicitation of the people who most influenced the client, and of the "stamps" (causal conclusions) formed in those relationship…
CBASP
Situational Analysis: Elicitation Phase
Situational Analysis: Elicitation Phase
The first part of Situational Analysis — a structured gathering of information about a concrete situation: what happened, what was thought, …
CBASP
Situational Analysis: Remediation Phase
Situational Analysis: Remediation Phase
The second part of SA — an analysis: which interpretations are accurate and useful for the DO? Which behavior would have helped? What could …
CBASP
Transference Hypothesis Formulation
Transference Hypothesis Formulation
Based on the stamps from the significant-other list — a prediction of what the client will expect from the therapist. The hypothesis guides …
CBT
Activity Monitoring
Activity Monitoring
A tracking method for observing how daily behavior relates to mood, energy, sleep and stress. The client records activities across the day a…
CBT
Activity Scheduling
Activity Scheduling
A structured plan of daily activities, often used in depression. The client schedules specific actions and then rates them for pleasure and …
CBT
Behavioral Activation
Behavioral Activation
A behavioral treatment strategy for depression that increases contact with reinforcing activities. It begins from the observation that low m…
CBT
Cognitive Continuum
Cognitive Continuum
A technique for softening all-or-nothing thinking by placing performance, traits or outcomes on a scale instead of in two categories. The cl…
CBT
Cognitive Distortions (Burns)
Cognitive Distortions (Burns)
Teaching clients to recognize common thinking errors such as all-or-nothing thinking, catastrophizing, mind reading and discounting the posi…
CBT
Cognitive Restructuring
Cognitive Restructuring
A core CBT technique and the center of cognitive work. The therapist helps the client catch an automatic negative thought, examine its logic…
CBT
Evidence For and Against
Evidence For and Against
A systematic two-column collection of facts for and against an automatic thought. The task is not intuition or reassurance, but real evidenc…
CBT
Pleasure and Mastery Scheduling
Pleasure and Mastery Scheduling
A refinement of activity scheduling that distinguishes activities that bring pleasure from activities that bring mastery, competence or mean…
CBT
Reattribution
Reattribution
A technique for reducing personalization and excessive guilt. The client explores all factors that contributed to an event instead of assign…
CBT
Responsibility Pie
Responsibility Pie
A visual method for distributing responsibility across all contributing factors. The client first estimates their own responsibility, then l…
CBT
Thought Record
Thought Record
A written tool for structured analysis of automatic thoughts. It moves cognitive restructuring into homework. It can be used as a simple thr…
CFT
CFT Chair Work (Two-Chair / Three-Chair)
CFT Chair Work (Two-Chair / Three-Chair)
An experiential technique in which the client embodies different parts of the self by moving between chairs. The key feature of the CFT vers…
CFT
Compassionate Attention Training
Compassionate Attention Training
A specific form of attention training in CFT: the threat system automatically draws attention to the dangerous and the negative. Compassiona…
CFT
Compassionate Behaviour Training
Compassionate Behaviour Training
The behavioral component of CFT: deliberate actions that embody compassion — to self, to others, accepting compassion from others. This is t…
CFT
Compassionate Image (Ideal Compassionate Being)
Compassionate Image (Ideal Compassionate Being)
A CFT imagery technique in which the client builds an inner image of an ideal compassionate being and interacts with it. The brain does not …
CFT
Compassionate Letter Writing
Compassionate Letter Writing
A written practice in which the client writes a letter to themselves from the position of the compassionate self or an imagined wise, kind f…
CFT
Compassionate Reappraisal
Compassionate Reappraisal
An adaptation of cognitive restructuring in CFT, carried out from the position of the compassionate self. Unlike standard CBT disputation, c…
CFT
Compassionate Self
Compassionate Self
The central CFT technique — identifying with the "best version of self", the part that holds wisdom, strength, and warmth. It draws on the "…
CFT
Functional Analysis of Self-Criticism
Functional Analysis of Self-Criticism
A technique for exploring the functions of the self-critical inner voice through guided discovery. For most clients, self-criticism is not m…
CFT
Loving Kindness / Compassionate Wishes Practice (Metta)
Loving Kindness / Compassionate Wishes Practice (Metta)
An adaptation of the Buddhist practice of metta in the CFT version of Gilbert & Choden. The three flows of compassion are used together with…
CFT
Three Circles Model (Threat-Drive-Soothing)
Three Circles Model (Threat-Drive-Soothing)
A psychoeducational CFT model that describes three evolutionarily shaped emotion-regulation systems: threat, drive/incentive, and soothing/a…
CFT
Tricky Brain Psychoeducation (Old Brain / New Brain)
Tricky Brain Psychoeducation (Old Brain / New Brain)
A key psychoeducational intervention of CFT. Gilbert uses the metaphor of the "old brain" (the limbic system — emotions, basic motives, thre…
CFT
Working with Shame (De-Shaming)
Working with Shame (De-Shaming)
A set of CFT interventions targeted at shame as the central pathogenic affect. Gilbert distinguishes external shame (fear of being rejected)…
DBT
ABC PLEASE
ABC PLEASE
A combined skill: ABC accumulates positive experience and resources; PLEASE looks after the physiological base. Together they lower overall …
DBT
Opposite Action
Opposite Action
When the emotion does not fit the facts of the situation — do the action opposite to the urge that the emotion produces. Fear says "flee" — …
DBT
Participate
Participate
Building the capacity to engage fully in the current activity, without scattering attention, without self-monitoring, without criticizing wh…
Deurzen
Temporal Orientation Exploration
Temporal Orientation Exploration
Van Deurzen uses Heidegger's concept of temporality: the human being exists at the same time in three temporal horizons (past–present–future…
ERT
Rumination Interruption
Rumination Interruption
Helping the client recognize rumination as a repetitive negative thinking process and shift from circular analysis of the past to decenterin…
Frankl
Will to Meaning Activation
Will to Meaning Activation
Targeted work with the "existential vacuum" — the sense of emptiness and meaninglessness. The therapist helps the client discover concrete m…
IPT
Psychoeducation about Depression
Psychoeducation about Depression
Psychoeducation about Depression is an IPT intervention used to connect depressive symptoms with current interpersonal events and to turn th…
Längle
Working with FM2: Value of Life / Grundwert
Working with FM2: Value of Life / Grundwert
The second fundamental motivation is responsible for the experience that life is valuable and joyful. "Grundwert" (basic value) is the deep …
MBCT
Body Scan
Body Scan
Lying or sitting, the participant slowly moves attention through the whole body from the crown to the toes, noticing sensations without tryi…
MBCT
Doing Mode vs Being Mode
Doing Mode vs Being Mode
A psychoeducational model with practical application: "doing mode" is aimed at reaching a goal and removing the gap between "how it is" and …
MBCT
Mindful Movement / Mindful Yoga
Mindful Movement / Mindful Yoga
Gentle movements (simple yoga poses, stretches, bends) are performed slowly and with full attention to body sensations. The aim is not flexi…
MBCT
Mood and Activity Connection / Nourishing vs Depleting Activities
Mood and Activity Connection / Nourishing vs Depleting Activities
The client explores the link between their activity and mood through a week of observation and analysis, then builds a personal list of "nou…
MBCT
Self-Compassion / Loving-Kindness Meditation (Metta)
Self-Compassion / Loving-Kindness Meditation (Metta)
The client deliberately directs wishes of kindness and care toward themselves, using phrases like "May I be well". Self-compassion in MBCT i…
MBSR
Pleasant Events Calendar
Pleasant Events Calendar
Homework for week 2 of MBSR: each day record one pleasant event — with a description of the body sensations, thoughts, and feelings right at…
MCT
Rumination Postponement
Rumination Postponement
An analog of worry postponement for depressive rumination. When the client notices the start of the cycle of "why am I like this / what is w…
MI
Looking Back
Looking Back
A technique for evoking change talk by exploring the past, when the client felt better or things were different. It lets them recall who the…
REBT
Rational Emotive Imagery (REI)
Rational Emotive Imagery (REI)
An emotive technique developed by Maxie Maultsby and adapted by Ellis. The client vividly imagines the distressing situation, lets themselve…
REBT
Unconditional Self-Acceptance (USA)
Unconditional Self-Acceptance (USA)
A philosophical position and a therapeutic aim of REBT: the person accepts themselves as a whole and unconditionally — not because they are …
Yalom
Confronting Meaninglessness
Confronting Meaninglessness
A meeting with the possibility that there is no objective meaning — no higher purpose, no guaranteed significance of life. Yalom, drawing on…
Yalom
Discovering Meaning
Discovering Meaning
An exploration of Frankl's three sources of meaning: creativity (creating something — work, ideas, art), experience (love, beauty, encounter…
Yalom
Existential Isolation
Existential Isolation
Distinguishing existential isolation (I am fundamentally alone — no one will live my death for me, no one will be inside me) from interperso…
Yalom
Life Review (Yalom / Butler)
Life Review (Yalom / Butler)
A review of life as a coherent, meaningful narrative: turning points, lessons, legacy, unfinished matters. Butler developed this method for …
Yalom
Rippling / Legacy
Rippling / Legacy
To help the client see that their life leaves a trace in other people — waves of influence ripple out and continue far, even when invisible.…
Materials are informational and educational and summarize publicly available scientific sources. They are not medical or psychological advice, are not intended for self-diagnosis or self-treatment, and do not replace consultation with a qualified professional.