Support system worksheet
For therapists, a weekly mood tracker is a simple yet effective tool to gain insights into a client’s mood.
This article provides an overview of weekly mood charts, their benefits, sample weekly mood trackers, and different ways you can use them with your clients in therapy sessions.
We’ve also included a free downloadable weekly mood tracker PDF that therapists can save to their electronic health record (EHR) and use in their practice.
What is a weekly mood chart?
A weekly mood chart is a tool that can be used by individuals, therapists, parents, and educators to monitor a range of mental health conditions and mood, including depression, anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), borderline personality disorder, premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
While weekly mood trackers vary, depending on whether they’re specific to a mental health disorder, like bipolar disorder, they often contain information such as:
Day and time
Type of mood
Intensity
An activity log or note describing the activity, environment, or situation
Energy levels
Sleep quality, hours, and disturbances (including nightmares)
Movement
What are the benefits of using a weekly mood tracker?
The use of weekly mood trackers has many benefits, including:
Gain awareness of triggers: Clients can identify if certain events, situations, or daily habits influence their emotions, moods, or behavioral patterns.
Support cognitive restructuring: By understanding the connection between thoughts, feelings, emotions, and behaviors, therapists can help clients reframe unhelpful thoughts and patterns of behavior.
Track progress: Clients and clinicians can monitor mental health and well-being progression over time, which can inform treatment planning.
Gather medication data: A weekly mood chart can help monitor medication adherence, symptoms, and side effects, and determine the effectiveness of medication.
Informs diagnosis: Regular mood tracking helps to gather data about the range of symptoms experienced and their impact on one's life.
To support trauma recovery: Mood charts can help clients gain insight by offering the opportunity to reflect on the impact of PTSD, and increase awareness of rumination or avoidant symptoms, undesirable thoughts, and nightmares.
Improves communication: Increased awareness of triggers, moods, and self-management factors may improve communication with clients in their relationships and prompt them to ask for more support and understanding.
Aids early intervention: Mood tracking can help to notice warning signs of relapse or crisis before symptoms escalate.
Encourages healthy habits: Tracking sleep, diet, exercise, and coping strategies supports self-awareness and motivates healthy behaviors.
Empowers individuals: By tracking their health goals and mood, clients are more empowered to manage their mental health.
Different types of weekly mood charts
There are several different types of weekly mood trackers, including:
Mood chart for kids
A mood chart for kids may include a facial expression chart to help kids identify their feelings and a note section to expand on them as appropriate.
Bipolar mood chart
A mood chart for a client with bipolar disorder may include their mood, mood change rating, events or triggers, sleep quality and hours, medication adherence, energy levels, and notes.
Daily mood chart
This daily mood chart tracker is used for adults and includes space to track their mood, energy level, exercise, sleep, and relevant comments.
Depression mood chart
This type of weekly mood tracker gathers information on depressive symptoms and helps clients by providing more data on the situations impacting their mood.
Anxiety mood tracker
Weekly mood charts can identify internal and external triggers causing an increase in stressors and symptoms of anxiety and the related thoughts and negative beliefs. The data provides an opportunity to discuss support strategies and interventions in therapy.
How to use the weekly mood tracker (printable)
You can download and use the weekly mood tracker in several ways.
For instance, print or screen share the worksheet as a psychoeducational session prompt.
You can also use the weekly mood chart as a session check-in based on the client’s self-report.
Another option is to give the weekly mood tracker to the client to remind them of what you discussed during therapy. Then, ask the client to complete the weekly mood chart between sessions and report their findings at their next therapy appointment.
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