Gratitude Tree Template

Importance of practicing gratitude

Positive psychology has long been exploring the benefits of practicing gratitude. Overall, decades of research have found that the five most important areas that gratitude is likely to benefit are emotional, social, personality, career, and health (Shah, 2021). Some examples of how gratitude practice can enhance aspects of your client's life are:

• Enhanced relationships
• Improvements in self-esteem
• Being able to have a better sleep
• Mindfulness
• Health benefits

Individuals can easily implement a gratitude routine into their everyday lives. If they simply want to highlight some things they are grateful for, they can make their own thankful tree utilizing a thankful tree craft. This craft allows them the creativity and means to identify certain positive aspects of their lives.

It may be difficult for individuals who are experiencing psychopathology to be thankful and identify positive things in their lives due to their mental health condition (Wood et al., 2010). There are a range of things that may be occurring in your client's life that may be making it difficult to be thankful and practice gratitude to it's full extent. Some examples are:

• Having a negative mindset
• Stress and anxiety
• Isolation

What is a gratitude tree (a.k.a. thankful tree)?

This free thankful tree printable is a fun activity that can be done inside or outside of therapy sessions. Clients utilize this activity by identifying things they are thankful for. Historically, gratitude trees are an activity that individuals craft themselves consisting of construction paper and paper leaves. This means individuals may have printable leaves they color, cut out, and glue onto a tree trunk. A gratitude tree may also be utilized by schools around Thanksgiving as a Thanksgiving craft to help kids identify what is meaningful to them ( a.k.a Thanksgiving tree). This not only can benefit the child, but the whole family.

Gratitude interventions are great activities to implement in therapeutic settings (Harbaugh & Vasey, 2014). Mental health professionals may utilize this activity during sessions with their clients to allow them to explore aspects of their lives that they are grateful for and possible opportunities for identifying steps moving forward. For example, a client may identify certain family members as an aspect of their life they are grateful for. In turn, therapists may guide interventions that include their family members.

The Gratitude Tree Template can serve as a helpful reminder to the client to write about the positive things in their life to move towards a more positive lifestyle and routine.

How does our Gratitude Tree Template work?

To incorporate our Gratitude Tree Template into your practice, just follow these steps:

Step 1: Access the Gratitude Tree Template

You can access this free printable thankful tree through the Carepatron website. From here, you can choose whether you want to use this document online or print it out for a physical copy. The online free printables version of this resource may be helpful for those who undertake online therapy sessions with clients.

Step 2: Work with your client

During this stage, you may want to suggest some examples that the client could be thankful for. Allow clients to fill in all the leaves of their thankful tree with thoughts. You may begin to talk about the things that they have identified to grasp an understanding of what they are thankful for. During this time, you may allow them to color the thankful leaves and tree.

There are options to make a gratitude tree to help individuals practice gratitude through art, supplies, and crafts. This thankful tree craft is a great activity for young children, who may find it awesome. Adults are also more than welcome to utilize this template. The template we have curated allows for the same fun through one simple document.

Step 3: Securely store on file

Finally, you may also want to keep a copy of this document on the patient's file. You can do this through the Carepatron app. This option is ideal for later reflection and even supports you in making a client progress document. It may also be a great idea to recommend that the client keep their copy so they have access to it even when they aren't in session for personal use.

Goals of gratitude tree exercises

Now that you have the essentials of using this template, let's take a look at what gratitude tree exercises can do for you and your client:

Encourage reflection

Practitioners may use ideas from a gratitude tree to encourage reflection for their clients. Using the ideas from this worksheet can allow individuals to write and openly reflect on the things they feel grateful for.

Promote positivity

Individuals who utilize this template in session or at home may feel a sense a positivity when they are engaging in this activity. They may also use it in a time of distress, which allows them to focus on something else.

Enhance communication

Using a Gratitude Tree Template in sessions can also enhance communication between you and your client. It can give you a more thorough understanding of what is important to them. Furthermore, a richer understanding of the things that build your client up can allow you to make better choices in terms of assessment and treatment plans.

Build resilience

Clients who engage in this activity may also be able to build their resilience. By focusing on positive things that make the individual grateful, they may learn to adapt to this style of positive thinking and utilize enhanced coping skills in the future.

Creative expression

Clients may also find that this activity fosters their creativity. Being able to shape and curate a document to their liking may also support their confidence and allow them to let their mind travel to more positive things.

Benefits of this template

Knowing the goals of gratitude tree exercises is just the beginning. Now that you have access to this resource, here’s how it can enhance your counseling or therapy sessions:

Easy to use

This template is an easy task that can be used as an activity within therapy sessions with clients as the basis of the session or as a 10-minute task. You may use this project as a way to structure the rest of the session with your client, or you might use it as a warm-up task to make the client more comfortable for the rest of the session.

One simple document

The great thing about this template is that it is a simple one-page document. Other gratitude trees may require that the individual cut and paste the leaves onto the tree. While this makes for a fun craft activity, in session, you may not have the resources to create a large art project. You can utilize this template to avoid mess and clean up while still gaining valuable information.

Customization

Although this template doesn't include the cut-and-paste aspect, clients can still customize their gratitude tree leaves how they see fit. The simple leaves and open space on the tree can be colored in by clients however they like. A good idea is to offer coloring pencils or markers to allow clients to customize the leaves on their own tree.

References

Harbaugh, C. N., & Vasey, M. W. (2014). When do people benefit from gratitude practice? The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9(6), 535–546. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2014.927905

Shah, S. (2021, January 29). Chapter 8 - Gratitude: being thankful is proven to be good for you (E. Short, Ed.). ScienceDirect; Academic Press. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128215739000084

Wood, A. M., Froh, J. J., & Geraghty, A. W. A. (2010). Gratitude and well-being: A review and theoretical integration. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 890–905. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.03.005