016a: Special Interview: Can Depression and Anxiety Be Treated in a Two-Hour Therapy Session? with Lisa Kelley

David and Fabrice are joined by Lisa Kelley, a certified TEAM-CBT therapist and former journalist from Littleton, Colorado. Lisa interviews David about an interview / blog David has just published on this website. For the full PDF of the article, click here.

Lisa begins by asking how people responded to a survey on David’s website asking this controversial question: “Do you believe that a depressed individual could experience a complete elimination of symptoms in a single, two-hour therapy session?” More than 5,000 individuals completed the survey and most were extremely skeptical.

David states that ten years ago, he would have felt exactly the same way, and would have dismissed anyone making such a claim as a con artist. However, he has now changed his mind and believes that sometimes it is possible.

David explains that he has done more than 50 live demonstrations in workshops and other teaching settings with individuals who are struggling with severe feelings of depression, anxiety, shame and anger. Many of these individuals who volunteer to be the patient have experienced horrific personal traumas. This gives David the opportunity to demonstrate how TEAM-CBT works with someone who is really suffering, and not just a role-playing demonstration. Usually, these live demonstrations are the highlight of a workshop because they are intensely emotional and real. Surprisingly, in the vast majority of these sessions, the individuals who were in the patient role experienced a complete, or near-complete, elimination of symptoms in roughly two hours.

David emphasizes that while we would not expect this to generalize to a clinical practice situation, it does seem to suggest significant improvements, or even breakthroughs, in psychotherapy. Many of the new developments have to do with helping patients overcome their resistance to change. Although David makes these techniques look easy, they are challenging to learn, and require a radically new and different way of thinking about why patients sometimes resist change and fight the therapist.

Lisa, Fabrice, and David explain exactly how the new techniques work, using as an example an Asian-American woman who had experienced decades of domestic violence and rape.