Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the world’s most researched, recommended, and criticized form of therapy. Today on the Being Well Podcast, clinical psychologist Dr. Ellen Hendriksen joins Forrest to talk about what CBT is, its history, its strengths and weaknesses, and why it’s gotten such a bad rap. They walk through the common criticisms: that it’s spreadsheet therapy, that it’s a form of self-gaslighting, and that it has an, er, “complex” relationship with insurance companies. They then apply the best of the CBT toolkit to Ellen’s areas of expertise: self-criticism, perfectionism, procrastination, and social anxiety.
About our Guest: Ellen is a clinical psychologist at Boston University’s Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders and the author of How to Be Yourself and her newest book, How to Be Enough: Self-Acceptance for Self-Critics and Perfectionists.
Key Topics
- 00:00: Dr. Ellen Hendricksen and what differentiates CBT
- 7:54: Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy warm?
- 10:25: The first wave: behaviorism
- 19:57: The second wave: cognitive therapy and Aaron Beck
- 26:18: The third wave and mindfulness-driven approaches
- 31:44: How the same problem would be handled by the three waves
- 34:53: Issues of fit
- 38:00: Is CBT reductive?
- 42:30: When CBT is a poor fit: trauma, intellectualizers
- 53:27: CBT for social anxiety and perfectionism
- 1:01:14: The two ingredients of perfectionism
- 1:07:46: Perfectionism and procrastination
- 1:25:07: Recap
