A Course in CBT Techniques:
A Free Online CBT Workbook
by Albert Bonfil, PsyD, A-CBT
and Suraji Wagage PhD, JD
A Course in CBT Techniques: A Free Online CBT Workbook
This free online CBT workbook is a complete, self-paced course in cognitive behavioral therapy written by two doctoral-level CBT specialists. It moves through eight parts, from the cognitive-behavioral model of emotions to cognitive restructuring, behavioral activation, and exposure, and concludes with an appendix of printable CBT worksheets. Everything is free, everything is online, and it is designed to be used at home.
Part 1: Introduction to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: what CBT is, how it works, and what to expect.
Part 2: Getting Started with CBT: Setting Goals: turning vague hopes into workable, measurable targets.
Part 3: The Cognitive Behavioral Model of Emotions: how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors drive one another.
Part 4: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Your Mood: tracking mood and understanding what moves it.
Part 5: Identifying Automatic Thoughts in CBT: catching the split-second interpretations that shape how you feel.
Part 6: Cognitive Restructuring to Change Your Thinking: evaluating thoughts and building more accurate ones.
Part 7: Using CBT to Find Cognitive Distortions: evaluating thoughts and building more accurate ones.
Part 8: Opposite Action, Behavioral Activation, and Exposure: Leading with Behavior
Appendix: CBT Worksheets: the predictable ways thinking goes sideways, and how to spot yours.
Most schools of psychotherapy keep their methods behind the office door. What happens in session stays in session, and the therapist's technique remains, to the client, mostly invisible. Cognitive behavioral therapy took the opposite bet. From its earliest days, CBT was written down, structured into steps, and handed directly to the people using it. The theory being that a therapy built from learnable skills works better when the person learning them can see the whole playbook. This workbook is that playbook. It is the same material we teach in session, organized so you can work through it on your own, at your own pace.
Can You Do CBT on Your Own at Home?
For many people, yes, and this is not a loophole; it is how CBT was designed. Because cognitive behavioral therapy is a skills-based approach, much of its benefit comes from practicing specific techniques between sessions: recording thoughts, testing predictions, scheduling activity, and approaching what you've been avoiding. A workbook lets you run that practice loop yourself.
If you're using this workbook as self-guided CBT, three suggestions. Work in order; the parts build on each other, and cognitive restructuring makes far more sense once you understand the model behind it. Go slower than feels necessary: one part per week, with the worksheets actually filled out, beats reading the whole course in a weekend. And write things down. CBT done entirely in your head is CBT at half strength.
Self-guided CBT has real limits. If your symptoms are severe, if you're not safe, or if several weeks of honest practice haven't moved anything, that isn't a failure of effort. It's a sign you'd benefit from working with a therapist who can tailor these tools to your situation. For instance, at our treatment center, response prevention is one component of structured OCD treatment in Los Angeles, but is always incorporated into a larger treatment plan tailored by a licensed psychologist to our clients’ unique needs due to the complexity of OCD.
Does Online CBT Work for Anxiety?
Anxiety is where many readers start, and it's a good fit: CBT is a first-line, extensively researched treatment for anxiety disorders, and the core skills in this workbook (identifying anxious predictions, testing them, and approaching avoided situations gradually) are the same skills used in clinical anxiety treatment. Parts 5 through 8 do the heaviest lifting for anxiety: automatic thoughts and cognitive restructuring for the worry side, exposure and opposite action for the avoidance side.
Some anxiety problems deserve a more specialized protocol than a general workbook. If sudden surges of fear, racing heart, and a dread of the next episode are the main event, CBT for panic attacks extends the exposure skills from Part 8 into a treatment built specifically for panic.
Using CBT Skills for Low Mood and Depression
Depression pulls the same cognitive and behavioral levers in the other direction: thinking turns global and self-critical, and activity, the very thing that lifts mood, shrinks. Parts 4 and 8 address this directly. Mood tracking shows you the link between what you do and how you feel, and behavioral activation rebuilds the activity that depression has stripped away, even before motivation returns.
A workbook is a strong first step for mild low mood. For depression that is persistent or interfering with work, relationships, or sleep, structured treatment delivered by a mental health professional matters. Our psychologists provide depression therapy in Los Angeles from offices in Westwood/Brentwood and Pasadena, using the same evidence-based methods this workbook introduces.
Is This a CBT Course or Training?
The workbook is written as a course with sequential parts, exercises, cumulative skills, and therapists and students sometimes use it as a plain-language introduction to how CBT is actually structured. To set expectations honestly: it is a self-help course, not an accredited training program, and it does not carry a certificate. What it offers instead is the substance (i.e., the model, the techniques, and the worksheets) in the order a course of CBT treatment would teach them.
CBT Worksheets, Exercises, and Tools
Every part of the workbook pairs concepts with practice. The appendix gathers the full set of printable CBT worksheets, such as thought records, goal-setting forms, mood and activity logs, and exposure planning sheets. The exercises are easy to return to long after you've finished the reading. Think of the parts as the instruction and the worksheets as the tools; the combination is what makes a workbook different from a book.
Quick Facts About CBT
• Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most extensively studied forms of psychotherapy and is an evidence-based treatment for anxiety and depression, per the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
• CBT is typically structured and time-limited, often delivered over roughly 5–20 sessions, per the American Psychological Association (APA).
• Guided self-help based on CBT is recommended as an early step for mild depression and anxiety in stepped-care clinical guidelines such as those from the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
• This workbook contains eight sequential parts plus a printable worksheet appendix.
• It was written by two doctoral-level psychologists, including a diplomate of the Academy of Cognitive & Behavioral Therapies (A-CBT).
Additional Recommended Reading
If a particular problem brought you here, these guides apply the workbook's skills to specific conditions: CBT for Social Anxiety, CBT for Self-Esteem, CBT for Anxiety, CBT for OCD, CBT for GAD, and CBT for Depression. For deeper study, see Best CBT Books, CBT Interventions, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Techniques. Parents can start with CBT Therapy for Children and Teens.
If you'd rather work through this material with one of our therapists, Contact Us.
FAQ
Is there a free online CBT workbook?
Yes. This page is a complete free CBT workbook: eight sequential parts covering the CBT model, automatic thoughts, cognitive restructuring, and behavioral techniques, plus an appendix of printable worksheets. No sign-up or payment is required.
Can I do CBT by myself at home?
Many people can learn and practice core CBT skills at home using structured materials like this workbook, because CBT is built from teachable, practicable skills. Self-guided CBT works best for mild difficulties; severe or persistent symptoms are a reason to work with a trained therapist.
Does online CBT work for anxiety?
CBT is a first-line treatment for anxiety disorders, and its core skills, cognitive restructuring and gradual exposure, can be learned from structured online materials. For specific conditions such as panic disorder, a targeted protocol with professional guidance is often the better fit.
What is the difference between a CBT workbook and CBT worksheets?
A workbook is the full course, concepts, sequence, and instruction, while worksheets are the individual practice exercises used along the way. This workbook includes both: eight teaching parts and a printable worksheet appendix.
Do I need a certificate or training to use CBT techniques?
No. The techniques in this workbook are designed for personal use and require no credentials. Using CBT to treat others professionally, however, requires formal clinical training and licensure.
Authoritative resources: the National Institute of Mental Health’s overview of psychotherapies; the American Psychological Association’s patient guide to cognitive behavioral therapy; and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on depression in adults.