Core Beliefs Examples: 100+ CBT Beliefs and a Worksheet

These core beliefs examples are grouped the way cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) groups them: beliefs that you're helpless, unlovable or worthless, plus beliefs about other people and the world, each with the rules and habits that tend to grow from it. After the negative core beliefs list come balanced alternatives a client can actually believe, and a printable core beliefs worksheet in five parts that ends with a two-week positive data log.

The rest is for you: how core beliefs fit Beck's model, how to find one with the downward arrow (with a worked example), four ways to test and change one, how schema therapy's early maladaptive schemas differ, the cautions that matter, and how to write belief work up in a progress note.

Every client and every example in this article is invented. Any resemblance to a real person is a coincidence.

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What core beliefs are in CBT

In Aaron Beck's cognitive model, as Judith Beck sets it out in Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Basics and Beyond (third edition, 2020), thinking works at three levels. Her chapters "Cognitive Conceptualization", "Introduction to Beliefs" and "Modifying Beliefs" cover them in depth; here is the short version.

The psychologist Amy Wenzel defines core beliefs as "fundamental, inflexible, absolute, and generalized beliefs that people hold about themselves, others, the world, and/or the future" (Wenzel, 2012). People protect themselves from a painful core belief with coping strategies (older texts say compensatory strategies): over-preparing, avoiding, pleasing, checking. The strategies make sense given the belief, but they also stop it from ever being tested.

One chain, from core belief to behavior

Here is how the levels fit together for an invented client, Dana, a 38-year-old project manager in CBT for depression:

The cognitive triangle shows the bottom of this chain, the link between thoughts, feelings and behavior in one moment; our cognitive triangle worksheet is the simplest place to start a client on it. Core beliefs explain why the same kind of thought keeps coming back in very different moments. Wenzel describes clients who cope better with situational thoughts but "continue to experience the same thoughts, over and over again", and suggests unhelpful core beliefs as one explanation.

Where core beliefs come from

Core beliefs usually form from repeated experiences and messages, most often in childhood: how caregivers treated the child, what they said, bullying by peers, loss, illness, trauma, poverty or discrimination. Wenzel notes they develop "oftentimes during childhood but sometimes during times of substantial stress during adulthood." In the first study of the Negative Core Beliefs Inventory, scores on negative beliefs about the self and others correlated with reports of negative experiences in childhood, attachment styles, anxiety and depression (Osmo et al., 2018).

Beck's model also holds that most people carry fairly realistic, positive beliefs much of the time, and that negative core beliefs tend to be switched on during distress. That matters clinically: a client may hold "I'm incompetent" strongly when depressed and only weakly when well. A belief rating is a reading for this week, not a fixed trait.

Negative core beliefs list: examples by category

Judith Beck groups negative core beliefs about the self into three broad categories: helpless, unlovable and worthless (Basics and Beyond, 2020). Clients also hold core beliefs about other people and about the world. The Negative Core Beliefs Inventory study mentioned above gives some support to this structure: its factor analysis separated beliefs about the self from beliefs about others, and gave preliminary evidence that self beliefs split into helplessness/inferiority, helplessness/vulnerability, unlovability and worthlessness (Osmo et al., 2018).

The examples below are written the way clients tend to say them. Use them to help a client put words to a belief they're circling, or to check a hypothesis in your formulation. Don't hand the list to someone in their first session: reading "I'm unlovable" on a page can land as a verdict.

Helpless core beliefs

The helpless category covers beliefs about being incompetent, weak, trapped or not measuring up. In a Beck Institute post, Judith Beck describes "three subcategories of helplessness": believing one is ineffective "in getting things done", "in being able to protect oneself", and "as compared to others" (Beck, 2021).

About getting things done:

About protecting yourself:

About measuring up to others:

Rules and assumptions that often grow from a helpless belief:

Coping strategies you may see: perfectionism and over-preparing, procrastinating, avoiding challenges and new roles, depending on others for decisions, checking and reassurance seeking, or the opposite, refusing all help.

Unlovable core beliefs

The unlovable category covers beliefs about being unlikable, unwanted, unattractive or bound to be rejected or left. These often show up in relationships, including the relationship with you.

Rules and assumptions that often grow from an unlovable belief:

Coping strategies you may see: people-pleasing, hiding opinions and needs, reassurance seeking, avoiding closeness, ending relationships first, staying in relationships that hurt, or watching closely for signs of rejection.

Worthless core beliefs

The worthless category covers beliefs about being bad, unacceptable, undeserving or a burden. These are often the most painful to say out loud, and the most likely to come with shame.

Rules and assumptions that often grow from a worthless belief:

Coping strategies you may see: self-punishment and self-neglect, over-apologizing, refusing help or compliments, sabotaging good things, and in some clients self-harm.

Risk comes first. "I'm a burden", "I don't deserve to live" and "The future is hopeless" are risk statements before they are core beliefs. When a client says one, ask directly about thoughts of suicide, follow your setting's risk policy, and use a safety plan where it fits. Belief work can wait until the client is safe.

Core beliefs about other people

Core beliefs about the world and the future

Some of these can describe a client's real experience. Someone living with violence, racism, poverty or an unsafe home may be right that some people will hurt them and that some places aren't safe. With these beliefs, test the scope ("everyone", "always", "nothing") and what the belief costs the client, never the reality of what happened to them.

One belief, more than one category

The same words can belong to different categories, and the category changes the work. Ask "not good enough for what?" or "what makes you a failure?"

"Defective", "different" and "a failure" work the same way. Write the client's meaning in your formulation, not only the words.

Positive core beliefs examples: balanced alternatives

The goal of belief work isn't to swap "I'm incompetent" for "I'm brilliant." Clients don't believe slogans, and an extreme new belief breaks the first time something goes wrong. A useful alternative is:

Helpless alternatives:

Unlovable alternatives:

Worthless alternatives:

Alternatives about other people and the world:

Core beliefs worksheet: looking at one belief

Looking at a core belief: a worksheet in five parts

A core belief is a deep idea about yourself, other people or the world that you've carried for a long time. Because it's old and familiar, it can feel like the truth rather than an opinion. This sheet helps you look at one belief closely: where it came from, what it leaves out, and what a fairer version might be.

Do Parts 1 and 2 with your therapist the first time. Strong feelings are normal with this kind of work. Take breaks, and stop if you need to.

Part 1. Find the belief

Start from a recent moment that upset you, and follow the thought down.

Part 2. Where it came from

Beliefs like this usually make sense once you see where they started. For each part of your life, write what happened that seemed to teach you the belief, and what you would make of it now.

Part 3. Look at the evidence

A core belief collects the facts that seem to prove it and quietly drops the rest. Write down both kinds.

Facts the belief uses, and another way to understand each one:

Facts the belief leaves out: things I've done, handled or said, and ways people have treated me, that don't fit it.

Part 4. Write a more balanced belief

Aim for something fair and believable, not the opposite extreme. "I'm reasonably capable, and I'm still learning" works better than "I'm brilliant at everything."

Part 5. Positive data log for two weeks

An old belief notices everything that fits it. This log trains you to notice what fits the new one. Each day, write at least one thing: something you did or handled, or something someone said or did. Small things count, and tiny things are fine.

Bring this sheet to your next session, even if it's only half done. Old beliefs change slowly: a drop of 10 or 20 points is real progress. If working on it brings up thoughts of hurting yourself, stop and contact your therapist, or call or text 988 in the US.

End of the worksheet

How to find a core belief: the downward arrow

Wenzel traces the downward arrow technique to Beck, Rush, Shaw and Emery's 1979 manual, Cognitive Therapy of Depression, "subsequently elaborated upon by Burns (1980)"; David Burns calls it the vertical arrow in Feeling Good. You take one automatic thought, assume for the moment that it's true, and keep asking what it would mean until you reach a belief so basic that it has no further meaning behind it (Wenzel, 2012).

Clues that a core belief is nearby

Steps

Three directions for the questions

Our Socratic questioning examples include more meaning questions, with the same advice: wait for a solid alliance, and go gently.

A worked example: Dana, session 9

Dana (invented) brought a thought record from the night her director asked to talk about the Henley project. Her hot thought was "She's going to tell me I've ruined it", believed at 90 out of 100.

Therapist: I'd like to try something different with this thought. Instead of testing it, let's assume for a minute it's true and see where it leads. Is that okay?

Dana: Okay.

Therapist: Suppose she does think you've ruined the project. What would that mean?

Dana: That I can't handle a project this size.

Therapist: And if you couldn't handle it, what would that mean about you?

Dana: That I've been faking it. I'm not as capable as everyone thinks.

Therapist: And if that were true, what would it say about you?

Dana: (quiet) That I'm incompetent. When it matters, I can't do it.

Therapist: Is there anything underneath that, or is that the bottom of it?

Dana: That's it. That's the thing I always think.

Therapist: How much do you believe "I'm incompetent" right now, from 0 to 100?

Dana: Right now, 85. When I'm calm, maybe 60.

What the therapist noticed and did:

How to test and change core beliefs

Set realistic expectations with yourself and the client. Wenzel writes that core beliefs "are almost never modified after only one session", that there is "no step-by-step procedure for working with core beliefs", and that clients may feel a temporary rise in symptoms between sessions while a belief is being worked on. Most therapists combine methods to fit the formulation. Judith Beck's chapter "Modifying Beliefs" covers the methods in depth; four common ones are below.

Two habits help with every method:

1Evidence logs: the old belief and the new one

The client lists the facts the old belief relies on and, with you, finds another way to understand each one. Then they list facts that support the new belief. Over several weeks, the second list grows and the first gets reframed.

For Dana, "I missed a deadline in March" became "I missed one deadline in March, during the week my father was in hospital, and told my team two days ahead." "My director checks my reports" became "My director checks everyone's reports; it's part of her job." The point isn't to argue the evidence away. It's to show that the belief reads ordinary events in the harshest possible way.

2The continuum

All-or-nothing beliefs ("I'm a failure", "I'm incompetent") leave no middle ground. The continuum puts the belief on a line from 0 to 100. Christine Padesky described continuum methods among her schema change techniques (Padesky, 1994), and Ian James and Stephen Barton wrote a full paper on the technique (James and Barton, 2004).

How Dana used it in session 11:

Watch for distorted criteria. If a client scores herself low for "has to check things", ask whether checking means incompetence or care.

3The positive data log

The client writes down, every day, small pieces of evidence that fit the new belief, the things the old belief would ignore. Padesky listed positive data logs among her methods for weakening old schemas and building new, more adaptive ones (Padesky, 1994). Part 5 of the worksheet above is a two-week version.

Tips that make it work:

4The historical test

The client reviews each period of their life (childhood, the teenage years, young adulthood, recent years) for evidence that seemed to support the old belief, reframes it, and looks for evidence that didn't fit. Padesky lists historical tests of schema among her methods, and Wenzel describes the same steps, ending with "a more balanced conclusion" about the belief. Part 2 of the worksheet starts this.

Dana's childhood entry was her father calling her "scatterbrain" when she forgot homework. With the therapist's questions, she added that he was working two jobs at the time, and that forgetting homework at nine is ordinary. When she did her teenage years at home, she found evidence the belief had dropped: she ran the school newspaper for two years.

The historical test can bring up painful memories. Do it in session, at a pace the client chooses.

Other methods

Does core belief work help?

CBT as a whole has a large evidence base. The evidence for core belief work as a separate step is thinner: Wenzel notes the research data say little about whether it adds benefit "above and beyond" earlier work on automatic thoughts and behavior, and suggests, as her own view, that it may help consolidate change and prevent relapse. Padesky's 1994 paper describes its methods through case examples, not outcome studies. Track your own clients with belief ratings, the coping strategies they drop, and a measure such as the PHQ-9.

Core beliefs vs early maladaptive schemas

In Beck's CBT, "schema" and "core belief" are often used almost interchangeably; the abstract of Padesky's 1994 paper opens with "Schemas are core beliefs." Jeffrey Young's schema therapy uses the term early maladaptive schema for something broader. Here is how the two differ, in our words:

The 18 schemas, in the five domains of Young, Klosko and Weishaar's 2003 book. A 2022 meta-analysis notes that newer versions of the model, including Bach, Lockwood and Young's 2018 revision, group them into four domains instead (Thimm, 2022).

Rough overlaps with Beck's categories, which are our reading rather than an official mapping: unlovable beliefs sit close to abandonment, emotional deprivation, social isolation and defectiveness/shame; helpless beliefs close to dependence/incompetence, vulnerability and failure; worthless beliefs close to defectiveness/shame and punitiveness.

Schema therapy's questionnaires, such as the Young Schema Questionnaire, are copyrighted, so we don't reproduce their items; get them from the rights holder with any training you take. Consider schema therapy, or a referral to someone trained in it, when beliefs stay strong after a good course of standard CBT, when the same relationship patterns repeat over many years, or when a personality disorder is part of the picture.

Cautions before you start belief work

How to document core belief work in a progress note

Name the belief in the client's words, the method, the ratings before and after, the homework and how it ties to a treatment plan goal. "Worked on core beliefs" tells a reviewer almost nothing. "Continuum exercise on core belief 'I'm incompetent' (gut belief 85 to 60/100); client defined her own criteria for competence at work and re-rated herself from 20 to 65" shows exactly what happened.

What to record:

A BIRP note for Dana's session 12 (invented). Our BIRP note examples explain each section if you use a different format:

Phrases that work in any format:

Should you keep the client's completed worksheet? HIPAA defines psychotherapy notes as notes "recorded (in any medium) by a health care provider who is a mental health professional" and kept separate from the rest of the record (45 CFR 164.501). A sheet the client filled in doesn't fit that definition, so if you keep a copy, treat it as part of the clinical record and follow your setting's records policy. Our guide to psychotherapy notes vs progress notes explains the difference, and the progress notes cheat sheet has more CBT intervention and response words. For where core beliefs sit in a full written formulation, see our case conceptualization examples.

How this works in TranqBay

TranqBay is practice software for therapists in private practice: a practice website, online booking, video sessions and session notes in one place. Here is where core belief work fits.

At practice.tranqbay.health you can browse the website designs made for therapy practices and see the booking page your clients would use, before you set anything up.

Frequently asked questions about core beliefs

Before your next session

Pick one client whose thought records keep circling the same theme. Read their last three records, write down your best guess at the core belief, and try the downward arrow on one hot thought in session, leaving at least 15 minutes. If a belief comes up, send the worksheet home with Part 1 done together and Part 5 ready to start.

If you also want booking, video sessions and session notes in one place, see how TranqBay works for private practice: you can look at a practice website design and the booking page your clients would use. If you're deciding whether to join, this page explains how joining TranqBay works.

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