David Burns on the Paradox of Resistance

According to renowned expert on anxiety David Burns, far and away the biggest barrier to treating it successfully-- sometimes even in a single session-- is recognizing how many clients covertly hold onto their symptoms, even when they restrict their lives and seem to cause them enormous distress.

That's because, deep down, they believe that their anxiety protects them more than it disrupts their lives. Add to that the fact that so much anxiety treatment involves some form of exposure to the very thing that causes them so much discomfort, clients have pretty compelling reasons to resist the onerous process of transforming their anxiety. That’s why the drop-out rates for anxiety treatment are so high.

Recently David has discovered that through a method that directly addresses the perceived perils of change in the very first session of therapy, he was able to forge an entirely different kind of collaborative alliance with client from the get-go. He began to see results beyond anything he had previously achieved in his long and distinguished career. The key was not starting the process of treatment before the client was truly ready to begin.

In this clip, David tells the memorable tale of a case that pivoted dramatically on what he calls this “paradoxical agenda-setting.”

David is just one of the six innovators included in our upcoming video webcast series on Treating Anxiety: The Latest Advances. It offers a vivid look at the practical methods experts on anxiety treatment like Reid Wilson, Danie Beaulieu, Steve Andreas, Lynn Lyons and Margaret Wehrenberg have to offer that can expand your own clinical repertoire with psychotherapy’s most common presenting problem. To learn more about this exciting new webcast, click here.

To learn more about the latest developments in understanding anxiety, its roots in our neurophysiology and practical methods for effective treatment, check out these free articles:

"10 Best Ever Anxiety Management Techniques" by Margaret Wehrenberg and "The Language of the Nervous System" by Laurie Leitch and Elaine Miller-Karas.

Welcome to this intensive Master Class series, “Beyond Pills: Effective Psychotherapy with Depressive Clients.” This popular, illuminating series features internationally recognized expert, Michael Yapko, known for his work in the strategic treatment of depression. Throughout the series, you’ll learn about the latest, significant research in effectively helping depressed clients—without antidepressant medications.

These four sessions will cover such topics as why medicalizing depression has worsened the problem, reasons to be cautious about antidepressants, using hypnosis, mindfulness, and homework as part of experiential treatment, social factors as related to depression, and much more. In the second session, you’ll be able to watch this kind of treatment in action, with a video clip of Mike, a depressed and anxious client. The fourth session includes a question-and-answer session with Yapko to allow you to further incorporate this knowledge into practice.

Throughout this series, this Comment Board will be available as a way for you all to share thoughts and reflections about what was most thought-provoking and to ask questions of the presenter and of each other. We invite and encourage you to use this Comment Board as a forum for learning. Between sessions, please just take a few minutes to share what you think. What did you think was most interesting or relevant? What questions do you have? 

Thank you so much for your participation, and welcome to this relevant and important series. If you ever have any technical questions or issues, please feel free to email support@psychotherapynetworker.org.