Problem solving

Problem solving is the worksheet you reach for when the client’s distress is attached to an actual external problem rather than a distortion in how they’re thinking about a situation. A job decision, a relationship rupture, a financial squeeze, a logistics tangle — the work is choosing an action, not restructuring a belief. D’Zurilla and Goldfried formalized the five-stage Social Problem-Solving Therapy model in 1971, and the structure has held up. Most modern problem-solving worksheets follow the same skeleton.

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The five stages

Five sections in the renderer, each one a stage.

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Define the problem

Three fields:

• The problem (concrete, specific, in your own words)
• What you want to happen
• What is in the way

The first field forces concreteness. I’m unhappy at work doesn’t define a problem; my manager keeps changing my deliverables on Friday afternoons does. The clinical work in this section is often just slowing down enough to get specific.

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Possible options (no filtering yet)

Five string fields, one per option. The deliberate constraint is that filtering doesn’t happen yet. The client generates options without evaluating them — including options they think are bad. The brainstorm stage is where most problem-solving fails: clients filter as they brainstorm and end up with two safe options, both of which they’ve already rejected internally. The five slots cap is intentional. More than five and the brainstorm becomes the work; fewer than five and clients stop before they’ve reached the edge-case options that often produce the actual answer.

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Evaluate

One large textarea — pros, cons, costs, fit with your values. The values mention is the link to ACT — for clients who’ve done values clarification work, the evaluation lens has more depth.

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Pick and plan

Three fields:

• Option you’re going to try
• The first concrete step
• When

The first concrete step is the field most worksheets skip. A client who picked an option but didn’t name the first concrete step usually doesn’t act. Naming the step turns the chosen option into a behavior.

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Review (after you try)

Three fields:

• What actually happened
• What worked
• What to adjust next time

The review stage closes the loop. Even when the chosen option didn’t solve the problem, the review surfaces the data for the next iteration.

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When to use it

• Discrete external problems. Clearly identifiable, action-amenable. Job choices, conflict resolution, decision paralysis.
• Depression maintenance via avoidance. Depressed clients often face a stack of small problems they can’t sequence; the worksheet provides the structure that depression has flattened.
• GAD with excessive worry without action. Clients who can list every possible bad outcome but don’t act on any of them benefit from the forced concreteness of the define-and-act stages.

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In-session mechanics

Templates → Problem solving, the renderer opens with all five sections collapsed by default. In a single session you typically fill the first four stages (define, options, evaluate, pick) and leave review empty. In the next session you reopen the same response and fill review together. The whole worksheet copies to clipboard from the response detail. Pasted into the session note, it becomes the action-plan record.

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Citation

D’Zurilla, T. J., & Goldfried, M. R. (1971). “Problem solving and behavior modification.” Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 78(1): 107-126. D’Zurilla, T. J., & Nezu, A. M. (2007). Problem-Solving Therapy: A Positive Approach to Clinical Intervention (3rd ed.). Springer. The five-stage model is published clinical method, uncopyrightable. All field labels and prompts are original to Rivet.

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When not to use it

• The “problem” is a cognitive distortion. I’m a failure isn’t a problem to be solved; it’s a thought to be restructured. The thought record is the right worksheet.
• The client is in acute crisis. Problem solving requires a regulated state to engage. If the client is in active suicidal crisis or overwhelmed, stabilize first (grounding, safety plan, risk assessment).
• The “problem” is values misalignment. Values clarification is the worksheet for I’m spending my life on things I don’t care about; problem solving comes after the values work has identified where the gap is.

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