Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Questions to Ask Clients

Therapists face many challenges in their daily work. However, one of the most commonly faced challenges is getting clients to feel safe opening up and comfortable enough talking about their concerns.

Shop our complete range of CBT worksheets here:

 

Luckily, CBT or cognitive behavioral therapy aims to allow them space to be their authentic selves and teach them the skills to communicate feelings and thoughts while striving to impact how they think and behave positively. CBT (a form of talk therapy) is a widely known therapeutic approach beneficial for clients suffering from a variety of mental health concerns such as ADHD, anxiety, OCD, depression, and trauma. While day-to-day conversations with friends and loved ones can be helpful, structured CBT differs because of the type of questions asked and the space it opens up for the individual to share and explore their experiences.

 

What distinguishes therapy from engaging in daily conversations is focusing on the client and employing specific techniques to address their concerns. To enable the therapy process, both the therapist and client need to be present and engaged, desire to understand, and drive to see progress or a conclusion.

Find our cognitive behavioral therapy mega bundle here: 

Types of CBT Questions to Ask Your Clients

Knowing what questions to ask our clients is essential for counselors and therapists. Two main types of questions are commonly used: open-ended questions and closed-ended questions.

Open-ended CBT questions:

These are questions that cannot simply be answered with a “Yes” or “No” and will encourage the client to take their time, think, and reflect before answering them. When using open-ended questions, there is a shift in who controls the exchange—typically from the therapist to the client. Open-ended questions begin with:

• Who
• What
• Why
• Where
• When
• How

Some examples include:

• How are you feeling today?
• What brings you here today?
• What are your expectations from this therapy session?
• Why do you think this happened?
• When did you start feeling these things?

Closed CBT questions:

On the other hand, closed questions are the “Yes” or “No” questions or those with only one correct answer. While these can be called clarifying questions, they could also cause the clients to feel interrogated, so it is always up to us, as practitioners, to determine the best time to use closed questions during sessions. Most of the time, closed questions should be followed by open-ended questions to make the conversation more engaging.

Find out what kind of questions are asked in couple therapy here:

Some examples of these types of questions include:

• Are you feeling better today?
• Are you focusing only on the negative things in this?
• Are you assuming that there is no hope for your situation?
• Are you worried that something terrible will happen?
• Does this thought help you to feel better?

Another form of questioning widely used in CBT is socratic questions, a method of inquiry that aims to explore ideas, beliefs, and concepts that could reveal further underlying assumptions. This can sometimes also be referred to as the “downward arrow” strategy within the CBT space.

Here are some examples:

• Can you explain this to me a bit more?
• Can you give me an example?
• What does that say about you?
• If that were true, what does this mean for your relationship?
• What are you worried that might mean?
• And why does that bother you?

Find our CBT for couples therapy bundle here:

 

CBT Worksheets for Therapists and Counselors: 

Generally speaking, asking thought-provoking questions in a non-judgmental way is critical for getting to the root of the problem and building rapport with your clients.

If you are looking for some further guidance around how to use cognitive behavioral therapy based strategies in your practice, you may find our range of CBT worksheets for specific mental health challenges such as procrastination, dysthymia or body dysmorphia helpful. Check them out via the links below. 

Find our CBT for dysthymia worksheets here:

Our CBT for dysthymia worksheets have been developed to assist therapists and counselors working with individuals struggling with symptoms of persistent depression and make the perfect resource for any therapist or counselor.