ABSTRACT
Blackburn and Davidson point out those patients often talk about events as if they were the cause of their bad feelings. The therapist establishes the missing link by ascertaining the meaning of the event; for example, the client feels guilty: Arriving ten minutes late to pick up his sons from school. The client supports his viewpoint by stating that if he got to the school on time then he would not have felt guilty, 'it surely follows that the situation made feel guilty because I turned up late'. In response, the client tentatively agrees therapist's enquiry that not every father would feel guilty if he arrived late at the school to pick up his children. Therapist demonstrates to the client that his feelings by his interpretation of the situation and not directly caused by the situation itself. Some thought record forms used in Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) put the emotion column after the situation column and before the thoughts column.
