Free Three Systems Worksheet: Mapping Threat, Drive and Soothing in CFT

What it helps with

• Drawing three circles sized to reflect how dominant each system has been over a recent period, so the proportional judgement itself becomes the assessment.
• Recording what triggers the threat system, what emotions and body sensations arrive with it, and the protective behaviours it drives.
• Recording what the client strives for and whether that striving is linked to their values or recruited by threat, since threat-driven striving looks like motivation but functions as avoidance.
• Recording moments of genuine contentment or safeness, who the client feels safe with, and what gets in the way of feeling soothed.
• Naming one system to grow over the coming week, linked to a specific practice rather than a general intention.

How clinicians use it

• Introduce as the opening formulation in CFT, after initial assessment and before any compassionate-mind training, since it supplies the treatment rationale the later exercises depend on.
• Draw it collaboratively on paper or a whiteboard first. A pre-filled sheet handed over as homework loses most of the effect, because the proportional drawing is part of the assessment.
• Where the client recoils from soothing-system work, treat that as expected clinical data in shame-driven presentations, not as an implementation failure, and slow down rather than push through it.
• For clients who find open body-sensation questions hard to answer, including some autistic clients, offer a short checklist of common sensations for each system rather than an open "what do you notice" prompt.
• For clients who find drawing to scale effortful or anxiety-provoking, including some clients with motor coordination differences, offer a pre-drawn set of three same-sized circles to label and shade instead of drawing freehand.
• Re-draw the circles at review so change in proportion becomes a visible outcome measure. Clients who dispute progress on a symptom score often accept a shift they can see.

Clinical Formulation Guide

1. Size before you label: ask the client to draw the three circles to scale first, and treat the proportions themselves as the finding.
2. Check whether drive is values-linked or threat-recruited: striving to avoid self-attack functions as avoidance even though it looks like motivation.
3. Offer a checklist or a pre-drawn template as an alternative to open questions and freehand drawing where either is a barrier, without changing what the exercise asks of the client.

What the worksheet looks like

Clinical cautions

The three systems model is a shared formulation and psychoeducation tool, not a diagnostic or assessment instrument, and the circles carry no scoring or cut-offs. Introduce it collaboratively, since its de-shaming function depends on being drawn with the client rather than delivered to them. Compassion-focused work reliably surfaces fear of compassion, grief and early affiliative material. For a client in acute crisis, or where trauma or dissociative presentations are prominent, prioritise stabilisation and safety planning, and proceed with soothing-system work only within an established therapeutic relationship. This worksheet supports face-to-face psychological therapy delivered by a qualified practitioner. It does not diagnose any condition and is not a crisis resource.

References

1. Gilbert, P. (2014). The origins and nature of compassion focused therapy. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 53(1), 6-41.
2. Gilbert, P. (2009). The compassionate mind: A new approach to life's challenges. New Harbinger Publications.
3. Gilbert, P. (2010). Compassion focused therapy: Distinctive features. Routledge.

Part of

Compassion-Focused Therapy Foundations

Related worksheets

• Avoidance Cycle Worksheet
• Behavioural Activation Worksheet
• Values Clarification Worksheet