Triangle Shift

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Welcome to Triangle Shift! This interactive CBT tool helps kids and teens practice reframing negative thoughts by breaking down the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.At the start of the activity, the client enters the triggering scenario at the top. This sets the stage and identifies what the triangle is going to be about.

First, they will click into the thoughts section. Here, you can ask them to identify exactly what was going through their mind at the very moment the incident happened.

Next, they move on to the feelings section. You can use this moment to explore how those specific thoughts made them feel emotionally, and they can type out the exact emotions they were experiencing.

Lastly, they will enter their behavior to describe the actions they took because they were feeling that way. Did they yell, shut down, or walk away? Once this is typed out, it is a great time to pause the exercise. You can use this space to process the natural consequences of that choice and discuss what happened as a result of their behavior.

Once the first triangle is complete, the Shift button becomes active. This lets the client know it is time to shift their way of thinking to see if the outcome might be different.

They will then repeat these steps for the new triangle. This time when they click into thoughts, they will be asked to type out a more helpful and balanced thought to replace the old one.

Once that is entered, they will move on to feelings and explore how they might be feeling right now if they had used this new thought instead.

Lastly, they will identify what new actions they would take based on those better feelings. You can then take your time to explore together what the new and improved outcome would be.

Once this is done, the Compare button activates. Clicking this will show the client exactly how their two paths differed. At this point, you can either download a PDF or start a new triangle. Your shifts are automatically saved and can always be accessed by clicking the View Past Shifts dropdown. Here you can view your past entries and delete them if you would like.

Triangle Shift is a fantastic way to make CBT concepts concrete and help clients visually understand that changing their thoughts can completely change their outcomes.

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