Assessment
Omission Tracker
Document the consistent structured absences in a client's account across sessions to identify what the therapy needs to approach and how to approach it indirectly.
This worksheet helps therapists track what a client consistently leaves out of their account — the topics, questions, and areas that produce thin, deflected, or avoided answers across sessions. Structured absences are diagnostic: they reveal what the therapy most needs to approach and why direct approaches have not worked.
Begin tracking after noticing a consistent absence around one or more topics. Review the full tracker before planning any intervention aimed at the avoided material. Add entries as new omissions appear or existing ones shift.
Omission Tracker
Client (initials or identifier): _______________ Tracker start date: _______________
Omission Log
For each consistent omission, complete a row. Add rows as needed.
Omission 1
Topic or question that produces avoidance: _______________________________________________
How the client deflects (topic change, thin answer, physical signal, silence): _______________________________________________
Apparent function (shame, access limitation, deliberate concealment): _______________________________________________
What this omission appears to be protecting: _______________________________________________
Indirect approach option: _______________________________________________
Changes across sessions (has this area opened, closed further, shifted): _______________________________________________
Omission 2
Topic or question that produces avoidance: _______________________________________________
How the client deflects: _______________________________________________
Apparent function: _______________________________________________
What this omission appears to be protecting: _______________________________________________
Indirect approach option: _______________________________________________
Changes across sessions: _______________________________________________
Omission 3
Topic or question that produces avoidance: _______________________________________________
How the client deflects: _______________________________________________
Apparent function: _______________________________________________
What this omission appears to be protecting: _______________________________________________
Indirect approach option: _______________________________________________
Changes across sessions: _______________________________________________
Pattern across omissions What do the absences have in common? What does the overall pattern of omissions suggest about the problem’s structure?
What the pattern of omissions suggests about the treatment approach What does this map indicate about where the therapy needs to go, and by what route?
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