Socratic questioning is a technique used in cognitive therapy, where a therapist will use a line of questioning in order to identify and challenge the validity of thoughts, beliefs and assumptions associated with a client’s troubles, and is based on the dialectic questioning seen by Socrates in the Platonic dialogues. Simple examples of Socratic questioning are “What evidence do you have to support your thoughts?”, or “How would someone else view this situation?”.

Source:

Ogden, J. (2007). “Health Psychology: a textbook” (p.187). New York: McGraw Hill.