ABSTRACT
Challenging negative automatic thoughts may not be enough by itself to convince the client that the thoughts are incorrect. The client needs to identify the negative automatic thought they intend to challenge. The client's new beliefs will only take root if they constantly practise behaving according to them. The aim of behavioural experiments is to get the client to review the evidence, look for alternatives, and take action to test them out. It should be as if the client were a scientist running an experiment to examine a new theory or hypothesis. Family members can sometimes be problematic because they have shared the environment the client grew up in, and they may have similar dysfunctional beliefs. In these circumstances, the reason for failure may be because the problem is part of a larger issue, and a product of a dysfunctional assumption that is predominant in the client's belief system.
