Socratic questioning worksheet: a free printable set of questions to explore a thought

Is there research behind a Socratic questioning worksheet?

Honestly, we know of no trial of this worksheet, and a worksheet isn't a treatment. This is what we could check.

The four stages and the three quoted questions come from a keynote Christine Padesky gave in 1993 to the European Congress of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies, which she has published on her website. It was written for therapists. She argues that the point of Socratic questioning is to guide discovery, not to change a client's mind, and that the final goal is to teach a way of weighing up thoughts, behaviours and moods. She writes that a list of generic 'good questions', developed with her students, helped clients write alternative responses on thought records, and that she came to see such generic questions as not enough on their own. The other questions on our sheet are our own.

We found two studies of therapists' Socratic questioning and outcomes, both in CBT for depression. In 2015, Braun and colleagues followed 55 depressed adults through a 16-week course of cognitive therapy. Observers rated therapists' Socratic questioning in the first three sessions, and when it rose for a client, it was followed by a bigger fall in that client's depressive symptoms by the next session. The authors say it can't show cause, it looks only at early sessions, and it covers cognitive therapy for depression, so it may not apply to other treatments or groups. It is about therapists asking clients, not about someone asking themselves on a page. A 2022 study of 123 clients found evidence consistent with cognitive change carrying part of the link between Socratic questioning and symptom change.

The wider evidence is about CBT as a treatment. A 2012 review of a representative sample of 106 earlier research summaries (meta-analyses) concluded that its evidence base is very strong in general, and a 2011 meta-analysis of seven trials found a small but significant effect for self-guided treatment. A single worksheet is lighter than either. For a table that fixes the order of the steps, try the thought record worksheet, and the cognitive distortions worksheet names the thinking traps first.

These are educational self-reflection tools, not therapy. See our editorial standards.

If you want to go deeper

• Padesky, C. A. (1993). Socratic questioning: changing minds or guiding discovery? Keynote address, European Congress of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies, London, 24 September 1993. padesky.com.
• Braun, J. D., Strunk, D. R., Sasso, K. E. & Cooper, A. A. (2015). Therapist use of Socratic questioning predicts session-to-session symptom change in cognitive therapy for depression. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 70, 32-37.
• Vittorio, L. N. and colleagues (2022). Using Socratic Questioning to promote cognitive change and achieve depressive symptom reduction: Evidence of cognitive change as a mediator. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 150.
• Hofmann, S. G., Asnaani, A., Vonk, I. J. J., Sawyer, A. T. & Fang, A. (2012). The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy: a review of meta-analyses. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 36(5), 427-440.
• Cuijpers, P., Donker, T., Johansson, R., Mohr, D. C., van Straten, A. & Andersson, G. (2011). Self-guided psychological treatment for depressive symptoms: a meta-analysis. PLoS ONE, 6(6), e21274.

Your questions, answered

What is Socratic questioning?

It's a way of exploring a thought by asking a series of questions, instead of arguing with it. In CBT, the trainer Christine Padesky described it as guided discovery: questions the person has the knowledge to answer, that point to relevant information outside their current focus, and that move from concrete to more abstract. This sheet is a self-help version of the idea.

What are examples of Socratic questions?

Three from Padesky's 1993 talk are 'Have you ever been in similar circumstances before? What did you do? How did that turn out?', 'What do you know now that you didn't know then?' and 'What would you advise a friend who told you something similar?' On the sheet, they're adapted to 'I'. The other questions on the sheet are our own.

What are the stages of Socratic questioning?

Padesky described four: asking informational questions, listening, summarising, and asking a synthesising or analytical question that applies what you found to your original thought. The worksheet follows those four stages in order.

Does Socratic questioning work?

We know of no study of asking yourself these questions from a worksheet. In one study of 55 depressed adults in a 16-week course of cognitive therapy, sessions in which therapists used more Socratic questioning were followed by bigger drops in depressive symptoms the next session. It was observational (it compared what happened, it didn't test the questioning) and included 55 people, so it can't show that the questioning caused the drops, and it was therapists asking, not a worksheet.

How is this different from the thought record worksheet?

The thought record is a fixed table: situation, feeling, thought, evidence, balanced thought. This worksheet is a set of questions you can use on any thought, including on the evidence step of a thought record. Padesky says a list of generic questions like these helped clients write alternative responses on thought records.

Is this Socratic questioning worksheet free, and is it a substitute for therapy?

It's free, with no payment and no email needed. Use Download PDF for a print-ready copy, or fill it in on screen (answers save in your browser on that device). It's not a substitute for therapy. If you're struggling, speak to your GP. In a crisis, call Samaritans on 116 123 (UK and Ireland), call or text 988 (US), or find a helpline at findahelpline.com.

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