How you see yourself, and how others see you

Depressed clients with negative self-image, socially anxious clients who assume others judge them harshly, clients who feel “invisible,” and clients with a perfectionist or grandiose self-image that doesn’t match feedback they receive. The exercise works because the gap between the two views is often surprising in either direction, and the surprise itself is therapeutic.

The form has 11 fields. “What they said” is a repeating block with at least 1 row, each with 2 sub-fields (short-text, long-text).

A clinical note worth holding: clients who refuse to share the second part with anyone. That refusal is often the working material. Also: clients whose chosen others write back in ways that are unexpectedly cruel or dismissive. That happens, and it’s clinical information about the support system, not about the client.

In my-cbt, this is a system template. Assign it from the case file, customise the personal message, and the submission saves with a timestamp when the client submits. The repeating sections expand on screen instead of running out of room in a margin.