Reinforcement
Schedules
Schedules
Sarah gets paid every two weeks, no matter how productive or unproductive she’s been at work. She tends to hustle right before payday.
Fixed interval (FI) schedule
Ella receives a gold star every time she turns in her homework on time. Over time, the stars become rewarding on their own, because she knows they lead to a trip to the prize box.
Secondary reinforcer
You're sipping your morning coffee without checking your email or thinking about your to-do list. This CBT strategy helps you protect that peaceful moment.
Worry Free Zone
When Maya feels a panic attack coming on, she practices deep breathing and muscle relaxation to manage her stress response. This CBT method teaches her to handle triggers better.
Stress inoculation training
Every night before bed, Priya writes down her thoughts about the day, including what happened, how she interpreted it, and how she felt emotionally. Her therapist reviews this with her to help identify unhelpful thinking patterns
CBT thought journal
Darnell plays a game app that gives him bonus points after an unpredictable number of clicks. Sometimes it’s 5, sometimes 15, but it averages out over time — and keeps him hooked.
Variable ratio (VR) schedule
Josh presses two vending machines. Machine A gives him a snack every 30 seconds, while Machine B gives him one every 15 seconds. He ends up using Machine B more often.
Matching law
Maria feels anxious before work meetings because she thinks she always messes up, but her therapist asks her to reflect on past outcomes, where she mostly did fine. This strategy helps correct skewed expectations.
Outcome Tracking
Every night, Jordan spends 10 minutes writing about his traumatic experiences and how they affect him today. It helps release bottled-up emotions and ease his anxiety.
Journaling
Marcus often thinks, “I always mess things up,” even when he’s done well. His therapist helps him recognize this type of thinking error that leads to unnecessary self-blame.
identifying cognitive distortions
At a local café, Amira gets a free drink every 10th visit. This reward keeps her coming back regularly.
Fixed ratio (FR) schedule
After randomly being praised for tapping his pencil, Amir now taps it before every test, thinking it brings him luck.
Superstitious behavior
When preparing for an exam, Jamal starts to panic about failing. Instead of spiraling, he redirects his brain to focus solely on reading the material in front of him.
Mental Spotlight
With her therapist, Lisa sets a goal to walk around the block every morning for the next two weeks to improve her mood. The goal is clear, realistic, and time-bound.
S.M.A.R.T. goal
To break out of his negative spiral, Diego starts writing down three good things that happened each day — no matter how small — to train his brain to notice the positives.
Practicing Gratituted
Jordan’s manager checks in at random times during the week, and he sometimes gets praised if he’s on task. Because the praise is unpredictable, he stays on task most of the time.
Variable interval (VI) schedule
A child only starts cleaning up when their teacher turns on a certain clean-up song. Over time, this song becomes a cue for that behavior.
Stimulus control?
Elena notices that every time she gets an email from her boss, she assumes she has done something wrong. Her therapist helps her map the triggering thought and replace it with a more balanced one.
Cognitive Restructuring
After months of avoiding grocery stores where her panic attacks first started, Tanya begins going once a week, gradually increasing her time there with support.
exposure tasks
After months of withdrawing from friends and hobbies, Rachel works with her therapist to schedule short walks, coffee outings, and painting sessions to reconnect with pleasurable moments.
scheduling pleasurable activities
Alicia knows her professor gives pop quizzes randomly, sometimes two days apart, sometimes ten. She studies a little each night just in case.
Variable interval (VI) schedule
At first, Maya needed her dad to remind her every night to brush her teeth. Eventually, she starts doing it on her own, even without reminders.
Fading a prompt
Every afternoon, Chris writes down all his worries — but only during his designated 5:00–5:15 p.m. “worry time.” The rest of the day, he postpones anxious thoughts until that time.
Worry timetabling
David has frequent flashbacks of combat. Instead of avoiding them, he uses a daily mindfulness routine to calm his nervous system and reduce intrusive thoughts.
Meditation
When a loved one says they feel like a burden and don’t want to go on, their friend asks this brave question, stays with them, and calls for help — following suicide prevention protocol.
“Are you considering suicide?”