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Monitor and challenge the post-mortem rumination that follows social situations — a key maintenance factor in social anxiety.
After a social situation, people with social anxiety often conduct a detailed "post-mortem" — replaying the event, focusing on moments that felt awkward, and concluding it went worse than it actually did. This maintains anxiety by strengthening the negative self-image. Use this log to catch the rumination, identify the biases in it, and develop a more balanced perspective.
Use when post-event processing (post-mortem rumination) has been identified as a maintaining factor in the client's social anxiety formulation. Typically relevant after the client recognises that reviewing social events afterwards keeps anxiety alive rather than resolving it.
Explain that post-event processing feels like problem-solving but actually functions as a maintaining process that selectively retrieves negative information and reinforces the negative self-image. Use a recent example to illustrate how the review process distorts memory.
For clients who engage in extensive post-event processing, a brief interruption strategy (attention refocusing or a specific activity) may need to be introduced alongside the monitoring record. For clients with comorbid depression, distinguish post-event processing from depressive rumination.
Not suitable as a standalone intervention. Post-event processing reduction is most effective when combined with the broader Clark and Wells treatment protocol, including self-image work and behavioural experiments.
Help the client notice that post-event processing typically begins soon after a social event and escalates if unchecked. The record should capture not just the content of the processing but its duration, triggers for onset, and the client's emotional state before and after. This data helps demonstrate that the processing worsens rather than resolves distress.
Suitable for clients working with social anxiety, post-event processing, rumination, cbt, clark, wells, cognitive biases. This tool can be used as a standalone worksheet or as part of a structured homework plan.
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