Belief-O-Meter (CYP)

An important part of CBT psychoeducation is that ‘thoughts are not facts’. One job of the therapist is to help clients to understand that negative thoughts – although believable – are not always accurate. The Belief-O-Meter is an engaging way of helping children and adolescents to relate to their thoughts differently. It is a form of cognitive restructuring which encourages consideration of thoughts as an ‘object’ about which one can have an opinion. The Belief-O-Meter exercise:

• Helps to introduce the idea that thoughts are not facts
• Introduces the idea of ‘believability’ of thoughts and that some thoughts may be more ‘trustworthy’ than others
• Can be related to principles of distancing, decentering, cognitive defusion, continuum work, and mentalizing
• Can be used to start a conversation about the consequences of holding certain beliefs.

“Did you know that just having a thought does not mean that it is true, or that you have to believe it? Could you rate how much you believe some of the thoughts on this form? And what about some thoughts or ideas that have been bothering your recently – could you rate how much you believe those?” 

Encouraging curiosity at variation in believability: 

“Could we start by recording some thoughts that have bothered you recently, and then have you rate them on the belief-o-meter? It can often be interesting to see what other people believe about these same thoughts. How could we find out how much other people believe these same thoughts? Is there any way we could survey your friends or family, or conduct an anonymous survey to find out what other people think? What would it mean if they thought the same way? What would it mean if they

• Beck, A.T., Rush, A.J., Shaw, B.F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. New York: Guilford.
• Padesky, C. A. (1994). Schema change processes in cognitive therapy. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 1(5), 267-278.
• Teasdale, J. D., Segal, Z. V., Williams, J. M. G., Ridgeway, V. A., Soulsby, J. M., & Lau, M. A. (2000). Prevention of relapse/recurrence in major depression by mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68(4), 615.