TEAM-CBT
Virtual Therapy in California
In-Person visits available in Roseville, CA
“You keep mentioning ‘TEAM-CBT,’ but I have no idea what that means. Why does everything have to be an acronym?”
– You
It’s just a “cognitive behavioral therapy” type thing, right?
Well, not exactly.
TEAM-CBT is more of a framework for DOING therapy than anything else, and it was developed by Dr. David Burns.
Dr. David Burns has been around for quite some time. He has many influential books (all with very similar titles). Some of my favorites are the following:
The Feeling Good Handbook
Feeling Good Together
Feeling Great
When Panic Attacks
And TEAM is indeed an acronym. They are everywhere, for better or worse. This one stands for:
Testing - This means short questionnaires I have my clients complete before AND after every session. This also means rating how strong your emotions are, as well as how strongly you believe your thoughts. This gives concrete information about where you are, and allows us to figure out where you want to be.
Empathy - I this it’s easy to take empathy for granted, or to write it off as something people just “naturally do”. But in reality, good empathy — allowing someone to feel deeply heard and understood — is quite difficult. I have additional training, and continue ongoing training, working on this incredibly important skill.
Agenda setting - It’s easy to get caught talking generally about issues, but real change will happen when we know exactly what change you want to make, a specific example of the issue happening that we can dissect, and when we take time to build that motivation to follow through and make it happen.
Methods - This is where the classic therapy interventions come into play, such as thought logs, examining evidence, doing role plays, exposure, etc. Once we lay the groundwork, THEN we can move to trying a whole bunch of different methods. I have a ton that we can try. And we will just keep trying them until we find the one that fits! I don’t get discouraged when a method doesn’t work, because it means we are just one step closer to finding the one that will work.
This framework gives me a roadmap so that we can move through therapy with direction and purpose rather than just aimlessly talking about whatever the issue of the day is. There will likely be days when you want to talk about what’s happening right then, and that’s okay. But if that’s what’s happening week after week, I would feel like I’m not providing you with the best care possible.
Let me explain this TEAM-CBT thing.
(This will get a bit lengthy, so feel free to skim.)
In my process of continuing to strive to be the best therapist I can be, I became affiliated with the Feeling Good Institute. All the therapists affiliated with Feeling Good Institute are TEAM-CBT providers and the focus is on clinical excellence.
I’m really proud to be an affiliate, because that means that I get to train every week with phenomenal clinicians — such as Dr. Jill Levitt, Dr. Angela Krumm, Dr. Maor Katz, and Mike Christensen — and I have access to training groups with Dr. David Burns himself.
I have over ten years of clinical experience, but I firmly believe that there is always more to learn, and always improvements that can be made. Being affiliated with Feeling Good Institute, I am practicing my clinical skills every week.
Paying for therapy isn’t cheap!
I want to do my part to make sure you’re receiving effective care and getting your money’s worth.
I’m not sure TEAM is for me…
Understandable! If you’re thinking “this sounds like a lot of work”, you’re right. Mental health is just like learning a sport, or a musical instrument — it takes a lot of practice to get good at it. However, that work can really pay-off.
If you don’t want to do the work, and if you want to take a longer path to relief with less structured therapy, that’s completely okay! We are already rushed enough as it is. It can be nice to take the slow path.
If you’re curious to get a better sense of what TEAM-CBT is, I recommend checking out one of the above books. You could also check out The Feeling Good Podcast, with David Burns as an easy and free way to explore the approach.
Who this type of therapy is for:
→ Willing to do homework. Homework is chosen collaboratively, but if you want real results, I recommend 10-20 minutes per day.
→ You’re tired of endless ‘talk therapy’ where you spend every session talking about your week.
→ You like being able to see your progress with clear measurements.
→ You’re analytic and enjoy picking thoughts apart.
→ You are open to doing role plays to really create an emotional shift, not just mentally changing the words
→ You’re willing to give me feedback when sessions aren’t feeling helpful! And if this one is hard, you’re willing to work on it and build those assertiveness skills to honestly tell me what you need.
