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

Update: The Feeling Great App

June 9, 2025·1 hr 33 min·5 clips

David Burns announces the Feeling Great app now reduces negative feelings by over 70%, surpassing any known therapy.

Dr. Rhonda Borowski hosts this episode with Dr. David Burns, a pioneering psychiatrist and author of "Feeling Good." They are joined by app developers Jason Minow and Adam Holman to discuss updates to the Feeling Great app. The episode focuses on new features and data showing the app's effectiveness in applying TEAM-CBT principles for self-guided mood improvement. The hosts read a listener endorsement detailing a two-year journey from severe depression to recovery using the podcast and Dr. Burns's techniques. Jason Minow explains his personal use of the app to address workaholism with a habits and addictions tool. Dr. Burns announces that the app's new Daily Mood Log V2 shows over 60% reduction in negative feelings for new users and over 70% for repeat users. Adam Holman describes a daily practice of challenging one negative thought and the data showing its link to improved mood. The team introduces the "Thought Crusher" tool, designed to help users quickly reduce belief in specific negative thoughts. They demonstrate by exploring Jason's negative thought that TEAM-CBT "won't reach the people who need it," initially believed at 80%. The discussion reveals that simply offering empathy or positive affirmations often does not reduce negative feelings or belief in the thought. Data from the app indicates that the degree of belief reduction in a negative thought correlates linearly with improvement in emotional state. A key insight is that effective change requires not just positive thinking but actively dismantling belief in the negative thought. The hosts explain that the Thought Crusher offers over 100 methods from TEAM-CBT, such as Identifying Distortions and Positive Reframing, for users to experiment with. They note that once a user finds a technique that works for a specific thought, it can provide quick relief during future relapses. The episode clarifies that the app is not therapy but models techniques used in clinical sessions. The tone is collaborative, educational, and occasionally humorous, with personal anecdotes from the developers. The style is conversational, blending technical explanations of app development with live demonstrations of therapeutic techniques. Listeners interested in self-help, cognitive behavioral therapy, or digital mental health tools would find this episode valuable. Those seeking a narrative story or discussion unrelated to the app's practical features might choose to skip it.

As heard by us

An app-focused episode that turns abstract CBT into practical tools.

Episode 452 reads like an app update with a therapy lesson attached. The hosts spend most of their time on the latest news about the Feeling Great app, with some basic science and research folded in along the way.

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Why you'd press play

See how one stuck thought turns into a menu of practical CBT moves for a hopeless or anxious belief.

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