Feeling Good Podcast | TEAM-CBT - The New Mood Therapy · David Burns, MD

Ask David: How can I help grandma and my mom?

September 15, 2025·53 min·5 clips

David Burns explains why hiding anger disrespects others and transforms a therapeutic role-play.

Dr. David Burns and hosts discuss a listener's question about helping a demanding grandmother and frustrated mother, using role-plays to demonstrate the five secrets technique. The conversation expands to address expressing anger honestly, codependency, and applying empathy to extreme cases like white supremacists, blending practical advice with deep psychological insights.

As heard by us

A family-care question becomes a blunt lesson in honesty, anger, and better wording.

This discussion takes a family-care question and keeps pulling it back to plain language. David Burns, Rhonda, and Matt stay on the wording, and that is the point: the talk moves from being polite to being honest about what someone actually feels.

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Why you'd press play

If family tension is pulling you into fake therapist speech, this episode shows a more honest script.

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