Thought glasses

How it works

1. Type one thought that keeps coming back, such as ‘I always get everything wrong’. It appears on the table as a note.
2. Choose a pair of glasses from the rack and put them on. Each pair shows the thought in a different way.
3. Do what the glasses ask: look closely at words, call witnesses, zoom out, play with the thought. You can put the glasses on in any order.
4. With the new glasses, you write the thought again, so that it is more honest or helps you more.
5. The glasses case shows what each pair of glasses showed you. Print it, copy it, or save it as a file.

The eight pairs of glasses

• The magnifying glasses make words light up that can point to a thinking trap, such as always, never and must.
• The courtroom glasses put the thought on trial. You call witnesses and give the verdict.
• The friend glasses let a good friend say your thought. What do you say back?
• The binoculars look ahead: how big is the thought in a week, a year, five years?
• The silly glasses play with the thought: tiny, upside down, as a scrolling sign or said by a duck.
• The river glasses are a calm exercise of almost three minutes: the thought floats along on a leaf.
• The helicopter glasses zoom out. What else is there in your day and your life?
• The new glasses help you write the thought again, and see how strongly you believe the old and the new one.

Where it comes from

The glasses come from cognitive behavioural therapy and from ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy). From cognitive behavioural therapy: spotting thinking traps, looking for facts, talking as you would to a friend and rewriting the thought. From ACT: stepping back from a thought, without fighting it. That is what the silly glasses and the river glasses do.

Thought glasses is not a treatment.

Together with a client

Place the tablet or laptop so that you can both see it. The person whose thought it is chooses the glasses and types. The printout goes home with them.

Good to know

• Everything works with the keyboard. You never need to drag anything.
• Have you turned on ‘reduced motion’ on your device? Then nothing moves by itself. The scrolling sign stands still, and you move the leaves on the river along yourself with a button.
• You can pause anything that moves. There is no time limit: you can stop the river exercise whenever you want.
• Are your thoughts very heavy, or do they keep you busy for a long time? Talk about it with someone you trust, with your GP or with a care worker.
• Are you thinking about suicide? Talk about it. At 113 Zelfmoordpreventie (the Dutch suicide prevention line) you can call or chat day and night, free and anonymously: call 113 or 0800-0113, or chat via 113.nl (external website). Are you in immediate danger? Call 112.

Your data

What you type stays in this page on your own device. Nothing is sent and nothing is saved in your browser. If you close or refresh the page, everything is gone.

• The file goes onto your device, in the place you choose. Everything you typed is in it. Open it again later with ‘Open a file’.
• Copying puts the text from the glasses case on your device’s clipboard. You choose where to paste it.
• If you choose ‘Save as PDF’ when printing, it is saved as a file on your device.