Podcast appearances and mentions of brandon vance

Vaping--Why and How I Quit. Featuring Dr. Kyle Jones Today we feature a beloved friend and esteemed colleague, Dr. Kyle Jones who will talk to us how he escaped from his vaping addiction. Kyle is a clinical psychologist in private practice, now residing in Los Angeles. However, he works virtually throughout California. He co-leads the OCD Consultation Group, a monthly consultation group for clinicians wanting to improve their competence in treating OCD. He also servs on the adjunct faculty at Palo Alto University where he teaches in the clinical psychology masters and PhD programs. He's recently joined the alumni council in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara. This is the fourth in our recent series on TEAM CBT for habits and addictions (431, Screen Addictions with Brandon Vance; 437, Porn Addiction with Thai An Truong; 438, Overcoming Habits & Addictions with Jill Leavitt). We want to remind you about an awesome virtual workshop on habits and addictions that Dr. Jill Levitt and I will be presenting on March 28th. We will feature powerful new paradoxical techniques that will blow your socks off. It will be from 8:30 to 4:30 and you will earn 7 CE credits while having fun and learning how to heal yourself AND you patients. Check it out! Registration and More Information Here! Today, Kyle gave a brief history of vaping, which entered the scene around 2010, and described the experience as pleasurable and addictive. An estimated 3 million teens are addicted, and the flavored versions are quite tasty, but banned in California. He described his first exposure to smoking when he was 19, and living in Paris. It was “the” thing to do at that time, but he eventually gave it up, but later began to take a hit or two of vaping at a party, and then purchased his own vaping device in 2023. “Shamefully, he says, I tried to hide it from my partner and from other people, and I would vape in the bathroom.” He vaped for most of 2024, but explains that eventually, it got out of hand. At New Year's 2025, he listed the advantages versus the disadvantages of vaping, and made the decision to give it up. This was difficult because of the withdrawal effects that lasted for several weeks, including intense cravings, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, irritability, anxiety, and the urge to overeat. The TEAM CBT technique that helped the most was HAL, the Habit and Addiction Log, and we demonstrated the Devil's Advocate Technique. Rhonda and David played the role of the Tempting Thoughts and Kyle bravely battle back. Here's the list of thoughts: 1. I'm driving, so I can just vape in the car. 2. Here's a chance for a nice break. I can vape right now! 3. I can take another hit, no problem! I'll just get a little feeling of pleasure. 4. I need It tastes sooo gooood! We translated the “I” statements into “you” statements to maximize the temptation, and were as seductive as possible. But no matter how hard we tried to tempt Kyle, he won “huge” and hit it out of the park. We discussed Relapse Prevention, and Kyle described being at a party on Friday where some people were vaping and sharing the vape. We also described and illustrated the powerful Triple Paradox, which works paradoxically. I have personally trained Kyle in TEAM CBT, along with many other fine TEAM teachers, and he was always brilliant, compassionate and extremely effective in his therapy work. He works with the full spectrum of mood and anxiety disorders, and has a bit of a specialty in the treatment of OCD. Thanks for listening today!

Overcome Your Screen Addictions! Featuring Dr. Brandon Vance Today we interview Dr. Brandon Vance, the Founder of the wildly popular Feeling Great Book Clubs and many other psychoeducational groups for the general public as well as shrinks. Today, he tells us about his latest group designed for people with the newly named "screen addiction." Dr. Vance formed this group because of many recent research studies suggesting a link between the time spent with social media sites and increased feelings of loneliness and depression in teens and adults. Although correlational studies do not prove causality, many of these studies are compatibles with the hypothesis that excessive time on social media may reduce the quality of moods as well as personal relationships, to say nothing of the potential negative impact on work and productivity. On the podcast he gave examples of how technology has been built into our lives, and how eqsy it is to pick up your cell phone, even in the company of others. However, screen addiction can also involve tlevision binge-watching, video games, and more. We demonstrated an example of the Devil's Advocate Technique, one of many techniques help combat positive thoughts that suck us into screen addictions. For example, Rhonda loves and frequently gets tempted to binge-watch a show on wedding dresses (Say YES to the DRESS), because she tell herself things like this: This is really fun. Would i like that dress? Would it look good on me? Maybe my wedding dress wasn't as pretty. I'll only watch for a minute. I need to relax. This is not hurting anyone. My husband won't mind that I'm gone. I can talk about the dresses to some of my friends. I work night and day and deserve to watch. in the live role-play, 'Rhonda was able to defeat these tempting thoughts "huge." If you think this might describe you, or benefit you, or just be fun and educational, here's the coop about the Screen Addiction Group, as well as his next Feeling Great Book Club and his Five Secrets Deep Practice Group. Free Yourself from Mindless Tech Use (Jan22-Feb26, $180 for 6 hour-long sessions).  Do you get on your phone every time you have a spare second?  Do you think social media will make you happier and yet you feel more lonely or stressed?  Do you stay up late fighting video game zombies and then turn into a zombie the next day because you're so tired? This 6-week online class will teach you powerful Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques (such as Self-Monitoring, Triple Paradox and Devil's Advocate) led by Brandon Vance, MD, all within the accountability and support of a group of peers to Free Yourself from Mindless Technology Use. The Feeling Great Book Club (two groups: Feb 24 - May 12 and Feb 26 - May14. $168 for 12 80-minute sessions, sliding scale).  Join together with people all over the world in this popular online class in a book club format, to read the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy book Feeling Great by David Burns, MD, and learn and practice tools to break through depression and anxiety to live a more joyful and relaxed life.  See live expert demos and join smaller breakout groups to practice what you learn in this sliding scale weekly online group. 5 Secrets Deep Practice (Jan 15 - Feb 19th and Mar 5 - Apr 9, $180-480 sliding scale, 6 90-minute sessions).  David Burns, MD laid out 5 key ingredients that make communication highly successful to get closer to each other, even in conflict situations.  Learn to use these 5 Secrets in your own life with expert demos and instruction and 1-1 practice in this 6-week online group. Rhonda and I strongly recommend these groups because active practice is the real key to learning and personal growth The support of others in the group can also lift morale and enhance accountability. If you want to change your life, this is a great option. Dr. Vance is not only a tremendous visionary and teacher, but he also has a huge heart. You'll find that these groups are ridiculously cheep but incredible treasures, and you can also contact him if any group looks appealing but you currently have limited means. Thank you for joining us today! Warmly, Rhonda, Brandon, and David

Ask David: What's Self-Esteem? What's Self-Acceptance? In today's podcast we address six common questions about self-esteem, including: What is Self-Esteem? How does it differ from self-confidence? How does it differ from self-acceptance? What's the difference between conditional and unconditional self-esteem? What's the best way to develop self-esteem? What do you mean when you say that once you develop unconditional self-esteem, you should get rid of it as fast as possible? Please keep the questions coming. We enjoy the exchange of ideas with all of you. Thanks! Brandon Vance and Heather Clague begin today's show with a pitch for their upcoming Feeling Great App Group, an 8 week experience that will begin in September. If you use the Feeling Great App, or plan to get it, this group would be an inexpensive and incredible enhancement, so you can meet with like-minded people once a week to schmooze, practice the techniques in the app, and get your questions answered by compassionate and personable experts. For more information go to www.FeelingGreatTherapyCenter.com/appgroup. Feeling Great App Group Sept-Nov 2024 Led by Brandon Vance MD and Heather Clague MD, meets online for 80 minutes for 8 weeks, offered Mondays 4-5:20pm Pacific Time, September 23rd - November 11th. Cost is $12 per session ($96 total) plus the cost of the app ($99 per year after 7 day free trial). Sliding scale for both the group and the app are available. No one turned away for lack of funds. Feeling Down? Try the Feeling Great App for Free! It's now in the IOS and Android app stores, and you can check it out for free. It's works super fast. Let us know what you think! Thanks! Rhonda, Matt, and David appreciate your support. Keep your questions and testimonials coming. They mean a lot to us!

Feeling Down? Try the Feeling Great App for Free! The Feeling Great App is now available in both app stores (IOS and Android) and is for therapists and the general public, and you can take a ride for free! Check it  out at FeelingGreat.com! What's the Meaning of Life? Before we start today, I have a special shoutout to Max Kosma, our new colleague, friend and brilliant technical guru who helped make our new video studio possible! Next week, we'll see if we can pipe him in to say hello to all of you. His spirit is joyous, infectious, incredibly generous and supportive. Thanks, Max! Rhonda opened today's podcast with a vibrant and inspiring endorsement from Jeff, a podcast fan who was raving about the Feeling Great App. Thank you Jeff, and please check out our new app at FeelingGreat.com. Important Announcement Rhonda, along with a group of dedicated TEAM Therapists, including Amy Berner, Brandon Vance, Leigh Harrington, Mariusz Wirga, and Mark Noble, has just created a new non-profit organization called TEAMCBT International (TCI). TCI will provide seed money in the form of no-or-low-interest loans for groups around the world who want to offer TEAM-CBT intensives for therapists in your country. Rhonda has been instrumental in the organization of successful intensive workshops in India, Poland, Mexico, England and Ireland. They have been well received, but can be somewhat costly to produce, so Rhonda's new group is ready to provide a helping hand. I've had the honor of presenting keynote addresses, live therapy demos, and Q and A sessions in many of those programs, and have totally enjoyed them. A big hug and THANKS to Rhonda once again! To learn more, just go to TEAMCBT.International. Today, Matt joins us for a discussion of the meaning of life, something young people often worry about, but people of any age can be concerned. So, today, you may finally find the answer to that lofty question! But first, I (David) mentioned a little about one of last week's questions, “Is the universe real?” I provided the type of answer the famed philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein, might have provided. Namely, that the question is nonsensical, it is language “out of gear.” So, we can dismiss the question, as opposed to trying to answer it. HOWEVER, the question DOES make a ton of sense when we ask if human beings are “real.” And I am not referring to some metaphysical nonsense, but rather the tendency of many people to present a happy or confident false front, all the while feeling empty, lonely, anxious and ashamed inside. Two of the now more-than-140 TEAM techniques include Self-Disclosure and the Survey Technique, where you take the chance of opening up about some of the secrets you've been hiding, and ask others what they think about you. Although this takes tremendous courage, it often results in tremendous warmth and connection to others. I provide a description of a young man who disclosed a tremendous amount he'd been hiding in our recent Tuesday group at Stanford, and he was convinced the group would judge him and look down on him. But just the opposite happened. He encountered a flood of warmth, admiration, and respect from the people in our group. A small miracle, perhaps, but a real and meaningful miracle at the moment when his universe suddenly became “real” and radically different from the dangerous and critical world he'd feared and imagined. Then we tackled today's philosophical question: “What's the Meaning of Life?” As usual, our brilliant and beloved Matt May began with a description of an extraordinarily depressed patient he once treated who'd been hospitalized for 180 days with no improvement, including a very dangerous suicide attempt. Matt was worried for the patient's safety, so told the referring doctor that he'd been willing to talk with the patient while the patient was still in the safe environment of the hospital. The patient called Matt and, after some listening and empathy Matt said he would like to help and that there would be committed to helping the man and thought he could help him make a complete recovery, work with this man, and thought there was an excellent chance for significant progress, perhaps even complete recovery, but the patient probably wouldn't want to work with him.as long as he'd be willing to give Matt what he needed in order to work together effectively. Matt suggested the patient give him a call. On the call, Matt told him he might not be able to afford treatment, since part of the “cost” of therapy was that the patient had to make a commitment to life, and that he must agree never to attempt suicide no matter what, for the rest of his life. After a couple days of reflection, the man convinced Matt that he WOULD make that commitment. Then Matt described the man's problem. Both of his parents were world famous, successful scientists, and during his upbringing, his parents emphasized how fantastic and rewarding a career as a scientist could be, and he was convinced that his parents expected him to follow in their footsteps. He had "learned that doing science was the "meaning of life" and would inevitably result in his feeling satisfied, joyful and proud. So. sure enough, this young man, who was extremely bright, pursued a scientific career, and eventually one of his papers was accepted for publication in one the world's most prestigious research journals. There was a big party at his laboratory, and everyone congratulated him and sang his praises. But there was one big problem. He felt nothing! Of course, he smiled and didn't let on that he felt nothing. He tried to act happy, but simply WASN'T. He said, “I faked it.” He concluded that he must be defective, since he'd done what he was supposed to do, in order to feel joyful and happy, but he felt nothing, even though he had fulfilled his parents dreams and expectations for him. This plunged him into his severe depression, with the familiar theme of “I'm not good enough. In fact, I am deeply flawed and defective, incapable of feeling joy or happiness. There must be something terribly wrong with me!” Sound familiar? Did you ever feel like YOU weren't good enough? During an early session, Matt asked his patient what he really enjoyed, what he'd really LIKE to do with his life. The patient confessed, after much resistance, that he felt that his fantasies were totally ridiculous, but what he really loved were trains, photography, and painting. He said his dream job would be to be a conductor or engineer on a train where he could take pictures of the scenery and especially, the people on the train. BUT, he said, that would be meaningless, since he wouldn't be contributing to science and would be letting everyone down., etc. etc. etc. I bet you can guess what followed! If you were his shrink, what would you say or do? Put your ideas here, into the text box, and then I'll tell you!   If you took a guess, thanks! If you didn't, no problem. Matt suggested he do those very things—take a train somewhere, start snapping photos, and do some painting. Predict how satisfying each thing will be (0 to 100) BEFORE you do it. Then do it, and record how satisfying each activity actually was on the same scale of 0 to 100. He exclaimed, “I'd LOVE to do that,” and started crying. His depression score immediately fell to zero. The next week he brought a large cardboard box to his session. It was filled with books on ancient philosophy and how to find the “meaning of life.” He said, “I don't need these anymore, so they're a gift to you!” Matt said, “I don't need them either!” Now you know about the “meaning of life.” We discussed some of the many meanings in this story, including: Rhonda pointed out what Kurt Vonnegut said on the meaning of life. He said, “We're all here to fart around!” David discussed the basic idea that it's not what we're doing, but our thoughts, that trigger ALL of our feelings. And at the moment you learn to turn off that critical voice in your brain, you will experience your own “enlightenment. David has also said, over and over, that when you discover that you no longer need to be “special,” you can experience the “Great Death” of the “self,” but it's not like a funeral. It's more like a celebration, because when you lose your “self,” and discover you didn't “need” the things you wrongly thought you needed (like love, achievement, perfection, etc.), at that moment you'll experience enlightenment and you'll inherit the world, and life, and deeper connections with the people you love. There's not one “meaning” to life. There are many meanings every day. And today, for Matt, Rhonda and David, it is VERY meaningful and joyful just to hang out with each other, and with you, so we can shoot the breeze together! Or, as Kurt Vonnegut said, so we can "fart around" together. Please keep your wonderful questions and comments flowing, and be sure to catch us in our new video version on my feeling good YouTube channel. Warmly, Rhonda, Matt, and David

#400! Yippee! Today, Rhonda has prepared a special celebration for our 400th podcast, and still going strong! She has invited a number of our favorite people and podcast guests to celebrate with us, starting with our beloved friend and frequent Ask David contributor, Matt May, MD, who officially joined us in early 2000. Matt's presence on the show had meant a great deal, personally and professionally, because I supervised Matt when he was a Stanford psychiatric resident, and had been missing our weekly chats! Our reunion via the Feeling Good Podcast has been special for that reason, but also because of Matt's kindly but scholarly answers to the many questions all of you submit. Keep them coming, and send them directly to Rhonda or David. We love reading and answering them! Next, we were joined by two more extraordinary psychiatrists and human beings, Drs. Heather Clague and Brandon Vance, who song their rendition (with guitar accompaniment) of “Help Dr. Burns!” (Based on Beetles' Help, I need somebody!” With their kind permission, here are the brilliant lyrics! Help! I need a podcast! Help! Not just any podcast! Help! Pushing the Magic Button for .... Help! When I was younger, 8 years younger than today I thought I could help everybody; help them in every way. I got so grandiose; I was so self-assured. I'd push my brilliant techniques, but my patients were never cured. So, Help me not to Help oh Dr. Burns Will they like me if they have to do the work? If I set an ultimatum, am I a jerk?! Won't you please, please stop me?! So many times, I tried to help, but then got stuck I didn't know but my patients were also thinking what the #?@! Your podcast said to test at the start and after every session. And then my eyes they opened wide Boy, was that a lesson! Oh Help me not to help, oh Dr. Burns! Help me unlearn the bad habits I have learned I'll do homework when my urge to help returns Won't you please, please help me?! Now I explore my patients' reasons not to change. I learned to sit with open hands if they choose to stay the same. Only when they fight for change and want to do the work, That's when I offer tools, and know the changes will endure. You've helped me not to help, oh Dr. Burns ‘Til my patients show me that they really yearn To do the work and ask me really firmly Won't you please, please help me? Your podcasts helped ME! Oooooooh! Much warmth to each of you! Heather and Brendan Our next guest was the brilliant and beloved Dr. Jill Levitt who joined my weekly Stanford training group when she and her husband, Brian, and two boys moved to the Bay Area from New York in 2007. Jill has moved up in the ranks and now co-leads the Tuesday group with me, and also joins me as co-therapists in a great many live sessions we have published as two consecutive podcasts. The idea is to document exactly how TEAM-CBT works, and how we can nearly always get such blow-away results in a single, extended session. That was my dream as a young man, since the methods I was taught as a psychiatric resident almost never got rapid results, or even any noticeable changes in my patients. Now that dream has become a reality, and a great many people in our TEAM-CBT community have contributed to that evolution. Next we were joined by our beloved Dr. Amy Huberman. Her riveting personal work on perfectionism was published recently on two consecutive Feeling Good Podcasts. Amy was glowing and filled with joy, which gave us great feelings of joy as well! And then we were graced by a visit from Mina, who has starred in many Feeling Good Podcasts on a number of personal issues. I will be seeing Mina and her beloved husband in a few minutes for our Sunday morning hike and dim sum feast afterwards. It is always a highlight of my week! Next was another Amy Berner who reported on her recent and wildly successful Intimate Connections Book Club with yet another psychiatrist, Dr. Leigh Harrington. Amy did some personal work with me on dating and sex appeal three years ago, when we discussed the Queen Bee phenomenon. Apparently, it was successful, because she brought her fantastic husband, Randy Kolin, as proof of the effectiveness of the many dating strategies and tips in that book. Randy is also a mental health professional who works with stressed-out scientists working on nuclear fusion at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories. We wish him all the best since the work of those scientists is well on the road to creating commercially viable nuclear fusion, which will transform life as we know it on the surface of the earth by supplying unlimited, clean, low-cost energy. Their visit was followed by Zane Pierce, whom I hadn't had the chance to chat with much for a number of years. He led a recent “delight” and “gratitude” hike that we published on podcast # 361entitled “Finding Joy in Everyday Life,” with Dr. Angela Krumm from the Feeling Good Institute in Mountain View, California. We have done previous podcasts with Zane, and his lovely wife, Daisy, including one of our most popular podcasts ever on “What's the Secret of a Meaningful Life,” Episode 079. And then came the magnificent colleague and friend, Indrani Mookerjee.  Indrani joined our community after attending the 2019 intensive, and recently did one of the most explosive and jaw-dropping podcasts, Episodes 359 & 360, “You Wowed Me, A Mother-Daughter Conflict,” featuring her personal work on her relationship with her daughter. Indrani had struggled, unsuccessfully, to get close to her daughter, whom she loved greatly. She made a mind-blowing discovery of why during her personal work, and instantly achieved what I call “interpersonal enlightenment.) She now provides the joyous follow up on how her relationship with her daughter has blossomed and evolved since that momentous moment. Next, we were joined by Mike Christensen, who is our top TEAM therapist in Canada. Mike became familiar with my work when he read Feeling Good in 2006 and then heard a keynote speech I gave at a conference in 2009. Since that time, he attended many of my two-day workshops in Canada, and now is a leading TEAM-CBT therapist and teacher. He's been a featured guest on seven Feeling Good Podcasts or episodes of Facebook Live, when I was doing televised work on Facebook every Sunday afternoon. Mike describes himself as “joyously average,” a idea that really resonates with me. It is a form of “invisible enlightenment” which nearly everyone fears, but you cannot understand the incredible liberation of this “Great Death” of the “self” until you've experienced. We recollected a Feared Fantasy exercise we once did together while hiking one evening following a workshop in Canada. We also got updated on his beautiful and brilliant daughter, Katlin, who is now studying psychology in college and hopefully heading for her own career doing TEAM-CBT. And finally, one my most favorite people in the, our brilliant, wonderful, and funny Sara Shane, whose life-changing enlightenment has been a fantastic source of joy and inspiration to me and to many. Sara came from humble roots, as a Mexican immigrant picking fruit with her parents for survival in the US, and is now living in the Central Valley and attending not one, but two weekly TEAM-CBT training groups. She specializes in brief intensive treatments for the patients she treats. You may recall her from podcast #162, High Speed Cure for OCD, where she described her single-session treatment for 20 years of OCD / contamination phobia. She also did a lot of personal work to achieve liberation from her fairly severe social phobia and feelings of inferiority that were embedded from early childhood. We love you and so much appreciate you, Sara! That's about it for today, but than you all for listening. Next week, we will likely have two consecutive Ask David podcasts with Dr. Matt May, followed by two consecutive podcasts called “Raw Emotion: Personal work with Chris,” featuring the work that Jill and I did with a young man with social fears and an almost unbelievably traumatic childhood, growing up in Palo Alto. The sound quality is not always top-notch, sadly, but the unbelievable quality and impact of this session easily makes up for that, so we have decided to publish it anyway, and hope you find it as amazing as we did. David, Rhonda, and the whole gang! Special Announcement Attend the legendary Summer Intensive Featuring Drs. David Burns and Jill Levitt August 8 - 11. 2024 Learn Advanced TEAM-CBT skills Heal yourself, heal your patients First Intensive in 5 long years. It will knock your socks off! Limited Seating--Act Fast! Click for registration / more information! Sadly, this workshop is a training program which will be limited to therapists and mental health professionals and graduate students in a mental health field  Apologies, but therapists have complained when non-therapists have attended our continuing education training programs. This is partly because of the intimate nature of the small group exercises and the personal work the therapists may do during the workshop. Certified coaches and counselors are welcome to attend. Hey, another special announcement! The long-awaited Feeling Great App is finally available in the Apple and Google stores. Check it out! You can try it for free!      

Grass Roots TEAM-CBT Completely FREE Practice / Training Groups Today we interview four courageous pioneers of free and low-cost TEAM-CBT for the masses, featuring Brandon Vance, MD, Patricia O'Neil, Ana Teresa Silva, DVM and Nicholas Santascoy, PhD. Many of you are already familiar with Brandon Vance and Heather Clague's awesome online Feeling Great Book Clubs which will start again, running from September 13, 2023, through December 6, 2023. The book clubs are popular and have gotten wonderful reviews.  They are a fun and engaging way to structure your reading, discuss the book, see demonstrations, practice tools, ask experts questions and connect with others around the world who are working on Feeling Great – and no one is turned away for lack of funds. Sound interesting? You can learn more and join here. But you may not be aware of a growing number of fantastic totally free self-help groups springing up for people around the world. These groups offer training in different aspects of TEAM-CBT. For example, Patricia offers DAILY (!) practice sessions that focus on the use of the Daily Mood Journal. You can also join free 5-secrets practice groups groups that focus on changing habits groups that practice a variety of TEAM tools a book club focused on When Panic Attacks and more! All these groups are free and open to anyone worldwide. To see the growing list, go to https://www.feelinggreattherapycenter.com/free. This list is invaluable, and check the link from time to time because the offerings will likely continue to expand. Keep in mind that these are NOT therapy groups, but layperson-led self-improvement groups. Brandon and Rhonda remarked that these free groups are part of a heart-warming movement which continues the culture of generosity that David has created, starting with David's decades-long free weekly training groups for mental health professionals. The new self-help groups also carry the spirit of relating to others with deep empathy. The goal is to create an atmosphere of giving and support in mutual healing. A second goals is to learn to appreciate each other despite our differences. And so, the ripples that David has created continue to spread, and you can become a part of this process! Nicholas Santascoy is a research psychologist, academic coach and learning specialist who discovered Feeling Good in 2005.  He found it tremendously helpful and years later, began working with a TEAM therapist who suggested Brandon's Book Club. When the book club reached the Daily Mood Journal section, he asked if he could start a free DMJ practice group, which he did, and it's still going on each week, more than two years later. He was thoughtful about the group's structure, making it clear to the participants from the beginning that he is NOT a therapist and that this is not therapy. It is simply a place to practice TEAM with support – an important disclaimer for any non-therapist running a practice group. In his groups, each person spends 10 minutes at the start working on some common task, like describing an upsetting event for a Daily Mood Log, or suggesting positive reframing for a negative thought or feelings, and so forth. Or they might go through a sequence starting with one negative emotion, one negative thought, one cognitive distortion, one positive reframe, and one positive thought. His group has also worked with the exercises described in the two free chapters on habits and addictions offered at the bottom of Dr. Burns' website. Nicholas described working with a man with intense performance anxiety who had an upcoming job interview with a panel of eight individuals who were evaluating him. He was intimidated and anxious, but reluctant to give up his anxiety for a number of reasons. First, he was convinced that if he didn't worry, he wouldn't prepare effectively. In addition, he was convinced that he needed anxiety to do his best during the interview. Nicholas encouraged him to test these beliefs with experiments. He discovered, much to his surprise, that he was still strongly motivated to prepare for the interview when he was feeling relaxed and confident. He also recorded his interview and reviewed it afterwards. He was surprised to discover  that his best performance during the interview was when his anxiety had dropped to zero. Ana Teresa Silva is a Portuguese veterinary doctor who decided she wanted to work with people and became a coach in 2020. Ana Teresa developed a free Portuguese Five Secrets practice group in May of 2021. This quickly became an international group in English, free and open to anyone, and ran for two years and got rave reviews from participants. After that, she handed over the leadership to Linda Roth, M.Ed. This kind of group, in my (David's) opinion is incredibly important because learning the Five Secrets is a lot like learning to play the piano. It's possible to make beautiful music, but the Five Secrets are challenging to learn. Practice, combined with humility and the intense desire to learn, are the keys to learning and personal change. Patricia O'Neil, a former schoolteacher, loves David's books like Feeling Great, When Panic Attacks, Feeling Good Together and more. Patricia experienced a very severe, prolonged and immobilizing depression, and tried ALL of the standard medical treatments, even including electroconvulsive therapy, but her depression continued. She then started reading Feeling Great and joined Brandon and Heather's Feeling Great Book Club in 2022, and began to pull herself out of depression.  After several weeks she asked if there was a group for people who want to work their way through the book together in-between Book Club meetings, perhaps even daily, to “apply the strategies the best we can.” Brandon encouraged Patricia to start her own study group. She did! And not only that, she started many other groups as well – all completely free - including a When Panic Attacks Book Club, her daily Daily Mood Journal group, an eating healthy accountability chart, a coaches in training group and her own free advanced Five Secrets Practice group for people who have completed a Five Secrets Deep Dive series. Several of the participants in today's podcast had anxiety about being on the podcast. Patricia generously volunteered some of her negative thoughts, including: I might not do well. I'm gonna mess up! Brandon might regret asking me to join the group today. My flaws and imperfections will be on display. She said that these thoughts contained many of the familiar cognitive distortions, such as Fortune Telling, Magnification, and Should Statements, to name just a few. She also described some of the strategies she used to challenge these thoughts, including these positive thoughts: The whole future of the world doesn't depend on how well I do today! I probably WILL mess up, and that's okay! Then she bravely and tearfully described her own battles with depression since her retirement several years ago, and her gratitude at having found so many skills to deal with negative mood swings more effectively. Her comments were touching and inspiring, and actually embodied the goal of the practice groups that are rapidly emerging. The goals including: provide a structure for free ongoing practice and learning give individuals around the world the chance to join the emerging community of TEAM enthusiasts provide opportunities to connect with others in the spirit of openness, acceptance, and compassion. Most humans are hungry, even desperate, for love, learning, and relief of suffering, along with a connection with others who also care. Brandon and his many fans and colleagues are transforming this idealistic vision into a practical reality. At the end of this moving interview, Brandon mentioned a number of additional groups that are rapidly forming including two Signal text groups created by Derek Gurney. “Mission Accomplished or Refused,” is a place to “report on plans to tackle aversive tasks” and take accountability – which is an effective tool for changing habits. He has also created an  “Exposure Celebration” class, which sounds like a terrific chance to do exposure with the support and reinforcement from others. This is something tremendously helpful for people struggle with all types of anxiety. Again, please click here to see more information about these wonderful and completely free Grassroots TEAM CBT groups! And if YOU have a free TEAM practice group you'd like to start or have started and want to add to the list, please email Brandon Vance, MD (brandonvance@gmail.com). In fact, I've always dreamed of free self-help groups for mood problems, with much the same spirit of lay healing you find in Alcoholics Anonymous. And now, in my old age, it is tremendously encouraging to see this happening. I have to pinch myself, in fact! Thanks, Brandon, Nicholas, Ana Teresa, and Patricia! Warmly, David and Rhonda  

Swimming in the River of Love Rhonda starts today's podcast with a beautiful podcast endorsement from a fan named Vicky, from Australia, who was thrilled with the two recent live therapy podcasts with Nazli (podcasts 301 and 302). She wrote that she felt so lucky to hear someone with the exact same negative thoughts, and same feelings of depression and anxiety, that she's had since she was 10 years old. I have often said that when therapists have the courage to do their personal work in public, you not only heal yourself and learn cool techniques first-hand and experientially, but you also heal many others who are touched and inspired by you. Thanks to all of our fans for your frequent loving comments and cool questions for future Ask David podcasts. We then give a little promotion for several upcoming group events, involving: May 2, 2022. Dr. Jill Levitt and I will be teaching an exciting, full-day workshop on “Smashing Social Anxiety: Shame-Attacking and Beyond.” It will be open to shrinks and the general public alike. The focus will be on learning to treat social anxiety, including your own! For registration and more information, please go to CBTforSocialAnxiety.com. September 13, 2022: Drs. Brandon Vance and Heather Clague start two new Feeling Great Book Clubs. For registration and more information, please go to www.feelinggreattherapycenter.com/book-club. September 14, 2022. Drs. Heather Clague and Brandon Vance will start their weekly “Deep Practice” group for training in the Five Secrets of Effective Communication. This type of practice is absolutely needed if you want to use these fantastic techniques to greatly boost your clinical effectiveness or enhance your relationships with the people you care about. For registration and more information, please go to www.feelinggreattherapycenter.com/5-Secrets. Date (to be announced). Zeina Halim soon begins the first-ever book club for When Panic Attacks. This terrific group could be helpful if you've ever struggled with phobias, social anxiety, chronic worrying, panic attacks, OCD, PTSD, and more. For registration and more information, please go to https://feelinggood.com/2022/08/08/anxiety-book-club/ Date (to be announced). Zeina Halim will collaborate with our Feeling Good App development team in an experiment to test a month's use of the Feeling Good app with or without a weekly practice group to supplement your work with the app. This exciting project is currently in the planning stage, but if you think you might be interested, please contact Zeina at Zeina Halim so she can contact you once we're ready to start. As an aside, the app will be free since we're still involved in beta tests, but the weekly practice groups will involve an additional charge. Today we feature a love story involving Dr. Cai Chen, a young psychiatrist who did his residency training in Texas and now has moved to California to be with his love, Chan Mary Soeur, RN, BSN. Both have been members of my TEAM-CBT training group at Stanford. Cai practices at the Feeling Good Institute in Mt. View, California, and Chan Mary who is pursuing a master's degree as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. Cai explains that he'd felt socially anxious and lonely for used, and used the tools in my book, Intimate Connections, when he got tired of dating sites. One crucial thing he learned is that you have to stop “chasing” if you want to find love. Then he met Chan Mary in one of the breakout groups in our weekly training group. Chan Mary said, “I also used to struggle with social anxiety. Even now, on this podcast I have thoughts that I won't be as impressive as Cai. Cai is much better at expressing himself and being vulnerable in front of others. “I've been on a personal journey to get over my intense social anxiety. I've always held back in groups, and have never been the first one to reach out. “After listening to the Feeling Good Podcast's episode on how to overcome social anxiety, I decided to challenge my fears and reach out to Cai. I contacted him and told him I really admired the courage he was showing in his transparency about his feelings, and in his courage to challenge his fears with the many Interpersonal Exposure Techniques we were learning about in our training. “I also decided to try another technique, Flirting Training. I told him that I thought everything he was doing was inspirational, and that I felt close to him.” Rhonda asked about the importance of taking risks if you struggle with social anxiety. Chan Mary explained it like this: “I was extremely anxious about reaching out to someone I didn't know. For me, a simple thank you email and introducing myself was anxiety provoking because I had never done that before. I was also worried about asking too many questions because I didn't want to come off as intrusive or even bothersome.” Chan Mary continues: “After conquering my initial fears of reaching out, I went even further, I invited him to join me for a week in Hawaii as our first date in 2021 for my vacation. I usually went on a medical mission to Cambodia, but couldn't because of the pandemic. So I did the boldest thing ever—I met him in person in Hawaii!” Cai describes the fears he had: “I was scared. I thought, ;what if we get too close and our relationship falls apart.' In fact, after accepting the invite, I called and told her that I'd changed my mind. She got angry, and I realized I had mixed feelings, so I turned to David's Decision-Making Tool. (You can get it for free at the free chapter link on the bottom of the home page of David's website.) “This tool helped me see why I was stuck, so I called Chan Marie back and asked for her forgiveness. I'd been hiding my feelings, so I told her I really liked her and had been afraid of ruining a great relationship.” Chan Mary said: “I was scared, too. But I told myself to trust myself, and that it felt safe to trust him, too.” The rest, as they say, is history. The date was terrific, and after some initial hesitation, Cai decided to move from Texas to California to be with “the love of my life!” Was it all roses from then on? All relationships, I'm pretty sure, have difficulties, and Cai and Chan Mary explained that they both have trouble expressing negative feelings. Cai explained it like this: “I always try to be nice, so I push my negative feelings down, and automatically sweep them under the rug. Chan Mary helps me with this. She pushes me to tell her what I'm upset about. And although it's frightening at first, once we express our negative feelings they kid of fizzle out. Chan Mary has become an expert in David's five Secrets of Effective Communication, and that has helped tremendously.” Chan Mary explained her difficulties with negative feelings like this: “The Hidden Emotion Technique has been helpful for me when I start to feel anxious or upset. I have to reflect and ask myself, ‘What's the deeper issue here?' Often, I don't even know what I'm upset about!” Chan Mary added: “Thank you to David and Rhonda and everyone who made the Feeling Good Podcast possible. I'm just like many of your listeners, and this podcast has been life-changing. The techniques, you shared on the podcast have transformed my life! If I did not take the steps to conquer my social anxiety, Cai and I probably would not be here today.“ Cai and Chan Mary are delightful, and their obvious love is an inspiration in this time of increasing violence in the world and such intense political divide and hatred here at home. I asked where their relationship is heading and Chan Mary hinted that Rhonda and David might be getting invitations to a wedding one day soon! Cai and Chan Mary are two of my favorite people in the whole world. It's a privilege and a blessing to know them and share a little of their lives. This is Rhonda…. "I love Cai and Chan Mary, too. I was in the Tuesday Stanford TEAM Training group for years with Chan Mary, and feel really close to her for lots of shared experiences. I am lucky enough to see Cai every Wednesday in our International TEAM Therapy Training Group, and I always look forward to reading the wise comments he writes on the TEAM certified listserve. Next week, we'll look at the other side of the coin, as Professor Mark Noble leads a discussion on the recent rise in loneliness, which is often associated with social anxiety. Warmly, Cai, Chan Mary, Rhonda, and David  

Podcast #300: Celebrating Five Million Plus  In today's podcast, we celebrate, thanks to Rhonda and Fabrice, our 300th podcast, featuring some of our most beloved guests since our first podcast on October 27, 2016. We began with Fabrice Nye, who describes the birth of the Feeling Good Podcast, and two of our favorite and most popular guests, Drs. Matthew May and Jill Levitt. The schedule for all of the guests appears below. The featured guests include Fabrice Nye, Matthew May, Jill Levitt, Angela Krumm, Lorraine Wong, Kyle Jones, Brandon Vance, Heather Clague, Leigh Harrington, Sarah Hester, Brian Wright, Mark Noble, Thai-An Truong, Stirling Moorey, Rose Markotic, Mark Taslimi, Sunny Choi and Elizabeth Dandenell. Time Featured Guests 1:30-1:45 Fabrice Nye, The father of us all! #177, Research in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Matt May, co-therapist with David: live therapy with Marilyn & me, Many, many Ask David episodes, #265, Exposure to Leeches with Danielle Kamis Jill Levitt, David's co-therapist doing personal work with David, plus #146, When Helping Doesn't Help 1:45-2:00 Angela Krumm (#270-losing weight & flirting), Lorraine Wong (#155-treating emotional eating & #257 Intensives), Kyle Jones (Dating strategies, #151-Treating LGBTQ, #157-Psychotherapy Training, and #267-Talking to loved ones who criticize your sexual orientation 2:00-2:10 Brandon Vance- #160 Listening to the Music of TEAM #161, Music under what someone is saying #249, Report on Feeling Great Book Clubs #260, TEAM games (with Amy Spector) Heather Clague-(All of the above except #249) 2:10-2:20 Leigh Harrington, #279, Goal setting for Habits & Addictions Sarah Hester,#181, Live therapy, treatment of panic and insecurity, #193, Relapse 2:20-2:30 Brian Wright, #235, Anger in Marriage/5 Secrets Revisited 2:30-2:40 Mark Noble, #100, The New Micro-Neurosurgery, #167, TEAM and the Brain, #275, His latest thinking on how the molecular biology of stress & learning are consistent with TEAM, plus his chapbook on TEAM Thai-An Truong, #178, co-therapist with David at Atlanta Intensive Social Anxiety Be Gone, #218, Postpartum Depression, #264, How to get laid with help from the 5-Secrets #283, The “O” of OCD 2:40-2:50 Stirling Moorey, #280, A Beloved Voice from the past, #289 & 290, A case of social anxiety, personal work with Anita 2:50-3:00 Rose Markotic, #252 & 253, Sadness as Celebration Mark Taslimi, #29-35, Live sessions with Mark, “I'm a failure as a father.” #141, 2-Year follow up “I've been a failure as a father.” 3:00-3:10 Sunny Choi, #214 & 215, The Approval Addiction Elizabeth Dandenell, #240 & 241, struggling with anxiety and fear of poverty.   Rhonda, Fabrice and I want to thank all of our guests who have contributed so generously to our efforts, and to all of you, who have supported us! Most of the guests today have done personal work with David, often with Jill, Matt, or Rhonda as co-therapists, and almost all had some version of “I'm not good enough” when they were upset, and all found solutions to this which expanded their humanness and deepened their skills as TEAM therapists.  Our guests who did personal work were asked how things had been for them since doing that work, and they all reported that the results have been long-lasting, even permanent! In the following email I just received, Dr. Matthew May shared some feelings about today's show. Hi David, I like the show notes and approve of their humble nature.  Brevity is the soul of wit! If I were to edit anything, and I'm not sure that I would, it would be to list all the names of all the excellent folks who participated, in the first paragraph. My sense is that it was their vulnerability, as well as their willingness to do challenging personal work, that led to enduring improvements in mood, relationships and lives. I thought it was the personal endorsements and descriptions of how TEAM has improved their lives, that were the most compelling themes of the podcast. Adding to this, it goes without saying, that none of this would have happened without you, David.  You created this model of therapy for one thing.  You also created this community of people.  As you said before the podcast started, the most meaningful and important part of all of this has been the relationships and friendships that have developed as a result of this work.  (I'm paraphrasing and not doing a very good job of it, sadly!). In any case, I caught myself wondering if this format of therapy, one that is public and open, might be the future.  Meaning, instead of hiding our flaws and insecurities behind closed doors, if we might continue to attack the shame and stigma of “mental illness” by exposing it to the light of day, realizing that there was nothing to be ashamed of or afraid of, only opportunities to connect and be in the good company of other flawed, imperfect souls, just like us. -Matt Fabrice replied to Matt: Early Christians were doing their confessions in public—why not? ☺ Our numbers continue to grow each month, so please continue to tell your friends about us. We do not accept commercial advertising, something Fabrice suggested early in our development, so you are our only marketing team, and we thank you for sticking with us and sending us so many beautiful emails, reporting your responses to our shows, asking questions, and suggesting new topics. Our audience consists of lay people looking for personal healing as well as mental health professionals looking for new treatment tools as well as their own personal healing. Warmly, Fabrice, Rhonda, Matt and David

299: Ask David: Retirement blues; patients who refuse homework (and the therapists who love them); ADHD; David's new pooping story; and more!  We regret that our beloved Matt May, MD could not join us today due to an emergency involving his website. We look forward to him joining us next time for more exciting Ask David's that will include: Does the “self” exist? Does God exist? And MUCH more! We open with two announcements: 1. Return of the awesome Feeling Great Book Club, with Drs. Brandon Vance and Heather Clague, will meet weekly, starting on September 13th. This will be a terrific experience, and only costs $12 per week with a sliding fee scale if you cannot afford it. You will go through the Feel Great book, learn techniques, have fun, and practice in small groups. This is a fantastic opportunity for everyone. For more information, go to:  https://www.feelinggreattherapycenter.com/book-club. 2. The TEAM-CBT World Congress, Warsaw Poland, August 18 - 21. This first of a kind event will take place live and virtually, and will be somewhat like David''s famous Intensives with teachers from around the world, many of whom have been featured on this podcast.  The CONGRESS will feature interactive sessions which participants can learn and practice the elements of the powerful TEAM system while receiving expert coaching on TEAM techniques. This event is organized by Daniel Minte, Mariusz Wirga, and Yehuda Bar Shalom. For more information, please go to:  https://teamcbt.eu Today's questions: Retirement depression / anxiety; patients who refuse to do exposure or psychotherapy homework; treating procrastination and ADHD; David's new pooping story, and more! 1. Paul asks: Are you planning on doing a podcast about people who are about to retire and are very anxious about the prospect and also depressed about closing that chapter in their lives? I'm in that boat. 2. M asks: My patient refuses homework and isn't getting better. I think I'm a victim of what you've referred to as “reverse hypnosis.” What should I do? 3. Heather asks: Hello David! How would you treat ADHD with TEAM-CBT? 4. A asks: Hello sir, Is it okay if I do the written work by typing in my laptop on a word processor or is it must that I write on a paper? Note: The answers below were generated prior to the podcast, and the information provided on the live podcast may be richer and different in a number of ways. In some cases, I did not have time to polish and edit my responses below. I've been super busy developing the Feeling Good App, which is coming along tremendously well. It has the potential to help millions around the world who are struggling with depression and anxiety, but I have to be super careful with my time these days. If interested in beta testing, you can sign up here. 1. Paul asks: Are you planning on doing a podcast about people who are about to retire and are very anxious about the prospect and also depressed about closing that chapter in their lives? I'm in that boat. David's reply Have you read the introduction to Feeling Great? Or done any of the written exercises in that book, or in any of my books? Of listened to my free Ted Talk on my website? We can provide more specific information in the live discussion on the podcast. 2. M asks: My patient refuses homework and isn't getting better. I think I'm a victim of what you've referred to as “reverse hypnosis.” What should I do? Dear Dr Burns, Many thanks for your blogs, podcasts, books and TEAM CBT. I have experienced (and I am experiencing) being hypnotized with a Panic Attack patient with Border Line PD- . I know this after the sessions. During the sessions I feel I cannot even think well. I see this client through SKYPE, And cannot see her face to face due to distances. I have try to follow your approach, but she's resistant, I do include exposure exercises that she never completes. How to do a Shame Attacking Exercise when I cannot go with the patient to the places she needs to in order to do the exposure. I have even been in the phone and she driving, but 2 years later nothing works. Any thoughts will help! Many thanks in advance. M. David's reply Thanks, great question! Some training or individual case consultation or both, or workshops, would help a lot. We have two free weekly training groups for therapists in California and therapists around the world. For example, the last two weeks in our Tuesday group we have focused on the negative thoughts and feelings therapists have during sessions that interfere with their ability to do excellent work. So your question is very timely and relevant! Also, the www.feelinggoodinstitute.com has free and paid training. Two of the finest teachers are Mike Christensen and Dr. Jill Levitt, and there are many others as well. Jill has just released an introductory recorded class on TEAM-CBT that you can purchase and watch whenever you like. She is a brilliant teacher! And yes, you HAVE been hypnotized during sessions! David 3. Heather asks: Hello David!! How would you treat ADHD with TEAM-CBT? Hi there! It is Heather Donnenwirth, from podcast 267. I hope you are doing well. I really enjoyed being apart of the podcast with you, Rhonda, and Kyle. Thanks again for including me in that experience. I have another question for you about the podcast you did on ADHD. I totally agree with you about ADHD not being a diagnosis and agree that is more helpful to treat the symptoms. Many of the clients that I work with have been diagnosed with ADHD or are convinced that they have it. Procrastination seems to be a common symptom of "ADHD" that people want help with and that can be treated easily with the TEAM model and with the anti-procrastination and motivational tools. The symptom that people ask for help with that I am feel less confident about helping them with is difficulty with focus and distractibility, and would love your thoughts about how to treat these symptoms? I have improved my own focus with motivational techniques and with practicing bringing my attention back to what I want to focus on when my mind starts to wonder. Also, taking notes has helped me to stayed focused, but I am curious if you have any other ideas about increasing focus? Sometimes the people I work with have distorted thoughts about focus as well, such as: "If I'm not interested in something, I can't focus on it," and "I need medication to focus," etc. Anyway, I value your knowledge and opinion and wondered if you have any tools for increasing focus? Also, do you treat hyperactivity and excessive talking? I have also noticed that parents some time play an enabling role with kids diagnosed with ADHD, and don't require their children to do schoolwork that they think is too hard or if they are bored and having a hard time focusing. Sorry this is long!!! I hope you are doing well!!! Warmly, Heather Donnenwirth David's reply I'd just ask the person to focus on one moment when they had that problem and then do a Daily Mood Log, as you've pointed out, and also brainstorm with them on how to solve the problem. But first, would have to do empathy and assessment of resistance, same as with anybody! As you point out, the motivational factors can be enormous. For example, Adderall is just the same as Dexedrine, and highly addictive and euphoric street drug. If I had some right now, I'd be highly excited and write 30 pages of stuff! In addition, I can use ADHD as an excuse for not doing stuff that's boring. Someone who is motivated can easily find a solution. The summary before college I was lucky to get a job in a bank in Phoenix. My job was filing checks by hand. Boy, that was boring! I made it a bit less boring by trying to find the most unusual names while I was filing checks alphabetically. One of the many unusual (to my young and uneducated ear) names was J. Karekin Moojian! As freshman in college, I found I had trouble concentrating and grasping what the professors were saying in lectures to large classes of a couple hundred or so students. And I had NO IDEA whatsoever what the teacher was talking about! What helped was simply asking another student as we were walking out of the class. I'd say, “What was the professor trying say?” Then the other student, who seemed way smarter than me, would just give a one sentence summary, and I'd suddenly “get it.” So, if you're motivated, you can find a way! In medical school, I had to memorize gross anatomy. I had little aptitude and no interest. I had never even take a biology class in college, and did not know what was in the “abdomen” or “thorax.” So I made up little games, sitting for hours in the library memorizing stuff. It got me through—just barely1 David   4. A asks: Hello sir, Is it okay if I do the written work by typing in my laptop on a word processor or is it must that I write on a paper? Is it okay if I do the written work by typing in my laptop on a word processor or is it must that I write on a paper. Thank you. David's reply Interesting question! Probably okay either way. No research on this issue! I slightly favor doing it by hand, but that is likely because I have done it that way for 40 + years! d Thanks for listening and reading today! Rhonda, and David

293: The Five Secrets with Violent and Angry Individuals, Featuring Heather Clague, MD Heather Clague MD is a Level 5 TEAM therapist and trainer with a practice in Oakland, California and consult-liaison psychiatrist at Highland Hospital in Oakland. In addition to running an online consultation group for TEAM therapists, she is faculty for All Things CBT,  teaches for the Feeling Good Institute, and has taught the Five Secrets of Effective Communication to medical staff. Her writing can be found at psychotherapy.net. With Dr. Brandon Vance, Heather co-leads the Feeling Great Book Club, a book club for everyone, everywhere who wants to learn the magic of TEAM. In today's podcast, Rhonda and David speak with Dr. Heather Clague who describes her working in the psychiatric emergency room at Highland Hospital in Oakland, California, and other emergency facilities including Fairmont Hospital in San Leandro, California, interacting with hostile and psychotic individuals who often have to be held against their will because they are a danger to themselves or others, or unable to care for themselves. Although today's podcast will be of special interest to mental health professionals, it will also be of great interest to anyone having to interact with strangers, friends or family members who are angry and abusive. She explained that In these types of settings, we often have to give patients the opposite of what they want. For example, if they're involuntarily hospitalized for dangerous behavior, we have to restrain them, or keep them in the hospital, when they desperately want out. Or, if they want to stay in the hospital, we may have to discharge them. Many of these patients are psychotic and lack judgment, so they may shout and act out in anger and frustration. The Five Secrets (LINK) have been a godsend, and when it works, the results are amazing. For example, if a patient is screaming for us to release them, the natural instinct to get defensive just agitates them more and is rarely or never effective. If in contrast, you say, “You're right, we are holding you against your will and you have every right to be angry,” they usually feel heard and calm right down. In one recent case, an agitated and confused homeless woman needing dialysis was near death because she was refusing treatment and refusing to take her medications. She was manic, agitated, and talking rapidly, non-stop. I said, “I think you're really upset because we're keeping you against your will.” The patient shouted “Yes!” Then I said, “And you're telling us that you do have a place to go to if we let you out.” The patient said, “yes,” in a softer voice, and let the nurse come in and give her her medications, which she took. Heather described phrases she uses to get into each of the Five Secrets in high-secrets situations when you don't have much time to think and have to respond quickly, including these: For the Disarming Technique: “You're right,” followed by a statement affirming the truth in what the patient just said. Thought Empathy: “What you're telling me is” followed by repeating what the patient just said. This is helped greatly by writing down what the patient said. Without writing things down, this technique tends to be impossible for mental health professionals OR the general public. In spite of this, most people refuse this advice! Feeling Empathy: “Given what you just told me, I can imagine you might be feeling X, Y, and Z” where X, Y and Z are feeling words, like “upset,” “anxious,” or “angry,” and so forth. Inquiry: Heather emphasizes two productive lines of Inquiry: “Am I getting it right?” “Can you tell me more about how you're feeling?” “I Feel” Statements: “I'm feeling X, Y, and Z right now,” where X, Y, and Z are feeling words like sad, concerned, awkward, and so forth. When done skillfully, this technique adds warmth and genuineness, and facilitates the human connection. Heather cautions against saying “I feel like you . . . ” since this ends up not as a statement of your own feelings, but a criticism of the other person. “I feel that . . . “ has the same problem. Stroking: This conveys caring, liking and respect, but cannot be done in a formulaic way. You might say things like “I care about you and I'm really concerned that you're struggling right now,” or ‘What you are saying is very important, and I want to understand more.” For example, you might say this to an angry patient being held against his or her will: “You're right, I am holding you against your will, and insisting that you stay, and I don't like it either. But I'm very concerned that if I let you out now, you might get hurt, or do something to hurt yourself, and your life is precious. I don't think I could forgive myself if I did that.” Of course, all of this has to come from the heart and has to be done skillfully, or it will not work. Heather described other inspiring stories of challenging patients she'd worked with, and we took turns modeling Five Secrets responses to ultra-challenging patients, including one who was brought into the ER by police on a gurney in leather restraints who took one look at her doctor and said, “Boy, are you ugly!” On another occasion, she walked into the room of a male patient, introduced herself, and asked if they could talk.  He replied provocatively, “Sure, if you get into bed with me, baby.” Rhonda and Heather reminisced about their meeting at one of my four day intensives for mental health professionals several years ago at the South San Francisco Conference Center, and became best of friends. They have traveled together to India and Mexico teaching TEAM-CBT and spreading the gospel according to Burns! I also reflected on my two years of internship and residency training at Highland Hospital, and my profound gratitude and admiration for that hospital and the many dedicated and talented health professionals who serve there. Thanks for tuning in today! Heather, Rhonda, and David

The intro and interstitial tracks from today's episode are Ring Of Kohala by KGB on their album In From the Cold, Devil's Churn/Vladi On The Trans-Siberian/It's Too Hot from the Bag O' Tricks/Tricky Brits 2001 album Contra Dance And English Country Dance Music, Chimney Pond & Kirtan performed by Contra Sutra live at NW Folklife Festival 2017, To Sofia & The Reconciliation by KGB from the album Contra-Intelligence, Act With Agility by Roguery from the album A New Leaf, and Alpenglow by KGB from their album The Red Light of Evening.See the Contra Pulse website for transcripts and more. Or click here to download directly.And the Country Dance and Song Society for information about Contra and English country dance across the continent.More about Dave Bartley:Much to see on Dave's own website, and you can also learn more about his many bands and musical projects on these sites:KGB - (Julie King, Claude Ginsburg, Dave Bartley)Contra Sutra - a contra dance band with Marni Rachmiel, Ryan McKasson or Brandon Vance, and a elite percussionist selected from a binder full of percussionists.Roguery - A versatile English (and contra) dance band with Anita Anderson, Shira Kammen, and Jim Oakden.Valse Café Orchestra - Viennese waltzes and other ballroom dance music from latin to swing.The Irish Experience, electric Celtic musicKeltoi, traditional music of Scotland and IrelandRouge, French cafe music featuring chanteuse extraordinaire Elle RayorSee and hear Dave in action:Recently Dave, Anita Anderson, and Ryan McKasson played Paddy Fahy's #1 & Big John McNeil at the Lake City dance October 21, 2021 (N.B. masks were required for dancers, optional for musicians while on stage)With KGB:Banjo in a Bear Suit and Za in the Qi in the Glen Echo Bumper Car PavilionZahtar at the Ann Arbor Dawn Dance weekend 2012As MI-5, our ECD alter ego, playing Jack's Maggot hambone in formal wearWith Contra Sutra:Growling Old Man and Woman & Dancing Bear from Butterfly Whirl 2018 from Dancing with the GODS 2020Play with Alacrity & Loud Hall from Dancing with the GODS 2020Vladi on the Trans-Siberian & The Dancers of Teeth from Dancing with the GODS 2020With Roguery:Love and All That Hijaz (for the dance Love Always), Ann Arbor Dawn Dance weekend 2013:A Flash of Vermilion (for the dance Ruby Crowned Kinglet), Hey Days 2018Other delightful bits:Dave wrote this lovely tune called “Remembering David” for David Kaynor. He shared the sheet music with us, which you can see hereDave plays classical guitar during the pandemic shutdown: Vals #3 in D major by Agustin Barrios MangoreA mid-80s composition from Dave called City RainRouge (also featuring Ruthie Dornfeld) from NW Folklife 2011, playing La Steppe by the Amestoy TrioPasatempo playing rebetika at a 2009 concert in Portland, OR.Some odds and ends mentioned in this interview:Sandy Silva's incredible percussive dancing and her Migration Dance Film ProjectThe epic Princeton area mega-dance band Rum & Onions playing at the NEFFA FestivalDave is a big fan of the epic English and European style folk band Blowzabella

Podcast 260 TEAM-CBT Games, featuring Amy, Heather, and Brandon In today's podcast, three of our most creative TEAM therapists describe a number of innovative games they've created to facilitate learning key TEAM-CBT techniques in group settings. Our guests are: Amy Specter: Amy is a Level 3 certified TEAM therapist, licensed marriage and family therapist and credentialed school counselor. She works with at-risk youth in schools and has an online private practice specializing in shyness and breakup recovery. She can be reached at amy@amyspecter.com. For a free copy of Flirty Dice or to purchase Tune In, Tune Up head over to https://www.feelinggreattherapycenter.com/   Amy Spector Brandon Vance, MD: Brandon is a Level 4 certified TEAM trainer and therapist for individuals, couples and groups.  His most recent TEAM related project is an international book club to support people in reading Feeling Great. He can be reached at: brandonvance@gmail.com Brandon Vance, MD Heather Clague, MD Heather Clague, MD is a Level 4 certified TEAM therapist and psychiatrist who works in private practice and at Highland General Hospital in Oakland.  In addition to teaching and writing about TEAM CBT, she runs Berkeley Improv that holds in-person and online improv classes for all levels. You can reach Heather at: heatherclaguemd.com Tune In / Tune Up, a card game which features spontaneous speaking situations using the Five Secrets of Effective Communication.  Heather, Brandon, and Amy guided us while we played and explained each of the following games during the podcast: Love Feast, where you make fake, over the top introductions of other people in the group Flirty Dice, where you have to flirt with some using a specified facial expression, a specified type of question, and a specific affect. Future Projection, where you talk back to a Negative Thought from the perspective of your wiser, happier self from the future. The group also discussed how these types of games can help individuals with social anxiety develop greater courage, spontaneity, and interpersonal skills. We also did a group Shame Attacking exercise and briefly described the use of this tool in the treatment of social anxiety. You can also reach Heather, Brandon, and Amy at the Feeling Great Therapy Center, where you'll find links to Tune In / Tune Up, Flirty Dice and more Improv Games. Thanks! Rhonda and David

Podcast 249 Update on the Amazing Feeling Great Book Clubs! July 5, 2021 Today we report on the first two Feeling Great Book Clubs, with Dr. Brandon Vance and Sunny Choi, LCSW. Brandon explained that more than 200 people signed up for the groups, and that he 100 people on the waiting list for a future book club. The first two clubs have been a tremendous success. Brandon explained why he started the Book Clubs: It's because these are tools in the book that people who are struggling with depression and anxiety can use to get better. Roughly 10% of the people in the world have significant mental health problems causing functional problems in their lives. That's eight hundred million people! I have asked myself how we can spread these tools to people around the world. Since I finished my psychiatric residency in 2003, I've been mostly working with individuals, but seeing factors influencing their mental health, like oppression, inequality, injustice, lack of safety, prejudice and othering, and environmental destruction with ensuing lack of resources. This has inspired my activism towards changing these things. I feel like we need to take action on those levels as a society. At the same time, we have powerful and empowering skills people can learn on an individual level, and these skills can be taught in group settings to relieve suffering. I think we actually need an “owner's manual” for the mind, and could teach mental health to children, right along with the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as adults. Some people have more access to these tools in psychotherapy, but many people in the world may not.  I would love to make these tools like those in Feeling Great more accessible to people worldwide.  The book, Feeling Great, does that, and I created the Feeling Great Book Clubs, as a way to reinforce those concepts, so people can come together in groups during this period of isolation, and learn these techniques, get support, and have their questions answered. Rhonda asked several questions, including Where do the book club members come from? Who helps them? What happens during the hour. The participants come from all over the world, including North and South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa, and the Middle East. Most are lay people, but 15% are therapists. A number of certified TEAM-CBT therapists help out voluntarily, including: Phillip Lolonis Katie Dashtban Sunny Choi Heather Clague Brandon described the breakout groups: The typical group starts with music, followed by meditation, and a general check-in on how people are feeling. This is followed by answers to questions members have submitted concerning the assigned reading for the week, and reviews of the chapters. Then everyone joins their breakout groups, which are the same each week. This facilitates the development of trust and bonding among the members in each group. There are specific instructions for the breakout groups that relate to the material in the chapters that were assigned for the week. They may discuss questions related to the chapters, or work on a skill presented in Feeling Great. For example, they may work on identifying the cognitive distortions in their thoughts. Then they may use the “Straightforward Technique” or other techniques to challenge their thoughts with “Positive Thoughts.” Last week while reading the chapters on Fortune Telling and Anxiety, we had a check-in circle, where one member describes a mildly embarrassing experience and shares some feelings she or he had. Then the other members practice responding with a couple of the Five Secrets of Communication. For example, they may use “Thought Empathy” to repeat a bit of what the person said along with an “I Feel” Statement and say, “I'm feeling sad to hear that.” In future weeks, we will use this same format but add more of the 5 secrets, including Feeling Empathy, the Disarming Technique, Stroking, and Inquiry. Sunny mentioned that it is neat to see people from the most remote corners of the globe connecting and developing friendships. He said that Brandon's genius is in how he has created a safe environment to open up and has made the groups really fun, with singing and sharing that have made the groups a powerful and unique personal experience. Sunny explained that when he grew up in Hong Kong, he had anxiety and panic attacks, but you don't always need a therapist to feel better. One of the most powerful groups was when Sunny shared his grief about a painful personal experience in the group, when his cousin's restaurant was targeted and vandalized in an act of anti-Asian violence. Working with Sunny in front of the group as if he were a patient, Brandon demonstrated the Feared Fantasy Technique that they'd read about in Feeling Great that week. Brandon said Sunny's vulnerability opened people up and made it easier for them to share their feelings and experiences. Sunny explained that many Asian people have an anti-therapist bias, but they are very receptive to learning how to use TEAM-CBT techniques in the context of a book club. The club has also stimulated the creativity of people in the group. For example, one member has started a weekly Daily Mood Log practice group and another made visual diagrams of the patient sessions discussed in the book. Sunny said that most of the group members began with the popular belief that therapy has to take a long time, but have discovered that this is not true, and that most people can improve and recover rapidly. At the end of the podcast Brandon played a beautiful audio with touching endorsements for the book club, and for Feeling Great, from people around the world. If you'd like to contact Brandon, you'll find him at: www.brandonvancemd.com If you'd like to contact Sunny, you'll find him at: www.bettermoodtherapy.com In the fall, Brandon will be leading two more book clubs starting in mid-August and running through mid-December. If you'd like to learn more about the book clubs or get on the waiting list for the next book club in the fall, please visit www.feelinggreattherapycenter.com/book-club. This would be a good to get on the waiting list for that group, since it is filling up rapidly! Rhonda and David

The Night My Childhood Ended, Part 2 In today's podcast, we present the second half of the therapy session with Todd, who did personal work focused on the impact of a traumatic event that ended his childhood when he was eight. Last week, we presented the T = Testing and E = Empathy phase of the session. Today we present the A = Assessment of Resistance, M = Methods, final testing, and teaching points. A = Assessment of Resistance Todd's goal was to be able to feel more vulnerability by the end of the session. During the Positive Reframing, we listed the positives that were embedded in Todd's negative thoughts and feelings. My sadness shows my humanity. My sadness shows my commitment to family. I put others before me and value the time people are taking by listening to this session. I challenge myself to work on myself. My negative thoughts and feelings make me a more loving husband and parent, and a more committed and effective therapist. I love my mom and want to protect her. I have high standards. Although I feel like I was and still am “a frickin' coward,” sharing this shows tremendous courage. As you listen, you'll see that it was incredibly difficult for Todd to see anything positive in the fact that he was that calling himself a coward. He kept thinking that he “should” have gone in earlier to try to help and save his mother, and that this might have changed the entire trajectory of his life. At the same time, he conceded that he was just a little guy, and that his father was an incredibly frightening and intimidating figure. You can see Todd's Daily Mood Log at the end of A = Assessment of Resistance (link). As you can see, he wanted to reduce all of his negative feelings quite dramatically, but he wanted his sadness to remain at 100%, because he wanted to be able to feel this emotion and grieve. M = Methods Jill and I tried a variety of techniques during the Methods phase of the session, including a new version of the Double Standard Technique. I played the role of the 8-year old Todd, and he played the role of himself. I verbalized all of his Negative Thoughts, “But isn't it true that I rally was a frickin' coward?” and challenged him to crush them. This helped Todd get in touch with his compassionate and realistic self. You can see his final Daily Mood Log. As you can see, there was a dramatic reduction in all of his negative thoughts except sadness, which fell to 80%. You will recall that his goal for sadness was 100%. There were lots of positive messages for Todd throughout the session in the chat box. There were many outpourings of love and admiration for Todd's courage and vulnerability. We sent those messages to him after the end of the session, and that was when the tears finally came. Here's an email we received from him after the session. What an evening! I just saw the video again and I was so blown away from the amazing love and support I felt from all of you last night. I also was able to tear up a bit when I was reading all of the heart felt chats that Alex had shared with me. I would give all of you an A+ on empathy for sure. Finally, I'm so grateful to JIll and David for their compassion, and for helping me reconnect with little Todd and feel much closer to all of you. What an awesome night and group! Brandon Vance MD sent a link to a song one of his students created, and Todd responded to it: Last night, it was so awesome to listen to the musical recording that your student so beautifully shared with us. I'm not one to cry very easily, but I was so moved by the lyrics and the emotions in that song. I've been so amazed at how you continuously evolve TEAM in so many wonderful and creative ways. Kudos! Here's the link to the song if you'd like to listen! I also found it moving and beautiful. Cassie Kellogg is the performer and songwriter, and her song is called Double Standard, which is the method that proved so helpful for Todd. Some interesting information about Brandon and Cassie, as well as the words to her song, appear at the bottom of the show notes. There were also tons of positive comments about the session in the teaching evaluation at the end of the session, with overwhelming outpourings of love and appreciation for Todd. Time after time, the personal work we sometimes do while teaching seems to make the most positive emotional impact on our students. And, of course, the teaching value can be tremendous. Teaching Points 1. T = Testing is crucial. If you met Todd, you would have no idea how he feels inside, and if you were his therapist, and you did not use the Brief Mood Survey at the start and end of every session, and the Evaluation of Therapy Session at the end of every session, you would also be partially “blind” to how Todd was feeling, and how dramatically his feelings changed at the end of the session. Most therapists still are not using session by session assessment, and they are at a severe disadvantage that they are not even aware of. I am convinced that it is impossible to do great, or even excellent therapy with these, or similar, instruments. 2. Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up. During the empathy portion I made and corrected an error, with Jill's help, of jumping in prematurely with a method that fell flat. It is easy to give in to hunches and try methods prematurely, prior to doing careful and skillful E = Empathy and A = Assessment of Resistance. One good thing about TEAM is you can easily "right the boat" when it tips, and get back on track. TEAM works way better as a systematic package. Some therapists who learn about TEAM may try to "borrow" this or that M = Method, and incorporate it into their current approach, but that is generally far less effective. 3. A = Assessment of Resistance can be challenging. Positive Reframing can be quite difficult because you have to "see" something obvious that is almost invisible to the naked eye. Initially, Todd had tremendous trouble seeing any value in his self-critical thought that he was "an effing coward” when he and his older brother hid out during his parents' brutal and terrifying fight. TEAM is not a cookbook, formulaic, treatment manual type of therapy. It requires “insight” on the part of the therapist, and the skills to lead the patient into seeing what you. therapit, (hopefully) have seen. 4. Childhood traumas can often be reversed--quickly. Another important teaching point might be that even traumatic childhood events that have totally rocked someone's world and self-esteem for decades can often be "undone" quickly using TEAM. Joy and self-esteem are possible for every human being. 5. Hopelessness is a cruel illusion. If you're depressed, you have a deep (and misguided) incredibly painful belief that things are hopeless when they aren't. These feelings of hopelessness are common, but demoralizing at best and dangerous at worst. More about Brandon and Cassie: Dr. Brandon Vance writes: Cassie was an outstanding student of mine when I was teaching CBT last fall at CIIS in San Francisco (California Institute of Integral Studies). My final project was on sharing CBT with the public and suggested that the students could do a creative project or a paper. Cassie was inspired by the Double Standard technique personally and professionally, as she's studying to be a Marriage and Family Therapist. She wrote this song for her final project. Although she has had some experience singing, this was the first song she ever wrote (and she taught herself piano recently). I played the song just before the Feeling Great Book Club one week. and then read the words out loud in the book club. My voice cracked as I was tearing up reading them. As a musician, I am blown away at the power of the words, how well-crafted the song is, and Cassie's singing and performance. Even the old record-like quality of the recording, with the slightly out-of-tune piano, and faint sounds of kids in the background, adds to the atmosphere! Here are the beautiful words to Cassie's song, Double Standard: You get so down on yourself Convinced you don't need help What would you say If the reflection in the mirror Was someone you loved Would you say, babe, you're worth it It's okay not to be okay Would you help her up and remind her Of her strength And don't you deserve the same grace So when you're down on yourself Convinced you don't need help Remember what you'd say if the reflection in the mirror was someone you love tell yourself that you're worth it it's okay not to be okay hold yourself up and remember all your strength you deserve all the grace so when you're down on yourself convinced you don't need help remember what you'd say if the reflection in the mirror was someone you love because the reflection in the mirror is someone who deserves love Thanks Todd! Thanks Cassie! Thanks Brandon! You have touched all of us! If you would like to contact Todd, you can reach him at: todd.daly@gmail.com Warmly, david and rhonda

  Announcements: Feeling Great Book Club We're excited to announce a Feeling Great Book Club for anyone in the world, supporting people in reading and learning from David Burns' powerful and healing TEAM-CBT book Feeling Great with questions and answers, exercises and discussions in large and small groups. It will meet online for an hour at a time for 16 weeks on Wednesdays starting March 17 at 9am and 5pm Pacific Time - which should allow for fairly reasonable hours from anywhere in the world. Note that the group is intended to provide education but NOT therapy or treatment. Cost is 8$ per session paid in advance, but people will be able to pay whatever they can comfortably afford and no one will be turned away for lack of finances. The group will be primarily led by Brandon Vance, a psychiatrist who is a level 4 TEAM therapy trainer who has studied with David Burns since 2011. Please go to https://www.feelinggreattherapycenter.com/book-club to find out more and to register. Your Book Club Teacher: Brandon Vance, MD Upcoming Virtual Workshops February 28, Self-Defeating Beliefs: How to Identify and Modify Them, a one day workshop for mental health professionals. 7 CE credits. Featuring Drs. David Burns and Jill Levitt, sponsored by FGI, Mt. View Click here for more information including registration!   March 24, 2021, Feeling Great: A New, High-Speed Treatment for Depression and Anxiety. A One-Day Workshop by David Burns, MD. sponsored by Jack Hirose & Associates, Vancouver Click here for more information including registration!   April 7, 2021, Bringing TEAM-CBT to Life in Real Time, by David D. Burns, MD. A Half-Day Live Therapy Demonstration Sponsored by Jack Hirose & Associates, Vancouver Click here for more information including registration!   Today's Questions Brian asks: Can negative thoughts lead to high blood pressure? Thank you Jim asks: I’m having panic attacks! What should I do? Adam asks: Shouldn’t we get rid of the terms, “Positive Thoughts” and “Self-Defeating Beliefs?” Phil asks: Hi David and Rhonda! Is it necessary to write out the distortions in your DML or would you get the same benefit by just plowing through with positive thoughts, realizing that your negative thoughts contain loads of distortions? Nandini asks: How do I get your Decision-Making Tool for help with habits and addictions? A man from France asks: After listening to Podcast 003: E = Empathy — Does It Really Make a Difference?: “How do we do when the person, we are having a conversation with does not feel comfortable in sharing his/her feelings and thoughts, or does not know how to deal with feelings and thoughts when hearing them? Thomas asks: What would you say to a person who wants more ego strength.? * * * Brian asks: Can negative thoughts lead to high blood pressure? Thank you Thanks Brian. I don’t know the answer to your excellent question. One big problem is that much, if not all, of this type of research is of pretty poor quality. When I review research articles, my focus is not on “what are the implications of these findings,” but rather on “what are the flaws in this research study?” Usually, the flaws are so severe, at least to my way of thinking, that the findings are not worth interpreting. I apologize for this answer, as it is way less exciting than speculation! On minor point would be that if you believe negative thoughts, you will experience feelings like depression, anxiety, anger, and so forth. So the real question would focus on whether elevations in negative feelings are associated with increases in blood pressure. One common phenomenon is that some people get very anxious when their blood pressure is measured, and this, it appears, can lead to temporary blood pressure elevations. So, sometimes the doctor or nurse will ask the patient to sit quietly for a little while, and will then repeat the blood pressure measurement. So, it might be the case that people who are more prone to feelings of anxiety would have more fluctuations in blood pressure. But the question then might be—are these temporary fluctuations associated with generally elevated blood pressure? I don’t think they are, but I’m not up on the latest thinking on this topic. david Brian adds: David Burns Last night, I was having stressful thoughts about family and I checked my blood pressure and it was way up, so I think it does.

In this first Opus 2 ENCORE interview episode, Sarah Pizzichemi and Brandon Vance are joined by the internationally-acclaimed Gothard Sisters.The Gothard Sisters are originally featured in Opus 2 Episode 1, Got Folk?! In Episode 1, we explore the ways that folk music has influenced chamber music, both in composition and in performance. In the history lesson, Brandon discusses ethnomusicology and the ways that composers have incorporated folk melodies in music meant for the concert stage. In the technique segment, Sarah explores methods for researching these influences and how to inform an audience to their usage and existence.Support the show (http://www.chambermusicguild.org/thecounterpointclub/donate/)

In Episode 2, Brandon Vance and Willie Braun talk with Mari Yoshinaga and Garrett Arney of arx duo, a fantastic percussion ensemble based in Seattle. Yoshinaga and Arney are known as some of the leading pioneers in the percussion chamber music community. We were thrilled to have them join us for this conversation about pulse and all the incredible ways that the arx duo creates music. You can listen to the entire interview with the arx duo.Support the show (http://www.chambermusicguild.org/thecounterpointclub/donate/)

Recently we did a follow-up podcast with Dr. Michael Greenwald, who bravely volunteered to be the patient in the live therapy demonstration on the evening of Day 1 of the fall Atlanta intensive. My co-therapist was Thai-An Truong from Oklahoma City. Although it was a total blow-away session, we did not think the audio was good enough for a podcast, because we only recorded it on Michael's cell phone. However, our beloved colleague, Dr. Brandon Vance from Oakland, offered to improve the audio quality, so we are now presenting it to you! The audio is not quite as good as a typical podcast, but is good enough, especially after the first few minutes. The podcast includes the entire session, without commentary, as well as the 15 minute Relapse Prevention Training at the end of the workshop on day 4. Because the entire audio is about two hours long, feel free to take a break half way through, perhaps after the E = Empathy portion of the session, or the A = Assessment of Resistance, and then listen to the last half later on. If you like, you can take a look at his Daily Mood Log while you are listening. The session was incredible, and half of the audience were in tears at the end. You may be, too! And thanks, once again, for your bravery and incredible gift to all of us, Michael! Michael works in Woodland Hills and is offering free monthly TEAM therapy practice sessions at his office to therapists in the greater Los Angeles area. I am hoping these will eventually morph into the first Feeling Good Institute in Southern California. Make sure you contact Michael if you are interested joining his weekly practice group (drmichaeldg@gmail.com). He is a skillful therapist and teacher, and, as you're about to discover, a totally delightful person! Thanks for listening today, and thanks for all the kind comments and totally awesome questions you submit every day! We greatly appreciate your support! Let us know if you like these extended live therapy sessions. We can break them up, if you prefer, into shorter podcasts with commentary, or even publish them as optional extra podcasts on a different day of the week. If you would be interested in some awesome training with Thai-An Truong, ncluding free monthly TEAM-CBT webinars, you can contact her at www.teamcbttraining.com. David and Rhonda

RadioFree Olga continues with a Podcast featuring the music created and recorded by local musicians living in the San Juan Islands....And also visiting musicians to the San Juans...This week we’re playing some old and new favs...Hear tunes from David Densmore (pictured), Caleb Klauder, Dr. Dirty And The Band Du Jour, Philana Goodrich, Desolation Sound, Music From the Heart, Peggy Lee, Waldron Sings, The Olga Symphony, Susan Osborn, Matt Helms, Bloodshot, Reed Goodrich, Pete Moe, The Play-Rite Boys, Brandon Vance and Mark Minkler, and Taj Mahal....Enjoy!!

Hearing the Music Behind the Words This podcast again features the music of two beloved colleagues we introduced last week, Brandon Vance, MD and Heather Clague MD. We will be listening to music again this week, but it will be, for the most part, a different kind of music—it’s the music behind the words when someone criticizes you. We will be focusing on the most challenging and important of the Five Secrets of Effective Communication, the Disarming Technique. This week, Brandon and Heather will help Rhonda and David illustrate how to use this technique when you’re under the fire of criticism. But in addition, Brandon and Heather will also sing one more of their extremely beautiful and fun songs, appropriately entitled, “The Five Secrets!” When you use the Disarming Technique, you find the truth in a criticism, even if the criticism seems untrue, unfair, or exaggerated. This technique is based on the Law of Opposites. The essence of the Law of Opposites is that if you genuinely and immediately agree with the criticism that seems untrue, you will put the lie to it, and the critic will stop believing the criticism. This is a remarkable phenomenon that can be enormously helpful in conflicts with patients (if you're a therapist) as well as friends, colleagues, and loved ones. However, it is challenging, because you have to be able to really listen and "hear" the music behind the other person's words. If you use the Disarming Technique, or any of the Five Secrets, in a mechanical way, it will backfire. And I (David) have noticed that even trained mental health professionals can have a tremendous difficulties learning to use the Disarming Technique. Here's an example of POOR technique. Although this is a therapy example, it is equally valid for conflicts between friends and loved ones. Let's say that you're a therapist, and your patient confronts you by saying, "This is the second week in a row that you've been late for my session."   I've seen therapists respond like this: "You're right. I have had emergencies which made me late for your sessions last week and today."  Is this a good example of the Disarming Technique? NO! Can you see why? It's because this therapist is agreeing with the criticism in a literal way, and not hearing the "music" behind the words. What is this patient really saying? He's probably saying that he feels a lack of caring from his therapist, and this may be one of his core conflicts,  thinking that the people he cares about never care about him. So the therapist's "mechanical" answer misses the boat. Here's an improved response that addresses what the patient really said. After each sentence, I'll put the name(s) of the technique(s) I used in the sentence. "Jim, it's painful to hear you say that, because you're right. ("I Feel" Statement; Disarming Technique) I was late and I let you down, and I feel embarrassed. (Disarming; "I Feel" Statement.) I wouldn't be surprised if you're feeling hurt and  annoyed, and maybe even a bit angry with me, and for good reason. (Feeling Empathy) This is particularly uncomfortable, because you've told me that everyone you care about seems to let you down. ("I Feel" Statement; Thought and Feeling Empathy) I care about you and have tremendous respect for you.  (Stroking) Although I was delayed by emergencies last week and this week, the fact is, you had to wait. (Disarming) I will try to correct the problem of getting emergency calls when I'm in the clinic, which definitely is irritating and unfair to you, and I'll gladly offer a free session to compensate the fact that you had to wait. (Disarming Technique, Feeling Empathy) I want to know more about how you've been feeling, and if there have been other times when I've let you down or perhaps said things that seemed uncaring? (Inquiry)" Can you see that this response addresses the music, or feeling, or message behind the words, and not just the words? And can you see the Law of Opposites in action? When this therapist agrees that he has let the patient down, and shows some humility, the patient will probably suddenly feel very cared about. In today's podcast, Brandon, Heather, Rhonda and David play a kind of Disarming Round Robin, taking turns responding to unexpected criticisms, using the Disarming Technique as well as any other communication techniques that may be needed. For example, one of the therapists is attacked by a patient who is a person of color who calls him "one of the rich white privileged people."  You will also hear the immediate grading of each response--was it an A, a B, a C, or a D--along with what worked and what didn't work, followed in some cases by a second try. If you want to learn the Five Secrets, and especially the Disarming Technique, this type of practice will be a must! You can practice with a colleague, or with a friend. But be prepared to check your ego at the door so you can learn from failure, because it will be very challenging for you at first! A neighbor who was helping with the recording, Dave Fribush, said that he really liked the podcast, but was disappointed it was so short--he wanted to hear more examples. So Rhonda and I recorded a  brief supplement two days later, which we will edit in.  Here are the additional criticisms we practiced: Angry friend who feels jealous / betrayed and says: You were hitting on my girlfriend last night! Irate mother, who feels neglected / used, and says: Forget it! I’ll just do it myself! Hurt colleague, who says: You didn’t support me during the meeting! Indignant patient, who tells her therapist: You just called me Jane, but my name is Lisa! If you are serious about learning the Disarming Technique, as well as the other Secrets of Effective Communication, I would strongly urge you to study this list of Common Five Secrets Errors in addition to practicing with a friend. I know I'm asking a lot from you, but we are giving you, or hoping to give you, something precious!  And here are the words to today's featured TEAM-CBT song!  She Used the Five Secrets Lyrics by Heather Clagueto the tune of Blue Velvet by Bernie Wayne and Lee Morris. She used the Five… Secrets Madder than angry, oh was I Pissed and unhappy, I could cry At the start She used the Five Secrets She spoke my words to ‘ empathize She ‘ guessed my feelings, oh she tried  From the heart How could I stay harmed When she so skillfully disarmed How could I want to fight When she asked, did I get it right with With my Five Secrets she told me plainly how she felt Her stroking made my whole heart melt Into tears And I can still hear her Five Secrets In my ears The Five secrets Now I have learned to use them too To give up blame and follow through And face my fears And I practice my Five Secrets With my dears I love the Five Secrets! Conflict fuels intimacy Not about me but about we It’s more sincere! So with the five secrets Let love appear!  More about Brandon and Heather Brandon Vance, MD and Heather Clague, MD are both psychiatrists and certified TEAM-CBT therapists. They practice in Oakland, California. In addition to her brilliant work as a TEAM-CBT psychiatrist and teacher, Heather is a singer and improviser who collaborated in the creation of lyrics for some of Brandon’s songs. She is a member of the performance group, The Berkeley Players, and is the director of Berkeley Improv, a Bay Area school of improv that offers improv acting classes for adults and youth. Heather says, "Improv is a lot like TEAM CBT - full of laughter and enlightenment.  The best moments tend to happen when we throw shame to the wind and let magic arise from the ordinary and let our 'mistakes' become gifts." In addition to his brilliant work as a TEAM-CBT psychiatrist and teacher, Brandon has a musical group that is connected with the Justice Arts Collective at Chabot College in Hayward California. In that group, he works with students to create musical pieces with social justice themes, often in the style of hip hop with Latin beats. Most, if not all of the students have experienced personal trauma and social inequity. Through music, they can share their truths, their hearts and their wealth of experiences with each other and the community, while at the same time working for social change.  Brandon explains that “we form deep connections with each other, and it’s become something of a family . A couple of years ago, we made a music video for our song, ‘From Mt. Tamalpais to Fruitvale Station,’ and actually won first place in the My Hero International Film Festival and in the World Independent Film Festival, as well as awards in many other film festivals.  Check it out! We’re now working on a new video about immigration with our song, 'Bring Down the Wall.'" Brandon has also worked with Amy Specter in the creation of a company called Gameful Mind. He explains that “we wanted playful ways to support adults and kids in developing skills to be and stay emotionally well. So, we made the game TuneIN TuneUP, as well as some other games and playful shirts and such.” David and Rhonda

Introducing Brandon Vance, MD  & Heather Clague, MD This podcast features the music of two beloved colleagues, Brandon Vance, MD and Heather Clague MD. Brandon and Heather are both certified TEAM-CBT psychiatrists practicing in Oakland, California. Brandon is a brilliant multi-instrumentalist and singer / song writer / performer who has transformed his vision of TEAM-CBT into music! Heather is brilliant and fun improv acting teacher and performer who is quick in her mind and on her feet! Brandon and Heather have performed at David’s annual South San Francisco psychotherapy intensive for the past several years, and we are delighted to bring them to you up close and personal today! In today’s podcast, they’ll bring you their songs and amazing personal stories. And what is super cool is that you can follow the words for the music right here in the show notes. Song #1  Heather and Brandon begin with music about a familiar but painful theme for nearly all of us—the feeling of failure, and the belief that we are somehow defective or just “not good enough.” Brandon and Heather are extremely talented and successful individuals, but they are not immune from suffering. During the podcast, they describe their own painful personal experiences with depression, anxiety, shame, and defectiveness. Most therapists, including David, were trained in the psychoanalytic tradition and told that we should NEVER disclose or reveal our own personal feelings or experiences to patients. But we believe that some personal disclosure can be very healing for patients if done with skill and compassion. Most patients want to hear this type of message from a therapist: “I’ve been there myself, and know how much pain you’re in. And I can show you the way out of the woods, so you can experience feelings of joy and self-esteem again. And what a joy that’s going to be!” So, with no further ado, Brandon and Heather perform their first song: The Feel of Failure Lyrics by Heather Clague and Brandon Vance to the tune of “The Sound of Silence” by Paul Simon Hello failure my old friend I’ve come to talk with you again Because my ego softly creeping Infects my thoughts while I am preaching And that vision that was planted in my brain Still remains; becomes the Feel of Failure   Fool, said I, you are so lame Done something wrong to feel this shame Perfect is the way that you should be Self-blame coming like a tsunami Negative thoughts one hundred - percent on my DML I was in hell Suffered the Feel of Failure   My self-esteem had turned to shit I needed the magic button hit Something told me my feelings weren’t lame Began to do a positive reframe Maybe my feelings say something about me that is pretty fly I set the bar high So I have a Feel of Failure   I saw that I was not alone Dared go beyond my comfort zone I took pride in my humility Welcomed my faults as my humanity And in a moment of enlightenment I cried and then I laughed I’d finally grasped The wisdom... of the Feel... of Failure Song #2  The next song is on social anxiety. Brandon explains: “I wanted to introduce this song I wrote with Amy Specter who was on your podcast on August 5th #152 a month or so ago. It’s called, “Negative Thoughts Shut your Piehole Tonight.” And it’s about social anxiety and the idea that when you’re upset, it’s not the event or the other person who’s “making you” feel upset, it’s your own negative thoughts. “Where it gets personal for me is that I was bullied in elementary school by a group of my former friends who made up a story that I was gay - as if that's a bad thing - and then yelled things, tried to get in fights with me, etc., for really the majority of the school year. And I got really down and felt ashamed, and didn’t tell my parents or anyone else about it because of that. But what they did, didn’t make me down - it was my negative thoughts. I wasn’t actually gay, but what was important was that I told myself that I was defective, and people didn’t want to be around me. “The person who I thought was the ringleader was a blonde blue-eyed (as if those are good things) smart, handsome guy who had great social skills and apparent confidence - both seemingly more than I had. In my mind I made him into an evil person just interested in popularity. But he had many good qualities (and was a friend of mine before this). Seeing his good qualities reminds me of the concept of the disarm. “In this song, the singer is anxious about going to a party. She feels envious of Anna, a woman who’s thin (as if that's a good thing) and gets a lot of attention - both because of our culture’s preoccupation with women being thin and also because she has great social skills. So, she feels bad about herself. “But then realizes it’s just her negative thoughts and also sees that her negative thoughts and feelings helpful to her, and represent good things about her. Then she works successfully on changing the way she thinks and feels.”  Negative Thoughts, Shut Your Piehole Tonight!  by Amy Specter and Brandon Vance Tiny Anna, you’ve been getting me down. But I know it’s not you; it’s the negative thoughts doing their doo-doo. And those negative thoughts I can leave behind. That’s right, you can walk right out of my mind. You can shut your pie-hole, though you’ve given me a lot during my days. But, I don’t need you now; you can get up and walk right out of that door - and shut your pie hole on the way!   You’ve been talking since the dawn’s early light you’re an expert, attention getter, you’re quite the sight! Anna please teach me to talk at a party like the talkin' on the tv screen Now I’m gonna say something and it may not be polite! Cause I’ve realized that I’ve got some work to do But this time I’m not going to shut down and stew. My negative thoughts are bothering me much more than Anna Lee so negative thoughts, shut your pie holes tonight. Negative thoughts you’ve served me well and kept me from being in social situation hell Rejection comfortably kept at bay I don’t have to put myself out there I can keep myself at home without judgments to fear they can let me off the hook No effort to change, to learn new things or swim in another lane Negative thoughts you’ve kept me safe But I’m going to try my mind on a different train Maybe I don’t need negative thoughts and their kind to tell me if I can have a good time I can be myself and go at my own pace Even with these tiny negative thoughts flapping their tiny lips in my face Negative thoughts said there’s no room in this world for my kind well that’s just bullshit created by my negative mind I laugh about awkward autocorrects, Weird-Al and farting So why not enjoy, the people, at the party? So negative thoughts shut your pieholes tonight! Negative thoughts you’ve served me well Negative thoughts - farewell! Negative thoughts shut your pie hole tonight Tiny Anna will surely get some attention That may be true And that doesn’t mean I won’t get affection But even if I don’t have things to say, I’ll learn to chit chat the Anna way. So Negative thoughts shut your pieholes tonight, Negative thoughts shut your pieholes tonight. That’s right, negative thoughts shut your pieholes tonight!  Cause I wanna have some FUN!!! Song #3  The last song by Brandon and Heather focuses on the “A” of TEAM therapy, formerly called A = Paradoxical Agenda Setting, and now given the simpler name of A = Assessment of Resistance. We address the patient’s resistance in this very crucial and paradoxical part of TEAM-CBT. When we address resistance up front by arguing for the status quo, the patient paradoxically argues for change, and therapy becomes much easier. After that point, it’s No Resistance No Cry. NO RESISTANCE NO CRY  Lyrics by Amy Specter and Brandon Vance to the tune of “No Woman No Cry.” by Bob Marley. No resistance no cry No resistance no cry No resistance no cry No resistance no cry Next week, Brandon and Heather will return for a second podcast on listening to a very different kind of “music,” the meaning behind the words when people are critical of you. We will discuss and illustrate, once again, the incredibly important Disarming Technique, which is arguably the most important of the Five Secrets of Effective Communication. More about Brandon and Heather In addition to her brilliant work as a TEAM-CBT psychiatrist and teacher, Heather Clague is a singer and improviser who collaborated in the creation of lyrics for some of Brandon’s songs. She is a member of the performance group, The Berkeley Players, and is the director of Berkeley Improv, a Bay Area school of improv that offers improv acting classes for adults and youth. Heather says, "Improv is a lot like TEAM CBT - full of laughter and enlightenment. The best moments tend to happen when we throw shame to the wind and let magic arise from the ordinary and let our 'mistakes' become gifts." Dr. Brandon Vance has a musical group that is connected with the Justice Arts Collective at Chabot College in Hayward California. In that group, he works with students to create musical pieces with social justice themes, often in the style of hip hop with Latin beats. Most, if not all of the students have experienced personal trauma and social inequity. Through music, they can share their truths, their hearts and their wealth of experiences with each other and the community, while at the same time working for social change.  Brandon explains that “we form deep connections with each other, and it’s become something of a family . A couple of years ago, we made a music video for our song, ‘From Mt. Tamalpais to Fruitvale Station,’ and actually won first place in the My Hero International Film Festival and in the World Independent Film Festival, as well as awards in many other film festivals.  Check it out! We’re now working on a new video about immigration with our song, 'Bring Down the Wall.'" Brandon has also worked with Amy Specter in the creation of a company called Gameful Mind. He explains that “we wanted playful ways to support adults and kids in developing skills to be and stay emotionally well. So, we made the game TuneIN TuneUP, as well as some other games and playful shirts and such.” David and Rhonda    

In today's podcast, Rhonda and I interview the incredibly brilliant, funny, and creative Amy Spector. Amy is a licensed marriage and family therapist and credentialed school counselor with over a decade of experience working with adolescents and their families. She is passionate about providing school-based mental health services and advocates for legislation to mandate universal mental health care for youth. Amy works with "at risk" teenagers at Vicente High School in Martinez, California. This is a continuation high school, as well as teens at Briones School, an independent study school. Her students are credit deficient and at risk of not graduating from high school. Nearly all have experienced significant trauma and most are severely depressed, anxious and angry when first referred to Amy, and some have suicidal thoughts or urges as well. Although you might think that this would be an exceptionally challenging, oppositional, and frustrating group to work with, Amy has had tremendous success treating these teenagers with TEAM-CBT. She measures symptom severity at the start and end of every session, just as we do with adults, and often reports a phenomenal reduction of 60% in depression and anxiety in a single, 30-minute therapy session. Although this may be hard, or even impossible, to believe, it is real, and you'll see why when you listen to this amazing interview. Amy's secret involves a combination of superb E = Empathy skills to form a meaningful relationship, along with A = Paradoxical Agenda Setting to reduce resistance, followed by truly creative applications of M = Methods. And, of course, she does T = Testing with every student at every session, and plots her effectiveness over time. Amy describes her work with a severely anxious young man with artistic skills, who drew an "Anxiety Hero" figure who saves the world by worrying constantly about every little thing, plus a "Chilled Out" figure who never worries and ends up getting hit by a bus. In other words, Amy skillfully emphasized the many BENEFITS of the young's man's constant anxiety, as well as the downside of getting cured. This paradoxically boosted his motivation, and he improved rapidly. This is prototypical TEAM, which is difficult for many therapists to learn, because therapists are so used to, and addicted to, "helping." Amy has developed expertise in aligning with the resistance of her students. paradoxically, she ends up on the same page, and this allows some awesome TEAMwork to emerge. Amy, Rhonda and David talk about the idea of teaching TEAM through creative innovations, with many examples of games Amy has created. For example, she created a game with another one of our fabulous TEAM-CBT therapists, Brandon Vance, MD, which can be played with teens and adults, called "Tune In / Tune Up." This game provides a really fun way to learn the 5-Secrets of Effective Communication. If you're interested, you can check it out at  www.gamefulmind.com. Amy and her students have also created a podcast that you might want check out. Although I (David) have been primarily an adult shrink, I have really enjoyed working with teenagers as well. A few years back, I tested hundreds of juveniles who had been arrested in California, many for violent crimes, including murder, at the request of the probation department, using my Brief Mood Survey to find out how depressed, anxious, suicidal, and angry the kids were. Toward the end of the podcast, I describe what happened when I was invited to visit two groups of incarcerated gang members at the Juvenile Hall in San Mateo, California to find out how they felt about the tests I administered, and to get their take on the causes of so much teen violence. I think you'll find this episode to be fun, funny, and inspiring! Amy is a strong advocate for including mental health training in high schools, and her experience illustrates the enormous potential for rapid and profound mental health growth and learning in teens. If you would like to contact Amy, she can be reached at babyfreud@gmail.com.    

In a fun switch-up, original Talkappella guest Brandon Vance interviews John about creating his first group, University of Puget Sound's The Timbermen.

In a fun switch-up, original Talkappella guest Brandon Vance interviews John about creating his first group, University of Puget Sound's The Timbermen.

Our first ever episode! Featuring a great conversation between host John Lampus and guest Brandon Vance.

Our first ever episode! Featuring a great conversation between host John Lampus and guest Brandon Vance.

Different Drummer – bassist Anna Doak, fiddle player Brandon Vance, and tap dancer Mark Mendonca – produced their new self-titled album through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program. Gretchen Yanover plays cello on this track, the group’s version of Paul Desmond’s “Take Five,” made famous by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Information on the group and […]

Different Drummer - bassist Anna Doak, fiddle player Brandon Vance, and tap dancer Mark Mendonca - produced their new self-titled album through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program. Gretchen Yanover plays cello on this track, the group's version of Paul Desmond's "Take Five," made famous by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Information on the group and CD at www.basschurch.com/different-drummer

http://bestofbcb.org/wu-151-fiddle-music-at-seabold-hall-june-13/ From BCB... Two-time US National Scottish Fiddling Champion Brandon Vance and his musical collaborator Mark Minkler will play Scottish and Irish music at Seabold Hall on Saturday, June 13th from 7 - 9pm as part of Seabold Music's Second Saturday concerts. In this podcast Brandon Vance talks about his childhood interest in violin and fiddle music with BCB host Channie Peters.  Vance, who began learning classical violin as a six-year old, was playing and composing fiddle music at the age of nine and first won the national Scottish Fiddling Championship at the age of 14. Brandon and Mark Minkler, a multi-instrumentalist, have been collaborating for over ten years in recordings and performances, with their unique blend of both original and traditional Scottish and Irish maritime fiddle music, arranged and performed with New World sensibilities.  Their Second Saturday concert on June 13th will include lively pieces -- including original compositions -- from their debut album, “Beyond the Borders,” and also from their new album, “The Way Forward.”  Their fiddling is lively, energetic and lyrical, so the concert promises to be a fun romp through the variations in fiddling. For more information about Brandon Vance and his CDs, visit brandonvance.com. For more information about Seabold Music:  https://sites.google.com/site/seaboldmusic/ Credits: BCB host: Channie Peters; BCB audio editor Tim Bird; BCB social media publishers: Chris and Diane Walker.

A Mormon Hymn from 1846. Cassie Webster vocal, Tom Berghan banjo, Stephen Stubbs classical guitar, Tekla Cunningham violin, Brandon Vance violin

A Mormon Hymn from 1846. Cassie Webster vocal, Tom Berghan banjo, Stephen Stubbs classical guitar, Tekla Cunningham violin, Brandon Vance violin

Brandon Vance, February 22, 2014.