The following is an email I received from Dan Prine, a therapist receiving TEAM-CBT training from Dr. Maor Katz at the Feeling Good Institute in Mt. View, California. Dan had several questions about my recent podcast on single-session therapy with Fabrice Nye and Lisa Kelley.
Good morning David,
As I continue to learn and study the TEAM approach to CBT, I find it challenging and see it as so complex that it will present itself as a career long learning process. I have attended several of your intensive workshops, am currently involved in 2 web based programs and am receiving 1:1 supervision with Dr. Katz. I have several questions / thoughts I would like to get your thoughts on.
- In the 1999 introduction to your workbook, “Ten Days To Self Esteem,” your referred to patients with schizophrenia and to those experiencing hallucinations who were treated at your hospital in Philadelphia (page 8). Most of the rest of your introduction has a focus on depression and anxiety. Perhaps you were referring to improvement in psychotic individuals who also were experiencing depression. If not, I am interested in knowing if your workbook was found to be helpful with symptoms of psychotic disorders without concurrent depression.
- There was recently a challenge to your copyright policy on the list serve. [David’s explanation: Several therapists were rather forcefully asking permission to distribute the assessment tests and treatment tools from my Therapist’s Toolkit electronically. This would put me at great risk for online piracy, which is a huge problem for me already, and also risks violating HIPAA laws about sending confidential patient information electronically, with potentially huge fines, including jail time. I responded in strong language that this was not going to work for me.]
- Dan Prine continues: I 100% understand and agree with all your arguments to maintain status quo. Based on the writer’s response, I think he now also agrees with your stance. It is refreshing in your books when you describe your humanness and talk about when you decide to back up, rethink your response and employ the Five Secrets to get a more productive result. You were “right” and your approach to the writer’s thoughts seem to have changed his perspective. I wonder if upon reflection you would convey the same message in a more gentle way. Just wondering.
- In response to your recent post and podcast about the 2 hour “miracles” we see in your workshops, I am wondering if think a clinician in a private practice, offering a 2 or 3 hour initial sessions, could achieve the same results you have experienced so frequently?
- Do you administer the EZ Diagnostic survey and /or the BMS before and after your demonstrations?
- Could the following, in addition to the TEAM CBT, be responsible, at least in part, for the rapid changes you are seeing in your clinical demonstrations in workshops?
- Since your workshops are for therapists, your volunteers are psychologically-minded and reasonably high functioning—could this be a factor?
- Could there be a placebo effect, since the “patients” are receiving treatment from an expert?
- Could increased motivation play a role, since they are willingness to volunteer for personal work in front of a live audience, which takes courage and determination?
- Could your empathy and acceptance of them as humans be a contributing factor?
- How important is it that you melt away their resistance during the live session?
If these factors play a major role in the improvements you have been experiencing, do you really believe that we, as private practice therapists, could ever achieve the same kinds of phenomenal results in 2 hour therapy sessions? I do acknowledge you made it clear none of us could ever expect these purported results consistently, no matter how skilled.
Thanks in advance for any response you might offer.
And as I have mentioned before, thank you for your kindness, perseverance and pioneering efforts you offer in promoting therapists worldwide to help the many who suffer from mental illness and their distortions.
dan prine
If you’d like to read my response to Dan Prine’s thoughtful questions, and the email exchanges that followed, CLICK HERE. I really enjoyed the correspondence with Dan (aka Danny) and hope you enjoy it as well!