Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Techniques for Retraining Your Brain

Course Overview

Discover practical techniques for modifying undesirable behavior and managing your moods with this course that explains how and why cognitive behavioral therapy works.

Course No. 9631

Why is it so hard to lose weight, stop smoking, or establish healthy habits? Why do couples argue about the same issues over and over? Why do so many people lie awake at night, stricken with worry and anxiety? Why is it so difficult to come to terms with a loved one’s death, even if it’s after a long illness? The answers to these questions—and the path to lasting change in your life—lie in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a well-tested collection of practical techniques for managing moods and modifying undesirable behaviors through self-awareness, critical analysis, and goal-oriented change.

CBT illuminates the links between thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and physical health and uses those connections to develop concrete plans for self-improvement. Built on a solid foundation of neurological and behavioral research, CBT is an approach almost anyone can use for promoting greater mental health and improving quality of life. In 24 engaging half-hour lectures, you’ll build a robust and effective self-improvement toolkit with the expert guidance of Professor Satterfield of the University of California, San Francisco. You will explore CBT’s roots in Socratic and stoic philosophy, build a toolkit of CBT techniques, and hear about the latest research about its outcomes.

Additionally, this intriguing and practical course allows you to take on the role of medical student, physician, psychologist, and patient. Throughout the course, you’ll explore issues that cause people to seek out therapy. In some cases, you’ll get to hear Dr. Satterfield working with a patient, and in others, you’ll be delving into research to find what causes issues and how CBT helps to resolve them. Everyone has something about their life that they would like to improve. With the tools in CBT and the desire to make your situation better, you can create lasting change in your life.

Course Content

01: Cognitive Behavioral Foundations

Begin by meeting Dr. Satterfield’s patients—Carol, Michael, and Maria—each with something in their lives that could be helped with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). You will follow these patients throughout the course as you learn the basics of CBT, including how you can train your brain to improve motivation, management of emotions, and interpersonal skills.
Duration: 33 min

02: Quantified Self-Assessment for Therapy

Trace the roots of CBT and see how it upends the typical psychoanalysis process, focusing on daily events and emotions instead of past history. Watch as Dr. Satterfield performs an initial assessment of three new patients, helps them set SMART goals, and begins to collect data about their thoughts, emotions, and actions.
Duration: 32 min

03: Setting Therapeutic Goals

A fascinating aspect of CBT is the collaborative journey the therapist and patient take to create the patient’s case formulation, a living document that serves as a basis for an individual treatment plan and guides the therapy process. Watch as the doctor helps Michael unpack his anger to understand why certain situations make him furious.
Duration: 30 min

04: Third-Wave Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Now that you are familiar with the basics of CBT, explore the third wave, which focuses on the process of cognition rather than its content. It’s been described as Buddhist meditation meets CBT, and the research shows some surprising results!
Duration: 32 min

05: Stress and Coping

Alleviate stress by learning how to quiet the two primary physiological stress pathways: one secretes the stress hormone called cortisol, and the other secretes epinephrine or adrenaline (often called the fight or flight response). See how CBT helps you examine your preferred coping styles to determine whether or not you’re selecting the best adaptive strategies for you.
Duration: 32 min

06: Anxiety and Fear

Contrast the emotions of anxiety and fear, and consider how each can feed the other. Use the SUDS hierarchy to perform a thorough analysis of situations that induce these feelings, then see how behavioral experiments can systematically desensitize you to the things you once feared or avoided.
Duration: 29 min

07: Treating Depression

Identify the nine hallmark symptoms of depression, then use the CBT triangle to describe the three downward spirals that contribute to a depressive episode. Observe as Dr. Satterfield walks Maria through tools to help her alleviate her depression, and learn how you can apply these same techniques to lift your mood.
Duration: 34 min

08: Anger and Rage

Delve into the surprising root of many anger issues and see how CBT works to decrease “hostile fantasies,” or the thoughts you have when a person or situation triggers your anger. Add simple exercises to your life that will help you recognize triggers and defuse them before they become full-blown rage.
Duration: 32 min

09: Advanced Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Progress from basic cognitive restructuring to an in-depth look at a tool that helps build awareness of the thoughts and emotions you have in a particular situation. See how the collaborative problem solving in CBT creates flexibility and the creativity to find something that works for each individual person, given his or her life circumstances.
Duration: 30 min

10: Positive Psychology

Although CBT was developed for the treatment of psychopathology and negative mood states, it has more recently been used as a way to encourage or induce positive emotion. Explore recent scientific studies about happiness, and learn which exercises are most effective for cultivating improved mood.
Duration: 29 min

11: Healing Traumatic Injuries

Define the various types of trauma that can affect people—from combat veterans suffering from PTSD to victims of random violence—and learn how CBT can be used to treat these patients with great success. See how the tools used in CBT sessions help to unstick the brain and begin the process of repairing damage.
Duration: 30 min

12: Forgiveness and Letting Go

Forgiveness—and its associated health benefits—begins with a cognitive decision and can be promoted with both cognitive and behavioral strategies. Delve into the fascinating scientific research on forgiveness, identify maladaptive strategies that are holding you back, and create an A.C.T.I.O.N. plan.
Duration: 31 min

13: Digging Deep and Finding Meaning

Move beyond searching for explanations for why painful events happened, instead turning your thoughts to what those events mean in your broader perspective and how your reactions can be intentionally shaped using CBT. See how CBT can provide tools to support positive shifts in perspective and help you see the bigger picture.
Duration: 29 min

14: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Medicine

Recently, there has been growing acceptance of CBT as part of the treatment for medical illnesses, from diabetes to cardiovascular disease to cancer. Discover the pivotal role that cognitions and emotions can play in empowering patients and helping them manage their physical maladies.
Duration: 30 min

15: Staying on the Wagon

Whether you want to lose weight, quit smoking, or exercise more, learn the secrets to creating habits that stick. Identify and define core concepts, such as self-control, self-discipline, motivation, and willpower, and see how each of these can be affected by the CBT skills you’ve learned in previous lectures.
Duration: 31 min

16: Thinking Healthy: Weight and Nutrition

Yo-yo no more: Patients who used CBT to manage their relationship with food and exercise showed decreased weight, decreased body mass index, decreased waist circumference, and improved eating habits. Use the core behavior change principles from previous lectures and apply them to healthy eating and exercise habits.
Duration: 31 min

17: Behavioral Therapy for Chemical Addictions

Review the basics of substance use disorders—alcohol, prescription drugs, and illegal drugs—and what second- or third-wave CBT therapies can offer people who suffer with addiction. Add community reinforcement approach (CRA) to your CBT toolkit and see how it can be more successful than 12-step recovery programs.
Duration: 32 min

18: Getting a Good Night’s Sleep

Fewer than half of Americans say they get a good night’s sleep on most nights. Observe as Dr. Satterfield works with Maria to assess her quality and quantity of sleep. Apply the techniques of CBTI (the “I” is for insomnia) to fall asleep faster and wake more rested.
Duration: 32 min

19: Mastering Chronic Pain

Both cognitive and behavioral factors influence the experience of pain and the intensity of suffering. Learn how psychological factors can alter the experience of pain, look at mind-body factors that can alleviate or exacerbate chronic pain, and take out the CBT toolbox to see how it can be applied to physical, rather than emotional, hurt.
Duration: 31 min

20: Building and Deepening Relationships

Relationships are vital to our health and happiness. Explore the intricate world of human relationships, study the unwritten rules of social interactions, and discover how CBT can help you think through difficult situations without letting your emotions get the best of you.
Duration: 32 min

21: Constructive Conflict and Fighting Fair

Go beyond the one-on-one therapist-patient scenario and look at CBT’s approach to couples’ therapy, focusing on communication, conflict, empathy, respect, and intimacy. Meet Michael’s wife as she joins her husband in Dr. Satterfield’s office to talk about Michael’s anger and their relationship.
Duration: 32 min

22: Thriving at Work through Behavioral Health

Problems at work are more strongly associated with health complaints than any other life stressors. Examine best-selling books like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and How to Win Friends and Influence People and see where they line up neatly with CBT—and where CBT offers a better way to achieve success and happiness in the workplace.
Duration: 33 min

23: Developing Emotional Flexibility

Peer into the lives of people who have thrived in the face of adversity—why do some people flower while others wilt? The keys to flourishing are flexibility and resilience. Complete your CBT toolkit with a list of ten ways that you can develop and sustain personal resilience.
Duration: 31 min

24: Finding the Best Help

Round out the course with a look at Carol, Maria, and Michael’s progress. Then, Dr. Satterfield gives you his personal recommendations for finding a quality therapist, making the most of your sessions, evaluating your progress, and knowing when to end your therapy sessions.
Duration: 38 min