Test out a belief you hold about a thinking habit such as worry or rumination - examining how necessary, helpful, and controllable that habit really is.
Metacognitive Belief-Testing
PreviewChoose one mental habit to focus on - not a single worry, but the activity itself.
Which thinking habit are you looking at?
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Describe a recent time you did this. What set it off, and what did the activity look like?
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We are interested in what you believe about the thinking itself - not whether the thoughts are true.
What do you believe about this thinking habit? (a belief about the worrying, not about the situation)
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NECESSITY - how much do you believe you NEED to do this thinking?
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VALUE - how helpful or protective do you believe this thinking is?
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CONTROLLABILITY - how much control do you believe you have over starting and stopping it?
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Plan a small experiment that directly puts the belief to the test.
If the belief were true, what do you predict would happen in the test?
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What exactly will you do to test it, and when?
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Complete this after running the test.
What actually happened when you ran the test?
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Did the feared outcome actually occur?
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Re-rate the same belief in light of what you found.
Having run the test, how would you now word your belief about this thinking habit?
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NECESSITY now - how much do you believe you NEED to do this thinking?
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VALUE now - how helpful or protective do you believe it is?
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CONTROLLABILITY now - how much control do you believe you have?
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Use this once you have run a few tests to look at the bigger picture.
Log of tests run
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Looking across your tests, what is the pattern? What does it suggest about how necessary, helpful, or controllable this thinking really is?
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Choose the metacognitive strategies you will keep practising.
Strategies to practise next
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What is your plan before the next session?
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This is a read-only preview. Sign up to assign it and let clients complete it on any device.
‘Metacognitive Belief-Testing’ is an interactive cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) worksheet, most often used in CBT for generalised anxiety (GAD).
It is designed to be used within therapy rather than as a standalone self-help tool: a therapist introduces it, works through it collaboratively, and helps make sense of what it surfaces. You can preview the full worksheet above, then assign it digitally for clients to complete between sessions on any device — or download it as a print-ready PDF.
Most people work through it in around 20 minutes. It moves through six short steps:
Completed on the Formulate platform, your client's answers are saved automatically and shared straight back to you, so you can review them before the next session rather than waiting for a paper copy to come back.
In common with other CBT methods, ‘Metacognitive Belief-Testing’ works by testing fearful predictions through real-world behavioural experiments. The aim is not positive thinking but a clearer, shared understanding of what keeps a difficulty going — and practical, testable ways to change it.
Because it is a CBT tool it stays focused on the here-and-now links between thoughts, feelings, the body and behaviour, and it works best as one part of a wider course of therapy rather than as advice or a diagnosis.
This worksheet is grounded in established cognitive behavioural therapy theory and practice. Key sources include:
Formulate provides educational CBT resources for use with a qualified therapist. They are not a substitute for professional assessment, diagnosis, or crisis care.
If you need urgent help now:
Sign up free and send your client a link. They complete it on any device — you review their responses before the next session.
No credit card required. 10 free worksheets every month.
Learn to distinguish between practical worries (that you can act on) and hypothetical worries (that are about "what if") to respond differently to each.