CBT Treatment Planning & Goal Setting 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which goal-writing framework ensures CBT treatment goals are observable and time-bound?
- SMART goals (Correct answer)
- SOAP notes
- ABC model
- PIE charting
Correct answer: SMART goals
SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) are the standard framework for writing verifiable CBT treatment goals.
Question 2: A client with panic disorder refuses to include exposure tasks in the treatment plan. The most appropriate CBT response is to:
- Accept the refusal and omit exposure entirely
- Insist on exposure because evidence demands it
- Collaboratively explore the refusal and negotiate a graduated approach (Correct answer)
- Refer the client to another therapist
Correct answer: Collaboratively explore the refusal and negotiate a graduated approach
Collaborative empiricism guides CBT therapists to explore client reluctance and co-create an acceptable, graduated exposure hierarchy rather than forcing or abandoning the evidence-based intervention.
Question 3: When prioritizing treatment targets in a complex case with comorbid depression and social anxiety, the CBT principle is to:
- Treat the diagnosis with the longest history first
- Target whichever disorder the client finds most distressing or functionally impairing (Correct answer)
- Always treat depression before anxiety
- Follow insurance authorization order
Correct answer: Target whichever disorder the client finds most distressing or functionally impairing
CBT prioritizes the problem causing the greatest distress or functional impairment, collaboratively determined with the client.
Question 4: Which tool is MOST commonly used in CBT to operationalize a client's long-term goal into session-level tasks?
- Genogram
- Problem list with subgoals (Correct answer)
- Free association log
- Rorschach scoring
Correct answer: Problem list with subgoals
A hierarchical problem list breaks long-term goals into measurable subgoals and specific session-level tasks, making progress trackable.
Question 5: Functional analysis in CBT treatment planning primarily helps the therapist:
- Diagnose the DSM category
- Understand the antecedents, behaviors, and consequences maintaining the problem (Correct answer)
- Select the appropriate medication
- Determine insurance reimbursement level
Correct answer: Understand the antecedents, behaviors, and consequences maintaining the problem
Functional analysis (ABC analysis) identifies antecedents, behaviors, and consequences to reveal the contingencies maintaining a target problem.
Question 6: A treatment plan goal states: 'Client will feel less anxious.' The primary problem with this goal is that it is:
- Too ambitious
- Not measurable or specific (Correct answer)
- Focused on the wrong disorder
- Too short-term
Correct answer: Not measurable or specific
Goals must be specific and measurable; 'feel less anxious' cannot be objectively verified or tracked across sessions.
Question 7: In CBT, the concept of 'treatment focus' refers to:
- The number of sessions allocated
- The central problem or mechanism targeted to produce the most therapeutic change (Correct answer)
- The therapist's theoretical orientation
- The diagnosis listed on Axis I
Correct answer: The central problem or mechanism targeted to produce the most therapeutic change
Treatment focus identifies the core maintaining mechanism (e.g., avoidance, rumination) whose change will produce the broadest improvement.
CBT Treatment Planning & Goal Setting 2
Which goal-writing framework ensures CBT treatment goals are observable and time-bound?