Check it Out!
The September, 2022 Podcast Survey
Dear Podcast fans. Thank you for your responses to our podcast survey yesterday, asking about your likes and dislikes, as well as your suggestions for the future of our podcast.
The following report is based on 355 responses we received the first day of the survey. A link to the survey report will be included in spots so you can examine it for more information!
LINK TO SURVEY RESULTS
Thanks So much!
Rhonda and David
PS Rhonda is now our official Host and Producer!
Demographics
Gender: 58 / 42 = female / male
Age: 21 to >70. None under 21.
Education
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Grad school: 64%
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College: 29%
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High school, grammar school, other: the rest
Comment: high average education level is likely due to high number of therapists
Therapist
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No 56%
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Yes 33%
TEAM certified therapist
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Yes 15%
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No 85%
Podcast Interests
Listen to improve your therapy skills?
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Yes 47%
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No 53%
Listen for personal healing?
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Yes 90%
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No 10%
How many episodes have you listened to?
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All 26%
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A lot 37%
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About half 16%
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Just a few 21%
What elements do you value the most?
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Teaching Therapy Techniques 86%
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Live Work 72%
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Story Telling 58%
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Critical Thinking 57%
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Inspiration 54%
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Warmth 46%
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Laughter 42%
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Guest Interviews (36%)
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Under 30%: Tears (23%), Banter (29%), Controversy (17%),
What types of podcasts appeal to you the most?
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Therapy Methods 194
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Live work 184
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Anxiety Help 168
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Ask David 163
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Self-Help 158
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Depression Help 156
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Relationship Problems 154
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TEAM Training 126
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Habits and Addictions 107
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Procrastination 94
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Guest Experts 88
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Weight Loss 51
Other
What do you think about paid ads?
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Hate it 28%
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Love it 20%
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Unsure 52%
Would you recommend the podcast to a friend?
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Yes 96%
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No 4%
What grade would you give the podcast?
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A 77%
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B 20%
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C 3%
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D 0%
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F 0%
Written Responses
Elements you like the best (selections 356 responses)
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Learning about techniques to help patients from experts in the field! Realistic and humorous portrayals and disclosure
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Always pick up a new concept
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Brilliant teaching and great techniques
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The idea that long- lasting change can happen quickly
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The use of Paradox
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There is done sort of therapy by proxy that seems to happen during live therapy work. Even when situations are different, amazingly meaningful.
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I enjoy the Q&A podcasts where you cover 4 to 5 great questions. Having Rhonda and Matt (and, of course, Dr. Burns!) give their viewpoints on topics that can be helpful to everyone is very useful.
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Learning how to retool my brain.
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I love the feeling of comfort I get from hearing your stories, both personal and from guests. I was particularly touched by Rhonda’s openness when she first joined the podcast and worked through her feelings of inadequacy. I think about those episodes a lot because I relate to them.
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Feel less alone
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The live therapy sessions. Hearing Dr. Burns, Jill, Rhonda and others do externalization of voices, positive reframing, and other techniques is SO incredibly powerful.
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Hundreds more! (link)
Elements you like the least (selections 356 responses)
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The long intros sometimes before the topic gets started
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Boasting, rambling on and on.
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Sometimes the attitude towards other practices and theories is condescending and fails to appreciate the contributions different approaches make to understand and alleviate suffering.
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endorsement emails
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Something I’ve noticed in live coaching is that there seems to be a strong focus on externalization of voices as a method. In Feeling Great, I love your 50 methods – but I wonder why it feels like 80% of the time you focus on externalization of voices vs other methods.
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Honestly, that’s super nit-picky. But I felt like I had to include something in the “liked least” section. Otherwise, I think the Feeling Good podcast is A+++
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Not a fan of the hokey — the weird Hello Rhondas, etc. Ditto for the four letter words. IMO these detract from the content, dumb down/lessen the credibility of the presenters and content. Distracting and make me cringe. I won’t quit listening… just unprofessional and low class.
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Hard to complain about something this good
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Hundreds more (link)
What other topics might interest you?
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Trauma work. Meaning – I find that MANY people are talking about “Childhood Trauma” as if it’s a separate thing. “Trauma-Informed Therapy” seems to be a new hot topic. Wondering what you feel about trauma and this seeming growth in trauma-focus.
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Use 5 secrets in relationship with someone with borderline personality disorder
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5 secrets training
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How to make friends
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How TEAM principles can help you raise happy/healthy kids!
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Discussion of how to manage anxiety when it’s hard to pinpoint the direct cause, making it hard to challenge our thoughts. Also topics on panic attacks.
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integrating the buddha dharma with cbt
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Definitely PTSD (I have PTSD from finding my partner dead after a suicide), body image, more about dating and relationships.
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How to treat low self esteem.
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How to increase happiness. How to make touch decisions about careers or other things that have pros and cons. For example, doing the decision making form and having the scores be around 0 or both negative scores.
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How to heal after a break up and how to manage rejection while dating (e.g., someone rejects you after a few dates)
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I would love to see more episodes on habits and addictions and also a life episode on shame attacking exercises!
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Hundreds more (link)
Comment: Some of these excellent suggestions have been covered already, and you can find them on my website by using the search function and / or the list of podcasts with links. For example, we’ve already had a five part series on boosting happiness (link) as well as boosting self-esteem (link) and how to use each of the 5 secrets (link), and much more. Take a look! (link to list of podcasts)
What other topics might interest you the least?
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Anything related to organized religion. (Disorganized religion, I’m okay with!) lol) 😉
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Weight loss/eating disorders
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promoting other therapists
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“worried well” privileged patients.
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Anxiety and phobias
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Can’t think of any
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Why TEAM CBT is superior to all other forms of therapies.
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Nothing it is all helpful to make me realize I am not alone and we all have our own internal struggles
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I love it all
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Therapist workshop announcements
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Hundreds more (link)
Suggestions for improving the podcast (194 responses)
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Keep doing listener questions and answers and case examples.. the Buddhist perspective of not having a self and bigger picture etc
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Hidden emotion technique examples ongoing as I think that helps to know what common pressures people have experienced in Davids practice that we might also see etc.
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Maybe fewer judgy comments, including more guest speakers, more inclusivity. Always love the live work
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Keep bringing in therapist from around the country in the world to talk about what they do with team
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No, just please keep making it.
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DON’T CHANGE A THING!
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I mention above but I think getting David out to more of the enormous self-help podcasts would really help spread the word and open a lot of people’s eyes. A big one that I think would be a great fit is the Tim Ferriss podcast
Comment: Thanks. I’d love to be on any podcasts with large audiences. Please contact them and tell them to invite me! I’m not comfortable and don’t have the time to do this or the resources to hire a PR / marketing person, but they might respond to suggestions from listeners.
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It seems like a majority of the live therapy patients are TEAM CBT therapists so sometimes that can make me wonder if the techniques are as helpful to someone who doesn’t already believe in the efficacy of the treatment. I’d like to see more treatment with people who are unfamiliar with TEAM CBT, although I realize that may not be possible.
Comment: I do not generally work with the general public because that would be tantamount to entering into a therapeutic relationship and would expose me to liability issues. Since I work for free, I cannot and will not take this chance, and liability insurance is costly. When I work with therapists, it is personal work in the context of their training, and is not construed as the start of a therapeutic relationship.
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I have done extensive research with large numbers of people, comparing the ease and nature of treating shrinks vs the general public, and there is absolutely no difference in the types of problems they have, the intensity, or the speed of recovery.
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If anyone would like to volunteer to indemnify me, which would be immensely costly for you, I’ll happily work with anyone!
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Hundreds more (link)
Why would you or wouldn’t you recommend it to a friend?
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I already have multiple times. Because the advice is different to what I hear elsewhere, it’s compassionate, blunt, and takes an inward look with a huge dose of kindness.
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It can change the way you live life
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Rhonda and David are so genuine together, smart, funny and informative
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It would help them, especially friends with depression or anxiety
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It is the highest quality methodology delivered by the highest quality therapists!!
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It helped and encouraged me
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too much advertising and plugging
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Because it offers real practical information that could be useful to anyone
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It helped me get out of a black hole
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It’s entertaining and informative.
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Life skills everyone should learn!
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Read both Feeling Good and Feeling Great. Dr. Burns’ content has saved my life! The five secrets has rewired my brain and helped me save my relationship, too! And Dr. Burns’ personality and sense of humor is just the icing on the cake.
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Hundreds more (link)
I don’t know if it’s just me but seems like links to the full report doesn’t work…it takes me to a blank survey.
I apologize and will look into it! Best, david
Dr DAvid Burns, I sometimes get the impression that you think Team Therapy is the only therapy there is that works and that is not true. I find that when I think of my old Psychiatrist who never used CBT I make headway. My anxiety goes away and i think straight and feel like myself I do however appreciate you telling me about what causes Psychosis because the fixation and fear went away after we discussed it. I know problem solve and deal with things in a much more casual approach The past craziness is finally leaving me as is my obsession with psychology because I have no need for it.
Hi Debby, Practically all therapies “work” to some extent, but research has been very disappointing in finding any “winners.” In all, or nearly all, outcome studies for depression, for example, all the various “schools” of therapy come out about the same, and with (to me) pretty disappointing results. I do think that TEAM-CBT in the hands of experts gets superior and faster results. However, therapists with high skill levels are few and costly. That’s why I’ve developed the Feeling Good App which clearly outperforms human shrinks as well as antidepressants by a large margin. We have observed these results in many replicated beta tests involving several hundred individuals. Hope this helps!
I have great respect for you, and always appreciate your thoughtful emails. I have to confess that one thing that irritates me is when people attribute some rather weird claim to me, when there is no accuracy. I have never ever said or thought or implied that TEAM-CBT is the ONLY method that works. I’ve ALWAYS stressed that all methods “work,” just not very well! And the analyses of many outcome studies with CBT and all schools of therapy does support this conclusion. That, in fact, was one of my driving motivations in developing TEAM-CBT, which is now available electronically. d
I apologize because I didnt want to attach a weird claim to you since I have learned so much. In fact I like it because it corrects my faulty thinking. Like I said before talking to you straigented my head out. I was able to let go of the psychosis delusion and the incompetent therapist I had before. y fixations and ruminations left because of it. It was all tied together and I just needed to feel heard and understood, accepted, valadited and I was okay. Like I said before it was so simple yet I knew that is what I needed to do. The good and odd part is that a need was met so I have no need for my addiction to psychology anymore or the past. I stopped doubing myself too and my confidence feels good. I feel so good with everyone and my self control is back and so is my sense of humour. I really think I was buried underneath it all. I do have do say that taking back my real self is what really works and it was the whole goal to beging with. I dont know if I would have had the strength to do it without you. However, I disagree that other methods dont work very well because I have found what does work outside of CBT.For instance staying out of your head, forgiveness etc are not under the CBT umbrealla. That is what I was trying to get at. Reality checking isnt really CBT
Thanks. Yes, many things an be helpful, many things can be fun, rewarding, and beautiful. Life offers so much if we are open and receptive! Best, david
That s the thing David you have to be open and receptive to others and the good help that is out there. Plus you have to be willing to give up crazy destructive things or it wont work.
Wise words. In the world these days, huge numbers of people don’t want to give up destructive ways of thinking and behaving. It’s quite worrisome, to say the least. Emotional problems are loaded, as you know, with cognitive distortions, but so is politics, even worse, due to so many positive distortions that lead to hatred and violence. Best, david
I didnt use cognitive therapy, but I gave up all crazy therapy and crazy thought processes and started telling the truth and started trusting other people too. I got sick of lying and being afraid of myself. It was all so self centered and selfish. I decided to be true to myself and not be a push over to others and stop being weak. In never have and never will believe that all problems are solved by cognitive therapy because they simply arent
Thanks. I’m curious. Who said all problems are solved by cognitive therapy? Cognitive therapy is a helpful but limited tool for many reasons. my thinking only! but that’s why I’ve evolved so many new techniques. I thought I addressed this in an earlier response to one of your postings, so I’m a bit confused! But maybe I don’t “get” what you’re saying. The TEAM approach I’ve developed is not a school of therrapy, but a research based structure for how all therapy works. The methods are inspired by more than a dozen “schools” of therapy, but with modernized approaches. Best, david
You might have addressed this earlier, it was probably me. I do remember you now saying that all problems are not solved by cognitive therapy, You basically say the same thing my Psychiatrist said.
Thanks! Lotso f people think I’m a cognitive therapist, but I don’t see myseelf like that. I am, in fact, opposed to all schools of therapy, and favor, instead, science based, data driven therapy. d
I agree. My shrink just let me solve problems and anxiety by myself. For example if I was afraid to speak publically, I just did it. If I was afraid of spiders, I let a spider fall on me. I could then see nothing happened even though I knew it was true. If i was thinking correctly, I sorted out my thinking or asked someone and it stayed. I was afraid of Scizohpneia so I read about it and asked my brother because he has the illness and the fear went away as well as the mystery. I had OCD as most anxiety people do and I designed a program to get out of it. It has been 40 years and I never had it again or even rem the program anymore. So it goes to show that this stuff you read on line is so abusurd and wrong, it is hard to believe. I agree with your analysis on therapy. Much of it is junk and not scientific. I do recall you saying that you are all for tools not schools. Never understood why one was a Freudian or a Jungian. It all sounded dangrously misleading plus many of the ones who founded therapy had a very paranoid bent to their thinking because it has sinister aspects to it and could put people in opposition of each other.. We only need normal everyday thinking to understand each other so I never got that.
Right, and way to go in confronting your fears. That can be SO LIBERATING! D
The thing that stood out most was that 93% of surveyors were college educated. That reflects my experience. TEAM-CBT has helped me overcome moderate long-term depression. I haven’t felt better for years, even decades. I’ve highly recommended it to over half a dozen people, some in desperate need. None have taken to it, including my spouse. Almost all of them don’t have any college.
TEAM-CBT is CBT on steroids. If you want significant change rapidly, there isn’t any faster approach. But, it takes self-reflection, effort, and willingness to confront difficult questions. Instead, I see people who don’t want to think too hard, aren’t open to alternative views or are stuck on blaming others.
I can see how you could test for these kinds of shortcomings, like openness to new ideas, willingness to question things, or desire to learn. Basically, how motivated they are.
But, what I fail to grasp is what to do about it. Dr. Burns successfully worked with minimally educated folks, but I gather they were “forced” to be there, so what did they have to lose? The question is, how do you appeal to people who are looking for help on their terms instead of having to work for it? We all want the easy button solution.
Also, people who have been to a fair amount of therapy are so set in their “talk/empathy” therapy style that they can’t grasp how only focusing on one event can cure anything. It doesn’t make any sense to them.
Anyway, I don’t have answers other than I’m frustrated that more people can’t use TEAM-CBT to revolutionize themselves as it did for me.
Yes, I loved your comments, and had the same thoughts. We are hoping to find an independent group to beta test our app because our target audience is not just highly educated, but all people. That was why my experience in Philadelphia was so positive-we had an inner city population, and most of our patients had few resources and little education, some were homeless, many could not read or write, and yet they were very responsive and easy to work with. For my entire career, I’ve also noticed all the “experts” who think they know the answer, who resist what I offer, and this includes patients as well as shrinks. This has been a source of frustration my entire career! I’m doing a workshop now, on brief break at the moment. One thing I have learned is not to try to persuade or argue, but to “sit with open hands,” so to speak. This is why I developed TEAM-CBT, which includes, as you know, many new powerful methods to bring resistance to conscious awareness and melt it away with numerous methods. That’s why TEAM is, in my hands, vastly more effective than traditional CBT and other “schools” of therapy that are based primarily on “helping.” Of course, the patient has to ask for help. I do not evangelize with people who reject treatment, or my treatment, and so forth. I believe our field is loaded with myths and groupies of various treatment “cults.” That sounds harsh, but I think it has an enormous amount of truth! The thing about “fractals” is just one in a long list of complaints about what that nut, David, has created! Best, david