What Is Perfectionism? Worksheet
GinaMarie Guarino, LMHC
Worksheet published on February 5th, 2025
Working with clients who struggle with perfectionism can be challenging. Perfectionism causes clients to put excessive pressure on themselves to succeed, which contributes to anxiety and low self-esteem. Understanding how perfectionism affects a person can help a client in therapy learn healthier coping skills for stress.
Perfectionistic behaviors often stem from low self-worth, causing clients to believe that they are only as valuable as what they can offer. Modifying this perspective can aid a client’s recovery by reducing type A behaviors, relieving pressure to succeed, and promoting a healthy and stable sense of self-worth.
About This Worksheet
An introduction to perfectionism can help facilitate change in therapy. Perfectionists are often resistant to changing their behaviors at first, so education about the consequences of perfectionism on mental health and self-esteem can boost motivation for healthy changes.
The What Is Perfectionism worksheet provides adolescents and adults with a brief education about perfectionism. It also has a checklist of perfectionistic behaviors and reflection questions for the client to consider how perfectionism may affect them. The What Is Perfectionism? worksheet can be used in individual counseling sessions and group sessions.
Instructions
Educate the client about perfectionism and how it contributes to low self-esteem, anxiety, and depressed mood. Introduce the worksheet and review the introductory paragraph. Then, instruct them to place a checkmark next to the perfectionistic behaviors they have noticed in themselves. Allow the client time to answer the reflection questions after they have completed the checklist.
When the client has completed the reflection questions, open a dialog about how modifying and reducing perfectionistic behaviors can help them in therapy. You may ask questions like:
- “What is your biggest concern about addressing your perfectionistic behaviors?”
- “How did reviewing this checklist make you feel about how perfectionism affects your life?”
Use their responses to promote openness to replacing perfectionism with healthier coping skills.
