Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: What the Critics Get Right (and Wrong) w/ Dr. Ellen Hendriksen

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the world's most researched, recommended, and criticized form of therapy. 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 CBT warm?

10:25: The first wave: behaviorism

19:57: The second wave: cognitive therapy and Aaron Beck

26:18: The third wave: mindfulness driven approaches

31:44: How the same problem would be handled by the three waves

34:53: Issues of fit

38:00: Critique 1: CBT is reductive

42:30: When CBT is a poor fit: trauma, intellectualizers