Flip that Thought! A CBT Game - Challenge Negative Thoughts (ANTs), Group Therapy Activites

Explore thoughts. Find believable perspectives. Choose what comes next.

Flip That Thought! — Adult Edition is a printable CBT card game for adults 18+, primarily for therapist-led individual and group sessions.

Participants choose an everyday situation, identify a possible automatic thought and notice the feeling or urge that follows. They separate facts from assumptions, explore relevant evidence, develop a believable balanced perspective and choose a fitting next response.

A perspective can acknowledge a real problem and support practical help, a boundary, rest or acceptance. Matching perspectives are examples, not answer keys. Participants do not need to agree with a card or produce a more positive feeling to take part.

The five-step method

• Catch it: choose a situation and notice a possible automatic thought.
• Name it: name the feeling or urge; optionally identify a thinking pattern.
• Check it: separate facts from assumptions and explore the evidence.
• Flip it: develop a balanced perspective you can believe.
• Choose it: select a next response that fits the situation and person.

Inside your 59-page PDF

212 authored cards across eight decks:
• 40 Real-Life Situations.
• 40 Automatic Thoughts.
• 40 Balanced Perspectives.
• 12 Thinking Patterns.
• 24 Check the Evidence.
• 20 Feelings Check.
• 24 Helpful Next Steps.
• 12 Switch It Up.

Also includes 12 custom blank cards, excluded from the 212 authored-card total. The S / T / P decks contain 40 matched example sets, not 120 separate scenarios. All materials are within the 59 pages.

Guidance and practice supports

Thoughts/feelings/actions explanation, the five-step method, helpful-flip guidance, setup and standard-round instructions, a complete worked example, facilitator and stuck-point guidance, real-problem guidance, group agreements, a five-step play mat, My Thought Flip, My Next-Step Plan, Session Debrief, Take It Into the Week, a quick reference and print instructions.

Six play modes

• Guided Match: use matched examples with support through the five steps.
• Build Your Own Flip: create your own thought and balanced perspective for a situation.
• Same Situation, Different Stories: compare possible interpretations of one situation.
• Collaborative Round: explore a situation together.
• Switch It Up: introduce a variation using the challenge deck.
• From Card to Real Life: connect the practice with a suitable everyday situation.

Flexible, supported participation

Designed primarily for therapist-led individual and group sessions with adults 18+. Supported independent practice can follow a demonstration and an agreed support plan. Participants may use fictional material, write or speak, and pass. No personal disclosure is required.

This supplementary resource is not a crisis assessment tool and does not promise emotional improvement or a particular outcome. There are no points for disclosure, agreeing with a perspective or reducing a rating.

Print, cut and organise

US Letter portrait PDF, 8.5 × 11 inches. Print single-sided, test a sample and preserve all borders. Cut the cards, separate the eight decks and match S / T / P cards by number. Keep the example perspective hidden until participants have explored their own response. No printed backs, duplex alignment, board, tokens, timer or competitive score are needed. Digital product; no physical item is shipped.

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A Therapy Courses original.