TEAM Therapy for Behavioral Habits & Addictions – Dr. David Burns & Feeling Good Institute

Dr. David Burns & The Feeling Good Institute teach a 5-hour overview course on TEAM Therapy.

ABOUT T.E.A.M. THERAPY
TEAM-CBT, created by Dr. David Burns is not a new “school” of therapy, but rather a framework for conducting evidence-based, effective therapy. David Burns has taken CBT and lifted it to new heights. He named his approach TEAM therapy. TEAM therapy builds on the useful parts of CBT and adds several profound tool sets to it to make it more effective, clear to implement, deeply moving, supportive and humanistic. It’s been called CBT on steroids, High speed CBT, and CBT with Soul.

Learning Dr. Burns’ principles for higher level CBT is fun and eye opening. To help therapists gain confidence in CBT using Dr. Burns’ tools it’s useful to divide the tools into four steps, for which we use the acronym T.E.A.M.

• Testing:
  In this emphasis for improving therapy skills, we teach step-by-step, practical ways how to get feedback from and talk about it with our patients openly and clearly. This sets the stage for accountability in the therapy room for both patient and therapist. In today’s world, therapists are often asked to measure their success in therapy, Dr. Burns’ method gives therapists tools of how to do so with ease and confidence.
• Empathy:
  TEAM Therapy views empathy as a teachable skill set. Training in Dr. Burns’ empathy teaches therapists how to deliver the tools of CBT in a warm and effective way. Dr. Burns created a simple to grasp system of teaching therapists (and patients) how to communicate effectively. Empathy is like oil for a machine. If oil quality is too low and quantities are too sparse the machine will come to a screeching halt. TEAM therapy teaches how to create and provide this vital ingredient.
• Agenda setting:
  This is the heart of what Dr. Burns contributed to therapy. This includes learning how we create resistance in our patients and learning how to melt it away. When agenda is set well, helping our patients reach their goals of therapy becomes as easy as falling off a barrel. Though our clients are suffering, they also have a side to them that’s resistant to change. Arguing with that side will cause the opposite of change and create more resistance to change. That is a common problem in CBT. In TEAM therapy we teach therapists techniques to melt away resistance to change in our patients. There is simple science to it. When done well, it feels like magic.
• Methods:
  Dr. Burns created dozens of easy to use CBT techniques. They are effective in warp speed when testing, empathy, and agenda setting is done successfully. Methods range from helping patients struggling with depression and anxiety, to habits and addictions as well as relationship problems.Taken together, this forms TEAM therapy. Dr. Burns created a rich set of tools to improve the comfort and skill of therapists. The process of integrating the tools of TEAM therapy into practice is challenging and yet deeply rewarding. Our mission at Feeling Good Institute is to help spread quality TEAM therapy . Please check our website at www.feelinggoodinstitute.com to learn more about TEAM Therapy and our community as well as about training opportunities in CBT based on David Burns’ work.