The Handbook of Counselling Psychology
Fourth Edition
Examples of Socratic Questions
During assessment to help the client formulate problems:
- When you felt terrified, what went through your mind?
- What did that mean to you?
- What is the worst that might happen?
When looking for alternative ways of thinking:
- Is there a different way of seeing things?
- How helpful is it to think that way?
- Are there situations where this is not the case?
- What would you say to a friend in this situation?
- If you were not feeling so low, how might you interpret this?
When solving problems:
- What else could you do?
- What have you tried in the past?
- How have you coped with this before?
When working out behavioural experiments to test out beliefs:
- How could you test that out?
- What do you predict might happen?
- If the worst happened, what could you do?
When ending therapy:
- What have you learned in therapy?
- What’s been helpful, and unhelpful?
- What setbacks might you meet?
- What will you do then?