Anxiety Lesson 2: Socratic self-questioning

Difficulty level: easy to moderate

Frequency: Whenever you’re feeling stressed

Duration: 2-5 minutes

How to do it

Socratic self-questioning is a method used to challenge irrational negative thought patterns. It helps you hit pause on the brain’s auto-pilot system, getting you to realize that many of your stresses are exaggerated, unlikely to occur, or the result of cognitive distortions (1). Follow the steps below:

1. Consider the thought: Write down the thought that is causing you stress and that you suspect is irrationally based. Note, work on a single thought at a time. The one you choose can be related to the biggest pain point in your business/life at the moment or you canstart with something smaller that is bothering you. For example, someone might write down the thought “Preparing for this presentation is pointless … it’s bound to be a complete failure.”
   
   
2. Weigh the evidence: Try to find evidence both for and against the thought. Be as balanced as possible in weighing the evidence. Think of it like a legal counsel would in a court case. What’s the evidence that the thought is accurate? And what’s the evidence that it’s not? Make no assumptions. Be an impartial judge, and “throw out” any evidence that is questionable or biased. Keep only the information that is clear and objective. When questioning the thought, ask yourself questions like, ‘Are there times when this situation won’t lead to a bad outcome? Do you have past experiences that don’t seem to fit the thought?’
   
   
3. Fact or feeling check: go back to the thought now with the evidence laid out in front of you. Form a judgment of the thought: Is it a fact or a feeling?
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   • More supporting evidence verifying the thought as real = fact
   • More questioning evidence challenging the thought as real = feeling
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4. Engage in Socratic questioning to do a deep-dive on these facts/feelings. Ask yourself and answer the following questions for each fact and/or feeling:
   

Engage in Socratic questioning to do a deep-dive on these facts/feelings. Ask yourself and answer the following questions for each fact and/or feeling:

• Are you engaging in black-and-white thinking or oversimplifying something that’s actually quite complex?
• Are you making it an “all-or-nothing” scenario?
• Are you discounting positive information and/or focusing only on negative information?
• Are you automatically going to the worst-possible outcome?

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For feelings: Most stresses are feelings, not facts. Let’s just say, for example, that if a person is set to miss Q3’s target numbers, the eventual outcome doesn’t necessarily predict a long-term failure for your business (e.g., worst-case thinking). Or, another example, if there’s a rift in a person’s team, it doesn’t necessarily mean the overall culture is broken (e.g., all-or-none thinking).

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For facts: And in the cases where the stress is based in fact, you’re likely still exaggerating the truth and extending the logical boundaries. For example, one person being upset at you doesn’t mean that everybody in your life is upset at you.

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Why you should try it:

• Improves mood and reduces stress (2)
• Alters mindsets through verbal shaping (3)
• Fosters engagement and critical thinking (4)
• Broadens perspectives (5)

The research

The Socratic type questioning method is considered by many researchers and clinicians to be the cornerstone of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) (6, 7). As the name suggests, the technique is inspired by the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. In this line of questioning, the person already has the ability to arrive at an answer – although he or she might not realize it. But it’s only through such questioning that this insight is arrived at. The purpose, as it was back then and still is now, is to gain new insights through asking probing questions that challenge prior assumptions and faulty beliefs.

It was famously documented by David Burns (8) when he wrote: “Through a process of thoughtful questions, you discover on your own the beliefs that defeat you.” Once you realize that you were the one standing in your own way, you gain power over the thoughts that were causing the issue in the first place.

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How it works

The feelings of anxiety and stress start with your automatic thought patterns. You have anywhere between 12,000 and 60,000 thoughts every single day, the vast majority happening beyond your conscious control. When certain thoughts fail to be questioned, they turn into automatic beliefs. These beliefs, if negative, then feed your anxiety and stress. It’s true even if they’re illogical or irrational.

The natural default response is to “find” and confirm the evidence that backs up a belief you already hold; and this is usually in support of the negative.

By scrutinizing certain automatic assumptions and calling into question your thoughts, you initiate a ‘changing minds’ perspective that invalidates their meaning. And once these are challenged, it creates a psychological placeholder for alternative mental frameworks that are more realistic, adaptive, and functional (9).

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The evidence: 

1. Butler, A. C., Chapman, J. E., Forman, E. M., & Beck, A. T. (2006).
   The empirical status of cognitive-behavioral therapy: A review of meta-analyses.
   Clinical Psychology Review, 26, 17-31.
   
2. Braun, J. D., Strunk, D. R., Sasso, K. E., & Cooper, A. A. (2016).
   Therapist use of Socratic questioning predicts session-to-session symptom change in cognitive therapy for depression.
   Behavioral Res Therapy, 70, 32-37.
   
3. Calero-Eliva, A., Frojan-Parga, M. X., Ruiz-Sancho, E. M., & Alpanes-Freitag, M. (2013).
   Descriptive study of the Socratic method: evidence for verbal shaping.
   Behavioral Therapy, 44, 625-638.
   
4. Neenan, M. (2009).
   Using Socratic questioning in coaching.
   Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive Behavior Therapy, 27, 249-264.
   
5. Overholser, J. C. (1993).
   Systematic questioning.
   Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 30, 67-74.
   
6. Padesky, C. (1993).
   Socratic questioning: changing minds or guiding discovery?
   Keynote address at the European Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies.
   
7. Beck A. T.,, Rush A. J., Shaw B. F., & Emery G. (1979).
   Cognitive Therapy of Depression.
   New York, NY: Guilford.
   
8. Burns, D. B. (1980).
   Feeling good: The new mood therapy.
   Harper: New York.
9. Teasdale J. D. (1988).
   Cognitive vulnerability to persistent depression.Cognition and Emotion, 2, 247–274.