Feeling Great: The Revolutionary New Treatment for Depr… (2025)

Aleks

6 reviews5 followers

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February 2, 2021

In a sentence: I believe the techniques described in this book can be genuinely helpful and it’s worth checking the book out, but I have mixed feelings on how the methodology is presented by the author.

A couple disclaimers: I’m absolutely no psychology/therapy expert so below is just my uneducated opinion; I haven’t read Dr Burns’ other works (I only briefly visited his website before reading this); I’m somewhat biased against CBT (cognitive-behavioural therapy) in general. I think CBT does have its uses and can be really helpful, but I don’t think it’s as helpful for everyone as it’s often made out to be.

“Feeling Great” basically describes a slightly enhanced form of CBT (called TEAM-CBT by the author) - still mainly about combating negative thoughts & cognitive distortions, with more of a focus on positive reframing (eg “how do these negative thoughts reflect a positive trait you have?” and “what are some benefits/advantages to these negative thoughts & feelings?”), as well as some aspects/techniques lifted from mindfulness & other modes of therapy.

My main issue with this book is that the author spends SO MUCH TIME trying to convince us that his “revolutionary” methods are the best ever & the only ones you’ll need & they’ll solve all your problems nearly instantly! Obviously, that’s a bit of an exaggeration on my part, and he does finally take a slightly more pragmatic view towards the end of the book, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth for the entire reading experience. He also spends a lot of time selling us on himself, his podcast, blog, and other books; I mean, I get why he does, and to his credit a lot of the resources are free and plentiful, I just personally find it a turn-off in any of the books I read.
He seems to have a strong bias against medication & other forms of therapy, but (in my opinion) doesn’t do a great job of justifying it. For the most part, he unfairly glosses over & simplifies any methods or concepts that aren’t included in TEAM-CBT, and usually cites either his own experience or a study he was involved in to explain how they’re less effective (the first pages on his chapter on Emotional Reasoning particularly stick out in my mind for this, as well as a chapter where he repeatedly refers to a single study he did from… 1975). Most of the text is devoid of citing any studies from anyone else at all, except for Chapter 31; maybe it’s just personal taste, but I just find that odd for a self-help book published in 2020.

The text is very repetitive. This is helpful in making sure that the techniques described are internalised - there are also A LOT of exercises to support this - but after a certain point it’s just way too much for me. It especially bothered me when the text repeated a concept so many times (“your negative thoughts cause your depression!”) only to contradict itself later in the text (“we don’t know what causes depression.”). I’ll concede that the author didn’t actually present this in such a black-and-white way, but it diminished the credibility of the text for me.
One final small negative point - this book includes lots of tables and forms, which is good! However, in the ebook version at least, a lot of them are too small or distorted and hard to read. I’m not sure if the print version has this issue.

Despite all the above, there is a lot to like here: as said, there are lots of exercises, the writing is very accessible, Dr Burns (mostly) writes in a positive tone that can be encouraging, and he seems like a genuinely nice & generous guy. The techniques and cognitive distortions are well-explained, and his examples of positive reframing especially are practical and believable (I also liked his “Five Secrets of Effective Communication”). I appreciate that he did touch on psychedelic therapy, albeit in a short and perhaps overly simplified way.

I really do think this book is worth a read, and the techniques and exercises could be really helpful for many. Please don’t let me dissuade you if you’re interested! I just think it’s a bit naive to consider TEAM-CBT a superior therapeutic treatment on its own; there are many other options out there that will likely work better for people. In my experience, it’s often not enough to just combat negative thoughts alone; you have to explore where those negative beliefs come from, especially if they’re deep-seated/recurring. It can also help to observe how your body experiences emotions, especially if you’re someone that struggles with identifying the thought behind the feeling, or if you feel “stuck” or “blocked” despite examining & reframing your thoughts and beliefs (aka me lol). Medications can genuinely help a lot of people as well.
In summary, definitely give it a go, but don’t despair if CBT or TEAM-CBT alone doesn’t work for you - it’s probably not your fault, and there’s plenty of other methodologies you can try alongside it.

Billie Pritchett

1,131 reviews109 followers

October 11, 2021

I recommend Burns' Feeling Good over this book, Feeling Great. There is not much to add here that is of use that you can't get in the first book.

Except this. When we experience negative emotions or run through familiar patterns of negative thinking, we may be inclined to want to erase all traces of these emotions and patterns once and for all. In the first book, Burns sort of gives the impressions that you can but here he acknowledges that our emotions and patterns of thinking, good and bad, make us who we are, and even the negative thoughts and emotions have an upside. The goal of self-therapy then becomes not eliminating negative emotions and thoughts once and for all but decreasing them, putting them in their place.

Let me show you how this works. Imagine you feel slighted by someone you were close to in high school. You reach out to them, sending them a message on Facebook, and they don't respond. Perhaps you feel angry at this person and saddened. You begin thinking all kinds of negative things. 'This person doesn't like me.' 'I've wronged this person in some way.' 'I must be a terrible person.' 'My former friend must be a terrible person.' 'This person is ignoring me.' 'This person is wrong to ignore me.' And so on.

According to the original plan of Burns' CBT program, as laid out in his original book Feeling Good, what you need to do is rate on a scale of one to ten those emotions. Say anger is at a 7, sadness at a 9. Then you write down that stream of thoughts that you're having in simple, separate, declarative sentences. Then you identify what cognitive distortions there are among these thoughts.

Cognitive distortions are what you might call "stinkin' thinkin'," wrong ways of conceiving of the people and the world around you. The top 10 cognitive distortions are:

All-or-nothing thinking (AON). Seeing things only in black and white terms, for instance, that a person loves your or he hates you, without shades of gray.

Overgeneralizing (OG). Taking one instance and generalizing it to others. This happened in this case so it must apply to all cases. You can identify these negative thought patterns by looking at what you tell yourself always or never happens.

Jumping to conclusions. Jumping to conclusions comes in two varieties:

Mind-reading (MR). Thinking you know the internal motives of another person on the basis of no independent evidence.

Fortune-telling (FT). Thinking you know what the future holds.

Magnification/Minimization (MAG/MIN). Blowing things out of proportion or reducing them to such a small size, they're puny in comparison to other things.

Mental Filter (MF). Looking at only the bad stuff and filtering out what's good about a situation or a person.

Disqualifying the positive (DP). Looking at something good that has happened and telling yourself it doesn't count, for whatever reason.

Should Statements (SH). Telling yourself that something should happen or should have happened, as if human behavior is supposed to operate according to your own internal principles.

Blame. FYI, in the original book, Burns called this "Personalization," but he saw fit to call it blame in this book and split it into two parts: Self-Blame (SB), and Other-Blame (OB).

Emotional Reasoning (ER). Assuming because you feel some way that it must follow that your feeling reflects fact.

Labeling (LAB). Labeling events and people as though the events and people are those things essentially. For instance, you call your former friend a bad person on the basis of this instance in which you're mad at him.

Okay, so you go through your itemized list of negative thoughts and find out which thought conforms to which negative thought pattern. For instance, in the example above, I wrote the sentence, 'This person doesn't like me.' Well, in this case of someone not responding to a message you sent them, this would be an obvious case of jumping to conclusions, mind-reading (MR) in particular, assuming you know what the other person thinks.

After you have correctly identified which thoughts have which cognitive distortions, it is part of the therapy process here to talk back to your thoughts more rationally and then re-evaluate on a scale of one to ten how strong your emotions are now.

The only thing this book adds is to ask yourself at some point, in looking over your written thoughts and emotions, what the upside of them are. For instance, even such negative thinking as the assumption that someone doesn't like you because they don't respond to you reflects that you care about other people and that it is not wrong in itself to care about what other people think, even if you are wrong about the content of their noggins. An additional goal then becomes coaxing yourself into seeing how your negative patterns can work for you if you harness them the right way.

Aside from that, you don't need this book. Just get the original and work from that. Blessings.

Avacado Molloy

1 review

Currently reading

November 20, 2020

I have been struggling for the last 6 months with depression. I came across david burns book two weeks ago and i implemented some of his techniques and i can honestly say that my depression has greatly eased. I had moderate depression and now its almost gone. In two weeks that is unbelievable for me cause everything online says it will takes months of medication and therapy and i was feeling a good amount of hopelessness. This book also works on anxiety, addictions and relationships. I would recomment to any one strughling with their mental health.

Julie

202 reviews

November 9, 2020

I read his first book when I was 19 and thought I wanted to be a clinical psychologist. It was awesome, eye opening. I was excited to read this book but it seems to be written for those already in the field. It's repetitive and is more of a case study compilation. I recommend skipping this title, and sticking with his original "Feeling Good", which is a great introduction to CBT.

Bookish Andreia Butterfly

292 reviews

May 31, 2022

Some advice on how to not dwell on negativity and try to focus on the positive side of everything that happens. Sounds familiar?! YES! I know!! It is the same stuff we read about on a daily basis. Focus on the positive! No matter what, you have to see the positive side of it!! So many people's personal stories fill the entire book that it seems you have, what, 15 hours of stories about patients and 2 hours about focusing on the positive!

    2022 audible-2022 nonfiction

EJ

23 reviews1 follower

February 14, 2023

BRILLIANT CONTENT, ANNOYING PRESENTATION
I think this book is brilliant and I have found the content personally, professionally (I’m a therapist) and spiritually lifechanging, However, Burns ruins the content by constantly making unrealistic claims about CBT. He claims that only his specific form of CBT, TEAM-CBT, can help people, and most other therapy is useless, and that TEAM-CBT can help EVERY client that exists. I wish he could have just left it at “here’s some powerful tools, enjoy” and not “here’s some powerful tools, they are the only tools that work and all other tools are trash.”
He also claims that he can cure trauma in one two hour session simply by changing the client’s thoughts. I don’t doubt that he’s had some patients make dramatic breakthroughs in 2 hours. He clearly is a skilled therapist. However, I just feel like he oversimplifies the impact of trauma, somatics, and intersecting systems of oppression on mental health. It’s a very white and western vibe.
He takes an extreme stance that mental health is 100% caused by thoughts and you can just think your way out of anxiety and depression. He goes to such great lengths to discount all other causes of depression and anxiety – it’s ALL in the client’s thoughts.I agree that thoughts are incredibly powerful and, for me, these techniques really are enough to melt away my anxiety and depression. However, I’m a white, able-bodied, cis-passing person with economic privilege, whose thoughts were my biggest problem in the first place.
These techniques still have merit and application for people with real problems. I work with unhoused people in substance use recovery, and I still use these techniques with my clients. They still work because CBT, executed properly, is not about being indiscriminately, delusionally positive, but rather it is about thinking in more flexible, adaptive, kind and rational ways. HOWEVER, what I don’t do with my clients is apply this indiscriminately or make this out to be the ONLY tool. There is never going to be a therapy that works for every client. And there doesn’t need to be! People should be treated in their unique context.
It’s ironic that black and white thinking is one of the cognitive distortions he’s railing against, yet he’s so black and white about TEAM-CBT being the ONLY way.
I found it irritating that he kept harping on how new and revolutionary TEAM-CBT is, when in reality it is largely based on the work of others. While I was studying for the NCMHCE I was like “wait a damn minute!” recognizing bits and pieces of TEAM-CBT in all kinds of therapy traditions. I wish he could just let the content speak for itself without needing to keep selling it to the reader. It’s like, bro, I get it. I’m already reading your book. Haha.
Things I liked:
•I actually vehemently agree with so much of TEAM-CBT. The T in TEAM is for testing- Burns believes all clients should be tested at the start of every session for mood and at the end of every session for mood and also rate the therapist on multiple factors. I love this because I have been in way too much mediocre therapy in my life that would have been really helped if the therapist solicited my feedback.
•I also loved what he had to say about how therapists need to abandon the hope of saving, fixing or even helping their patient. Way too often in the field the therapist’s ego is involved and the quality of care suffers accordingly.
•The info and exercises- I’ve been doing the daily thought record for 3.5 months and it has been nothing short of lifechanging. It has helped me more than any and all therapy I’ve ever had in my life. Much of that is due to CBT as a whole, though, so I don’t fully credit Burns with this, however, the content really was so helpful.
•He also makes the bold claim that full recovery from depression (with relapse prevention maintenance) is possible, which is not true for all patients, however, I feel like it is a lot more possible than the field makes it out to be. The field has a vested interest in making people think they’re sick and defective forever and normalizes people going to therapy for years with no improvement. I think people deserve excellent care, and if the therapy isn’t working, the therapist has an ethical obligation to try a different tactic or refer them to someone who can help them.
In conclusion, this book is an amazing resource for consumers and clinicians, if you’re able to take it with a huge grain of salt.

    2023 client-books clinician-books

Carroll R Thomas

2 reviews

September 15, 2020

Powerfully Liberating!

Highly recommended! This book shows you how to uncover, discover, and discard what is blocking you from feeling and living great! Must read for anyone practicing CBT. TEAM CBT is the future of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy!

Dani O

62 reviews3 followers

March 8, 2021

2 Takeaways for you

1.) Treat this not as a book but as treatment / "bibliotherapy." It's a hefty 500 pages and requires you to sit down and do these CBT exercises. If you don't do them then you're wasting your time.

2.) This is the textbook CBT book and is the most recommended book in Canada and the US for depression. It also has a 50-60% recovery rate which is unprecedented and far beyond the results for standard therapy or barbituates.

___________________

My Takeaways
I love learning about psychology and I was also feeling on and off anxious from covid so I figured I'd read the new version of this book from the '80s. The premise is that thoughts are the root of all issues and emotions, not the other way around. It had me shift some mental distortions and see things in a new perspective which lifted much of the anxiety.

Complaint
I think the sheer volume and time needed for this book creates a barrier for 95% of people who don't have the patience/commitment for it. A 200-page speedy version could have been equally beneficial. Also, he spends way too much time telling stories and justifying the science when he should spend more time guiding the reader step-by-step on how to do this. (It's step by step but over 500 pages, eh).

Verdict
Either way, if you have even the tiniest bit of occasional anxiety, phobias, depression, or relationship problems this book will definitely help if you put the effort in.

Nathan Crowther

8 reviews4 followers

April 6, 2021

This is the book you’re looking for

When I started this book several months ago I was in a spiral of depressive and anxious thoughts and feelings that I couldn’t seem to kick. This book helped walk me through these feelings and get me back on track to feeling great about myself and my life.

Toadie

1 review

June 3, 2022

Great if it helps you, but dangerously ableist for people with actual mental illness. If you are an otherwise healthy person who is going through a rough patch, by all means give it a shot. But if you try this book’s suggestions and it doesn’t work for you, SEEK ACTUAL HELP.

Amber

15 reviews

December 25, 2023

I read this book as part of the team cbt book club. We read this book over the course of three months. We met each week for an hour and a half to discuss the book. We would spend half of the class debriefing as a large group facilitated by therapists. Then we would spend the remaining part of the class with the same small group that was facilitated by a group leader.

Overall, I think this book and the group really helped me. I can see significant improvements in my anxiety, my communication, and my emotional regulation. I got so lucky to have a group that was so supportive, kind, and really helped me understand the concepts of the book. It was also just so validating (and maybe a little sad) to see how many people signed up for the club and were struggling with the same things I was.

In regards to the actual book, I started it skeptical and was skeptical the entire time. All self helpy books really irritate me, but I did find this book helpful. I would encourage people to read with an open mind and take what they find to be useful. I think there were some really helpful tools and concepts. I loved reading through the mental distortions and just having more self awareness about how/why I was thinking and why it was causing my anxiety. I also think the frameworks provided for how to understand your feelings and how to think through and process them were huge for me. I think that David Burns’ tone throughout this book was a bit patronizing and annoying. It made me not want to engage and continue reading at times. I also think the rhetoric about only needing to practice cbt, how talk therapy can lead to nothing, and medicine is never needed was really quite harmful and Dr. Burns needs to get over himself. I find cbt to be a powerful tool and think it can help anyone in their self help journey, but recognize it as a tool and not a cure all. I wish David Burns would not be so aggressive about people’s need to accept this way of thinking and only this. I think I got a lot more from the book because of the book club, but I still think this book is worth reading.

Jamie

3 reviews

August 17, 2021

Patronizing, pretentious voice with a god complex. My therapist and I read this at the same time. And then chucked it, with her apologies.

El Zet

110 reviews12 followers

December 23, 2022

I need to start with a disclaimer: I’ve had only negative experiences with CBT. I have had trial sessions with several therapists and in best cases I felt patronized; in worst, simply gaslit. This book confirmed I was justified.

David Burns gives several examples of negative feedback from patients claiming he wasn’t listening to them. The patients had also another thing in common: they were all victims of abuse. These people stood face to face with a doctor who claimed their negative perception of what they’d experienced was distorted thinking and a question of mindset. After several such encounters, David Burns decided to listen for approximately 30 minutes to create a perception of a safe space. The last sentence is, obviously, exaggerated and ironic, but it encapsulates my negative experience with CBT: each and every therapist had an attitude that what I was saying wasn’t true and only in my head. I suppose, this is what they’re taught and trained in. In my case, the therapists were acting exactly like my abuser: doubting, dismissing, gaslighting.

In fact, in one of the first chapters David Burns says openly that the negative thought needs to be precisely defined. It confirms my suspicions: that CBT, or at least how David Burns practices it, is effective for very situational depressive episodes that have a very concrete beginning and a cause. It strongly reduces the target audience but hey, anything to boost the statistics. It’s not the first time David Burns is unethical. Repeated comments that other forms of therapy and pharmacology are bullshit (yes, he really used that expression) and a plot to get rich by harming the patients are the lowest low. If David Burns isn’t able to hype his own method without insulting others and bringing them down, maybe he’s not as good as he thinks.

Especially considering that the described methods don’t sound particularly convincing. Allegedly, patients get cured within one session, often a public one, and the evidence is an assessment sheet. All of us have encountered skilled salesmen who talked us into buying something we didn’t need; usually, after the endorphins drop to the previous level, we realize we’ve been conned. All the case studies in the book end with the end of the session, in few cases we have a fast forward to one and a half year later, there’s no follow up, no development. Particularly unbelievable is a story of a mafioso who started the session as a thug and at the end was sobbing. The only thing missing was violin music.

This book isn’t simply annoying, it’s also dangerous. People with low self-esteem and deep depression shouldn’t be subjected to the condescending comments that it’s all in their head and that meds are a hoax.

Alex C.

140 reviews

August 9, 2021

This book is perfect for those that are:
- struggling with mild to moderate depression and anxiety
- motivated and want to get better
- willing to and have the capacity to put in the work to get better
- not having concurrent catatonia/psychomotor retardation or active suicide ideation

I honestly believe the methods in this book can work, (considering that antidepressants don’t really work, at least TEAM CBT doesn’t have the nasty side effects), but I will say results can vary based on who says it and how it’s said, so that can be up to how each individual interpret Dr. Burns’ tone and intent. I saw some comments about how he comes across as repetitive and arrogant in this book. I didn’t really get that vibe, but then again, I’m also a health care professional, which makes me a little biased.

What this book asks the readers do is not easy, in fact, it is VERY difficult. It will only work if you actually try. But it is my opinion that recovery is never easy and if therapy or CBT isn’t an option for you, then at least give this a good chance. It can’t hurt more than medications.

Jessica

99 reviews4 followers

August 18, 2021

Relevant to everyone and a good update on the older Feeling Good. Perhaps a little repetitive, but the repetition is not tedious and all of the numerous examples and stories are highly illustrative and informative. I highly recommend this book to absolutely everyone. There is power in the realization that our feelings are a result of our thoughts and that those thoughts are not immutable. We get to choose what we think (and Dr. Burns arms us with techniques to help steer us to conviction in those thoughts that are kindest to ourselves and others). The biggest addition to this new book is the idea that some of the negative thoughts we have been holding onto may say some really great things about us and the values we hold. He then helps us work with that to overcome our opposition to change that may arise because our subconsciousmay believe thatchange may threaten those values. So helpful.

John Stepper

575 reviews25 followers

February 3, 2023

After a few months of “generalized anxiety”, and trying the basic techniques (more exercise, less alcohol and caffeine, breathing exercises, yoga) I was ready to try something new.

Although I was familiar with CBT before reading this, after hearing an interview with the author (now 78 years old) and some glowing recommendations, I decided to read yet another self-help book.

I’m glad I did.

I was disarmed at first by the informal, casual writing style and many(!) exclamation points!!! But that style grew to be charming, and the author’s self-deprecating stories helped make him relatable and credible.

More importantly, the CBT techniques work. The key, as I learned this time, is to ACTUALLY DO THE EXERCISES! Decades of negative self-talk and cognitive distortions don’t go away from just a conceptual understanding of a more positive way of thinking. It takes practice to rewire your thought patterns and cultivate new habits.

I admit it was tempting to skip the exercises and just get to the point, especially when asked to analyze other peoples stories that you feel may not be relevant to you. I urge you to resist this temptation if you expect the book to have an effect. By applying the simple techniques, in writing, over and over on other cases, you are prepared to apply them to your own thoughts and to ultimately do so without the book.

Thank you, Dr. Burns, for your tremendous contribution.

Bibi Verhagen

82 reviews20 followers

July 21, 2022

VERY GOOD.

In the world of self-help or even spiritual books, this is the best one I've read. Easily. It makes me doubt the ones I've been previously very excited about like 'The body keeps the score'.

Many great tools, helpful ideas and a better understanding about how thoughts not events make your mood.

I did the excersises and filled in many daily mood logs. I find them helpful but not always easy or quick. The practice does take time to learn but that's okay. Thus fare results are great.

As a social worker it also teached me a lot about my professional practice and I will try to take as much wisdom from this book with me.

Eventhough David Burns is sometimes ridiculously sure of his method I've always found him down to earth and relatabe. He knows his stuff and does not operate or create TEAM-CBT alone.

All the stars!

Hunter Weaver

8 reviews

January 22, 2023

I wish I could give it 3 1/2 stars. I think it's a book that could be really useful for a lot of people, but I also have reservations about it. Maybe I'll eventually write a more detailed review.

Mariko

210 reviews

February 19, 2022

I skimmed through all of the parts that were relevant to me (I have read two of his other books all the way through, so I was familiar with his framework). It was super helpful, can't recommend it enough! It totally helped me reframe some negative thoughts as I've struggled with some health problems.

    skimmed

Jeff Ginger

77 reviews7 followers

October 13, 2022

So, on the whole not a bad book, just maybe not right for me? The author feels authentic and a lot of the ideas were new to me and interesting.

That said most of the examples were unrelatable for me personally, but a humbling reminder of what others go through and humility practice. It makes me feel lucky that I don't run into folks with cancer or severe physical impairments or that think they're untouchable. It's definitely not meant to be read, it's meant to be a workshop. I'm trying to get better at knowing how to reframe thoughts in positive (CBT) ways, as at root this is a really solid approach to mental health. As a life-wide model it totally makes sense. I wish the book were full of more examples for how to rewrite my negative thoughts specifically.

As a remedy to romantic struggles (dating, not sustaining relationships - I think it's good for that) it's not very useful. In my opinion in the dating context strategies like trying to be vulnerable, looking at your track record data, or trying to ask people what they think to avoid mindreading pitfalls backfire at least 50% of the time. More and more I feel like the guide book to dating in the oversaturated app-driven world of young, beautiful rich humans that is Colorado is to (1) have a professional photographer who follows you everywhere (2) be a comedian trained in the arts of quippy one-liners delivered a mere 2 times weekly. It has little to do with self-development, so maybe that's on me?

We're all subject to externalities - we can decide to treat people one way or see the world in a given way but if everyone else is operating on different norms it doesn't really matter. We can coax ourselves into feeling better, but that may not solve the root problem that causes us to keep feeling bad - one that lies outside of our own minds. That's not on Dr. Burns or this book, really, it's sort of like getting frustrated at the weather. The whole "cured in a day" thing feels sketch. I think it's got to be more of a process of practice, but CBT should be part of that.

I was really curious about the chapter on anxiety and then it was all about people with much more severe forms than I ever encounter. It made me wonder what I even think anxiety is - do I just conflate it with introversion or demisexuality? Most of the anxiety I see in others is people who are afraid of physical touch and/or emotional or intellectual vulnerability and have trouble forming strong relationships as a result. It's not folks who suffer from panic attacks or OCD or phobias. How to help (or just deal with?) folks with the "total flaketown" variety of anxiety (classic avoidance?) must be in another book. I'll keep searching.

In the meantime I'd recommend reading the first couple of chapters to get a sense of the ideas, and maybe more for folks who are working with more severe conditions - in themselves or others. Examining the reasons our hindrances might really be benefits and not challenging people to be another way outright - hearing them out and starting with affirmation - seems like a strong approach for people who are in a place where they're able to share.

Annette Thompson

68 reviews5 followers

October 10, 2020

Seems too good to be true.

Sarah Rockwood

46 reviews1 follower

February 1, 2022

I certainly learned a lot about cognitive distortions, positive reframing, and different mental strategies to counteract negative thinking. The main idea is that you feel the way you think, and that if you can change the way you think, you can change the way you feel. While I appreciate the hopeful tone, I found many of the messages to be cavalier in how successful they sounded. Dr. Burn's would often say, "By the end of the session, the patient's anxiety and depression and dropped down to almost zero! The depression was gone!" While this may happen rarely, I found it very difficult to believe it happened as often as was implied, and certainly didn't feel that same level of radical change while reading it. I also found some of the positive reframing to be taken too far - sure, anxiety shows that you care a lot about something, but if it's leading to mental and physical distress, I don't think saying that shows something "awesome" about you is an effective or respectful strategy.

Roy

76 reviews

October 13, 2021

This is a breakthrough concept, and a wonderfully helpful book, at least for me. David Burns is so enthusiastic, he sounds like he might be throwing out the entire field of psychology/psychiatry in favor of one narrow approach. And yet, he has found the best approach, and it is based on solid science, even if you want to call it nothing more than solving the "rumination" problem. But that is the major problem in depression. And, to be fair, he does not throw away any other aspects of psychology. He calls them into question, and reports fairly on the statistics and the lack of efficacy of many of the other treatments for depression, including antidepressants and endless talk therapy that never reaches an endpoint.

Ashleigh

48 reviews

July 16, 2023

Loved this book. I went to some of his seminars for CEUs and I think watching his therapy session and seeing him in person help make the techniques make for sense. It does feel gimmicky at times, but if you actually do the techniques and exercises in the book you realize how complicated it actually is. As a clinician, I appreciated the repetition because it gave me practice for each technique and got easier over time. I would recommend going to his trainings or listening to his podcasts as well.

Jon Harvell

16 reviews

January 12, 2022

A diadem and the crown of psychological literature. A simple and foolproof approach of positive reframing, and in the real life examples of his accounts of how this foolproof technique can be applied, all offer a Hands-On book for both therapists and patience how to overcome negative tendencies, moods, mental disorders, and much more.

    self-improvement

Trudes

52 reviews1 follower

Read

August 8, 2021

If you're invested and fully believe in CBT then this is a perfect companion piece to in person therapy or if you just want to work through worksheets. The writing itself isn't always my cuppa but the insights and tools are valuable

    kindle

The Retrospective Emperor

77 reviews1 follower

May 17, 2023

This is a solid book, but it is definitely not as good as some of Burns' other books. It can be a bit repetitive, and if you read any of his other books it will feel familiar at times. But overall I think its worth a read.

Jimmy

230 reviews

June 4, 2022

I read the book and the bonus chapters from the website. This book is great, but like many books, too repetitive and verbose. Too many examples and detail explanations.

    profound

Linda Kayseas

4 reviews

September 15, 2021

It may have seemed repetitive at time but it’s needed for you to really master the CBT exercises. I will read this book more than a few times it’s an excellent reference.

    2021-reads

Emily Kahn-freedman

53 reviews

October 20, 2021

Excellent book for people with depression and/or anxiety. Great for me as a therapist, too. Takes his book Feeling Good (from 1980 or so) to another level.

Feeling Great: The Revolutionary New Treatment for Depr… (2025)
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