Free Behavioural Activation Worksheet: Values-Linked Activity Scheduling and TRAP/TRAC Avoidance Analysis
Depression · CBT · Manualised
A structured behavioural activation worksheet built on the functional-analytic model of depression, not the older pleasant-activity scheduling grid it is often confused with. It combines baseline activity and mood monitoring, TRAP/TRAC avoidance analysis and values-linked activity scheduling, with adaptations for ADHD and autistic clients built in rather than added on afterwards.
Underlying mechanism: Response-Contingent Positive Reinforcement and Avoidance Function
What it helps with
- Recording a baseline week of activity alongside mood and mastery ratings, so early progress shows up even when mood has not moved yet.
- Identifying TRAP patterns: the Trigger, the emotional Response and the Avoidance Pattern behind a collapsed day, including cognitive avoidance such as rumination.
- Building TRAC alternatives: small, concrete, observable actions that re-engage with a trigger instead of escaping it.
- Linking activities to personal values rather than to predicted enjoyment, which matters when anhedonia makes enjoyment hard to predict.
- Grading a weekly schedule from the easiest activities upward, with a barriers column that feeds directly into the next session.
How clinicians use it
- Introduce after socialising the client to the BA model and after one week of baseline monitoring, so the plan rests on the client's own data rather than on advice.
- Complete the first TRAP/TRAC example together in session. Clients usually name the trigger and the feeling on their own; naming the avoidance function of a behaviour that feels reasonable is where a clinician is most needed.
- For ADHD clients, swap the hour-by-hour grid for three or four fixed check-in points a day, and let ratings be a quick circle on a 0-10 scale instead of free writing.
- For autistic clients, keep the wording literal and concrete, offer a written or symbol-based mood scale as an alternative to numbers, and agree the schedule's structure in advance rather than changing it session to session.
- Where activation is very low, start with one scheduled activity a day rather than a full grid. An unmet plan is another failure experience, not useful data.
- Review activity and mastery ratings across weeks as outcome data alongside a session-by-session depression measure. Activity often improves before mood does, and that lag is worth naming to the client as progress rather than as the treatment not working.
Clinical Implementation Guide
- Baseline first: one week of monitoring before any activity is scheduled, so the client's own data drives the plan.
- Rate mastery as well as mood: mastery often moves first and gives the client evidence when mood does not.
- Adapt the format before adapting the demand: fewer check-in points, circled ratings and literal wording keep the tool accessible for ADHD and autistic clients without lowering what it asks of them.
What the worksheet looks like
| Check-in / Time Block | Activity | Mood (0-10) | Mastery (0-10) | Avoidance Pattern? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morning | Stayed in bed after the alarm, scrolled phone. | 3 | 1 | Yes: avoided getting up because the day felt too big to start. |
| Midday | Made lunch, ate at the table. | 5 | 4 | No. |
| Afternoon | Cancelled a walk with a friend by text. | 2 | 1 | Yes: avoided a plan that felt effortful in the moment. |
| Evening | Watched TV, left the washing up undone. | 4 | 2 | Partial: chose the lower-effort option over the planned task. |
Clinical cautions
Behavioural activation is not a substitute for risk assessment; depression severe enough to warrant BA warrants routine monitoring of suicidal ideation, intent and plan. Where withdrawal is maintained by a genuinely depriving or unsafe environment, such as poverty, an unmanageable caring load or an unsafe home, activity scheduling can misread a rational response as a symptom, so formulate the environment before scheduling around it. Fatigue-limited presentations, including post-viral conditions and ME/CFS, need pacing rather than graded increase; the two approaches are not interchangeable and this worksheet is not designed for fatigue-based presentations. This worksheet is a clinical template for use by qualified practitioners within a formulation-led treatment plan. It does not diagnose any condition and is not a substitute for individual therapy or for emergency crisis support.
References
- Martell, C. R., Dimidjian, S., & Herman-Dunn, R. (2010). Behavioral activation for depression: A clinician's guide. Guilford Press.
- Dimidjian, S., Hollon, S. D., Dobson, K. S., et al. (2006). Randomized trial of behavioral activation, cognitive therapy, and antidepressant medication in the acute treatment of adults with major depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74(4), 658-670.
- Richards, D. A., Ekers, D., McMillan, D., et al. (2016). Cost and outcome of behavioural activation versus cognitive behavioural therapy for depression (COBRA): a randomised controlled non-inferiority trial. The Lancet, 388(10047), 871-880.
Part of
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Foundations