Free CBT practice tools for everyone

Learn the skill.
Practise with confidence.
Move forward.

ThoughtForward is a free collection of practical CBT exercises and learning games designed to help people build healthier thinking habits—privately, at their own pace, on their own device.

Open the free toolkit Become a Clinical Partner
Free for individuals Privacy first Clinician supported
Your private toolkit What would help today?
Reflect
🌱Thought Garden
🌳Worry Tree
⚖️Decision Balance
Practise
🧪Prediction Lab
👣Small Steps
Play & Learn
🧠Patterns
🔎Evidence
💗Emotions
Entries stay on this device
No account required
Free because people care

Powered by community. Guided by clinicians. Free for everyone.

Why ThoughtForward exists

Healthy thinking takes practice. Access should not depend on income.

Therapy sessions end. Courses finish. Paper worksheets get misplaced. But the need to slow down, examine a thought, work through a worry, or take one manageable next step can appear at any time.

ThoughtForward keeps practical CBT skills close at hand. The toolkit is free to use, easy to revisit, and designed to support—not replace—professional care.

Open access

Anyone can use the core toolkit without a subscription, invitation, or paywall.

Privacy by design

Personal exercise content stays on the person’s device rather than in a shared clinical dashboard.

Clinician guidance

Clinical Partners help review ideas, vote on usefulness, and guide future improvements.

The free toolkit

A different tool for a different kind of moment

Reflect, practise, experiment, or learn through play. There is no account to create and no subscription to manage.

Thought Garden

Work through a complete thought record and create a more balanced response.

Helpful for: intense automatic thoughts

Worry Tree

Sort practical worries from hypothetical worries and choose what to do next.

Helpful for: looping worry and uncertainty

Decision Balance

Explore both sides of a difficult choice and identify a values-based next step.

Helpful for: uncertainty and ambivalence

Prediction Lab

Test an anxious prediction with a small, safe real-world experiment.

Helpful for: feared outcomes and avoidance

Small Steps

Break an overwhelming task into a manageable action and build momentum.

Helpful for: low motivation and feeling stuck

Thinking Pattern Trainer

Practise recognizing common thinking patterns through repeatable examples.

Helpful for: learning cognitive distortions

Evidence Detective

Separate facts, assumptions, feelings, predictions, and alternatives.

Helpful for: checking a story against evidence

Emotion Detective

Learn how situations, thoughts, emotions, body signals, urges, and actions connect.

Helpful for: understanding reaction chains

More tools are coming

Clinical Partners help decide what should be built next and how current tools can improve.

Help shape the roadmap →
Explore all free tools
Simple by design

Open a tool. Work through it. Keep moving.

1

Choose a tool

Pick the exercise or learning game that fits what is happening right now.

2

Practise privately

Follow the prompts at your own pace. There is no provider watching or scoring you.

3

Take the next step

Leave with a clearer thought, a useful experiment, or one manageable action.

Privacy first

Your personal work should remain personal.

ThoughtForward is intentionally designed so personal exercise content stays in the browser on your device. Clinical Partners help shape the public toolkit, but they cannot see what an individual writes, chooses, or scores.

No cloud journal. Personal entries are not stored in a clinic dashboard.

No account required. The core toolkit opens without a membership or invitation.

No advertising profile. ThoughtForward is not built around selling personal attention or private data.

Works like a private workbook. Your device holds your work unless you choose to remove it.

Clinical Partners

Help shape better free CBT tools.

ThoughtForward Clinical Partners are psychologists, counsellors, clinics, educators, and mental-health organizations that believe practical CBT resources should be available to everyone.

For $149 per year, partners help guide the roadmap while supporting the ongoing development of a free public toolkit.

Vote on the usefulness of proposed tools Suggest new exercises, games, and improvements Preview new tools before public release Download client handouts, QR cards, and posters Clinic logo and website link on the Partners page Founding Partner recognition during the launch year
Become a Clinical Partner Offer clinical feedback
Our Clinical Partners

Supported by people who believe access matters

Founding partner spaces are now open to Canadian clinics and mental-health professionals.

Your clinic could be hereBecome a founding Clinical Partner
Help guide the next toolVote, review, and suggest improvements
Support free accessKeep the public toolkit open to everyone
Our promise

ThoughtForward’s core CBT tools will remain free for individuals.

Clinical Partner memberships and community support help cover development, hosting, accessibility work, new tools, translations, and educational resources—without putting the core toolkit behind a paywall.

Community support

Help keep ThoughtForward free.

If the tools have helped you—or you simply believe practical CBT resources should be available to everyone—you can support future development with a one-time contribution.

ThoughtForward is an independent project, not a registered charity. Contributions are not charitable donations and do not receive tax receipts.

Buy development coffee$10 suggested support Support a new toolAsk about tool sponsorship Choose your amountEvery contribution helps
Common questions

Clear answers before getting started

ThoughtForward is built to be useful, private, and easy to understand.

Is ThoughtForward really free?

Yes. The core CBT practice tools are free for individuals, with no subscription or provider invitation required.

Is ThoughtForward therapy?

No. ThoughtForward is an educational skills-practice toolkit. It does not diagnose, monitor, treat, or replace professional medical or mental-health care.

Can a Clinical Partner see what I write?

No. Clinical Partners help shape the public toolkit, but they do not receive access to personal exercise content.

What does a Clinical Partner receive?

Partners can vote on proposed tools, suggest improvements, preview new releases, download client resources, and receive recognition on the Clinical Partners page.

Why accept community support?

Support helps cover hosting, development time, accessibility improvements, new tools, translations, and educational resources while keeping the core toolkit free.

Does ThoughtForward issue charitable tax receipts?

No. ThoughtForward is currently an independent project and not a registered charity. Community contributions are not tax-deductible donations.

ThoughtForward

Powered by community. Guided by clinicians. Free for everyone.

Choose a tool, practise a skill, and take the next step.

Open the free toolkit