Hi web visitors,

I have received some very kind comments recently, and wanted to share a couple of them them with you! I hope it won’t sound like excessive self-promotion. Be assured I occasionally get some harsh and disturbing emails as well from individuals who don’t take kindly to some of the views I post. I do encourage criticism, since I am often off base, but sometimes the tone of the criticism can be painful and somewhat shocking. So I guess I am trying, perhaps, to balance that with samples of large numbers of heartwarming emails I receive from so many of you!

As an aside, I also just received a phone call from a patient I had not spoken to in 40 years. In my book, Feeling Good, I described him, and the very intense challenges he presented to me as a young and enthusiastic cognitive therapist, just feeling my way along. I often presented him in the weekly Aaron Beck seminar I attended, where I’d get guidance on especially difficult and disturbing therapeutic dilemmas. But we persisted, and he recovered, and became a leader in the Recovery Incorporated movement, which I have always supported.

Recovery Incorporated is a free of charge self-help group started by Abraham Lowe in the 1930s, and it still serves many individuals throughout the United States. Much like AA, but for depression, in many cities you can attend daily meetings.

Well, it was wonderful touching base again, and he was in tears with gratitude. What a gift that phone call was! He said I changed his life, and I pointed out it was mutual, and that I had gained an enormous amount from the work we did together!

David

Hi Dr. David

Just a quick email to say I am reading your book, When Panic Attacks, again. Just like your first book, Feeling Good, this book on anxiety is a very interesting read and makes a ton of sense! Absolutely fantastic! You are a gifted doctor and author.

Thank you very much,

Kind regards

Shane

Hi Shane,

Thank you! I appreciate your kind note, and I’m sure my daughter will as well. She was my editor, and really helped a lot on the writing.

David

Hello Dr. Burns,

I wanted to send you a quick email to let you know that I truly appreciate your book Feeling Good. I have read several chapters several times and will for years to come! I’m sure I didn’t understand depression before reading Feeling Good, and now I realize that I had been suffering from depression and anxiety pretty much since puberty.

I initially bought the book to help my wife. She has also gone through years of emotional, psychological, spiritual and physical abuse and it has brought her from feeling hopeless every day to feeling good most days. Upon reading it with her, I realized that I also had irrational thoughts which were causing me to miss out on happiness in my life.

I’ve always been very interested in psychology. I’ve listened to a lot of lectures which are available online and I’ve gone through researching the history of psychotherapy, most of which horrifies me because of the unbelievable amount of harm caused. Your methods are by far the most effective I’ve found.

It’s refreshing to see effective talk therapy succeeding in a system which seems to think that pumping people full of anti-depressants (without talk therapy) will correct years of abuse and neglect.

I appreciate your work and your value as a person. Your work has helped at least 10 people I personally know who were suffering. I’ve bought your book for a few of my friends, and all of them said it’s helped their marriages and happiness.

I saw you were in Calgary in November and I really wish I could have come to see your workshop, but hopefully you will be in the area again and I can shake your hand and thank you in person.

Much love from Canada,

Harold

Hi Harold,

Thank you for your kind comments. It is deeply meaningful to hear from someone who has been helped by one of my books. That’s terrific!

You mentioned that you missed me in Calgary. Actually, I will be in Calgary on November 27^th of this year (2017) for the large trauma conference sponsored by Jack Hirose and Associates. I will be giving a morning keynote address, followed by a four-hour afternoon workshop, and will illustrate the new, high-speed TEAM-CBT treatment methods for trauma patients who are struggling with depression and anxiety disorders. I will also deliver a two hour evening presentation for the general public (as well as mental health professionals) on Skills, Not Pills for Depression and Anxiety. You can get more details on my workshop page if you CLICK HERE.

If you plan to attend any of my presentations, make sure you come up and say hello so we CAN shake hands!

David

Hi Dr. David,

I’m not expecting a response, nor do I necessarily expect that you read all the messages that come your way, but I feel like I owe you a lot at this point. My dissertation was on reciprocity, and while I do not suffer from too many “should” thoughts directed at others, I do like to practice what I’ve studied.

I consider myself fairly intelligent, generally logical, and have an undergraduate degree in Psychology. All of which made me even more surprised with how much the first couple of chapters of “Feeling Good” resonated with me after suffering pretty badly for a year and a half following a very painful breakup. I feel silly for convincing myself I could never be happy again because I would never find someone to be with. Unproductive at research, a series of non-starting romantic endeavors, “wishing” I didn’t have kids so suicide was an option, not wanting to leave my house, dwelling on what I could have done differently so that I wouldn’t be alone the rest of my life.

I just finished the book after finally picking it up last week (my therapist recommended it a year ago). I realized that these cognitive distortions have been with me throughout my life – not that I’ve been depressed my whole life (although I probably would have claimed that 2 weeks ago). My cause is clearly a love addiction, but I’m not contacting you for therapy!

I’m contacting you because I wanted to say thank you. I feel like I have a strong understanding of the cognitive distortions that have plagued me any time I’ve faced real sad events in my life and I now have tools to combat this now and in the future. I purchased copies of your book for my ex-wife, a recent failed romantic interest, my father, my brother, and I am going to have my 17 year old daughter read through the first three chapters to see if it resonates with her as well.

I never wanted to admit that I might suffer from depression. I kept putting off facing it, even though my mother suffered from depression her whole life. My father is a retired Marine and I was raised to believe that you should be strong enough to overcome challenges “on your own”. That put me at a disadvantage in some ways, but I’m optimistic that my copious notes and highlighting in your book will be with me the rest of my life – or that I’ll never need them after I practice some of the techniques.

Anyways, this is way longer than I intended! Thank you for showing me that the dark mood spirals I’ve experienced throughout my life are treatable and not uncommon. I wish I would have realized this long ago… but I’m trying to avoid “should” thinking, so I don’t let that thought persist!

Don

Hi Don.

Thank you so much for contacting me. Greatly appreciated. And thanks, too, for permission to post your wonderful note!

All the best,