CBT for Technology Addiction
Are you caught in an endless cycle of scrolling through social media, gaming, or compulsively checking your phone? In this recorded webinar, Mike Christensen (Level 5 Master TEAM-CBT Therapist and Trainer) and the Feeling Good Institute team share powerful strategies from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that can help you or your clients break free from technology overuse. Originally a one-hour live event offering 1 CE unit (available only during the live broadcast), this replay brings you the same engaging content to support you in regaining control over your tech habits. What You’ll Learn: Recognize Addictive Patterns: Identify the specific situations and triggers that fuel compulsive phone use and mindless scrolling. Develop Effective Skills and Strategies: Explore proven CBT methods to set boundaries, reduce cravings, and reclaim your time. Overcome Resistance to Change: Discover how the Double Paradox technique boosts motivation and reduces resistance to healthy behavior shifts. Enhance Empathy and Motivation: Build a supportive environment for lasting change by integrating empathy-driven techniques into your practice.
IN THIS WEBINAR:
Jill Levitt: Okay, welcome everyone to this month's webinar on CBT for Tech Addiction, called "Help I Can't Get Off My Phone," with Mike Christensen and Tony Weiss. I'm Jill Levitt. Let me start by telling you a little bit about who we are at Feeling Good Institute. Let me give you a quick snapshot of what we're about and share with you our mission, which is to make a difference in people's lives through elevating the practice of therapy. Our story started with one big goal, which was to make therapy better and to help people who are going through tough times. We achieve this by training and certifying therapists in effective therapy techniques that have been developed by David Burns. We have clinics in California and New York, and we offer video therapy across the US and Canada. We offer regular traditional weekly therapy sessions, as well as intensive therapy where patients join us for several hours a day, several days a week, to really speed up their treatment. I'll tell you a little bit about myself and my journey. I'm a clinical psychologist and I'm the director of training at the Feeling Good Institute. I was originally trained by some of the world's most prominent CBT leaders in our field, David Barlow and Edna Foa, over on the East Coast. I feel my effectiveness as a therapist really dramatically increased when I started working with David Burns at Stanford University out here in California over 17 years ago.
The framework that David created, which is called TEAM-CBT, provides a really structured and feedback driven approach that helps therapists to tailor their interventions more precisely and measure progress in real time. It has profoundly changed the way that I practice. It has taught me step by step how to make therapy exceptionally effective. David Burns's methods emphasize frequent assessment, active empathy skills, addressing resistance, and of course powerful CBT strategies that lead to quicker improvements in mood, anxiety, and even habits and addictions, as you'll see today. I'm excited to give you a glimpse into this approach to CBT in our monthly webinars. With the next slide, I'll also share with you that when I started learning from David Burns back in 2008, the only way to get trained in this TEAM-CBT model was to learn directly from David at Stanford or to attend one of his intensives. Learning this model took years of training. My colleagues and I have worked really hard over the years at Feeling Good Institute to develop a therapist training program that helps you to become an excellent therapist at a fraction of the time. We have certified over 2,000 therapists in TEAM-CBT, and we have transformed therapist practices with this approach. The methods that you'll see today are really powerful and only the tip of the iceberg. On this slide, you can see the journey that we hope you might join us on. If you're excited to take the next step and really master some of the skills you're learning today, we would invite you to join us in our next workshop or to enroll in our Core Skills for Effective Therapy course, which is asynchronous. Both of those options would give you Level One Certification and teach you the fundamentals, so you can start applying these techniques right away with your own clients. If you're looking to become truly excellent and really fast track your progress, we offer the Fast Track to Level Three program. In this training, you would earn 42 CE credits while you learn and practice over 50 cutting edge CBT techniques under the guidance of David Burns, myself, Mike Christensen, my and other expert trainers at the Feeling Good Institute. Now let me introduce you to our presenters today. Let me tell you first, sorry, about how to get your education credit today, and then I'll introduce you to the presenters. This is very simple. At about five of the hour today, in the chat box, we will drop the link for you to complete the CE survey. You must do it then before the end of the hour. Get it done. Within a week, we will email you your CE certificate of completion. You will click the link to complete the CE survey and then get your certificate of completion within a week via email, so not instantly. I have already introduced myself to you, so now I want to introduce you to Mike and Tony. I am really excited to introduce both of them to you.
Mike Christensen's journey is a really powerful example of the transformative impact of TEAM-CBT training. Mike has a really rich background spanning business, community organizations, and even family support roles. He has already made a big commitment to making a difference in people's lives, but he always felt he could be doing more. Once Mike got trained in TEAM-CBT, things really turned around. His confidence soared as he mastered precise and actionable techniques that delivered faster and more consistent results for his clients. Today, as the Director of Professional Development at the Institute and Director of FGI Canada, Mike is a certified Level Five Master TEAM-CBT therapist and training. His expertise now fuels Advanced Training for therapists worldwide and has culminated in co-authoring "The Deliberate Practice of TEAM CBT" book. Mike's evolution from a passionate counselor to a now global leader in TEAM-CBT is an awesome example of how this training can really revolutionize both your practice and your therapy outcomes. I'm excited to have Mike with us today. Tony Weiss, MALMSW, specializes in treating addiction, relationship issues, anxiety, and depression. With over five years of practice under his belt, Tony took our fast tack to Level Three TEAM CBT certification course and quickly established himself as an excellent and effective therapist. His remarkable progress led to an invitation to join the Feeling Good Institute as an affiliated clinician. I'm so happy that Tony is here with us today to share with us his expertise. I'm going to turn it over to Mike and Tony now.
Mike Christensen: Thanks so much, Jill. It is humbling to have that introduction. Sometimes I feel like we are just a couple of guys wanting to make a difference and have been so blessed with the opportunities to learn and grow at FGI. Our hope for today is to do a couple of things. One is clarify a definition of technology addiction. What does it actually mean? Then look at how we would assess resistance to change. Finally, we will introduce you to a couple of methods. It is just a little bit of a snapshot. There is more opportunity that we will be telling you about to learn more of the methods in a workshop that is coming up at the end of the month as well. Hopefully by the end of this presentation, you will be able to do two things. One is identify a specific tempting situation and a goal behavior, which will be foundational for a deeper understanding of what your clients and patients are experiencing, but also to help us assess the resistance and look at the methods that we will use. Then we are going to use what is called The Double Paradox and teach you how to set that up to address and assess the resistance to change. Before we dive in, we want to start with a definition of addiction.
Merriam Webster gives a really nice academic one, where it says, "A compulsive, chronic, physiological or psychological need for a habit-forming substance, behavior, or activity, having harmful physical, psychological, or social effects, and typically causing well-defined symptoms such as anxiety, irritability, tremors, or nausea upon withdrawal or abstinence." I also like that they have included a second definition, which is "a strong inclination to do, use, or indulge in something repeatedly." It really highlights that there is a spectrum of intensity and difficulty when we have a habit or addiction, if we look at it from that range. I think we are all on that spectrum in some level, and particularly in this day and age, technology addiction spans across the ages and the demographics. My personal definition is “any substance or behavior that provides some measure of short-term pleasure or relief but has longer-term negative consequences, and we have lost some degree of control over that substance or behavior at the level that we would like. It has a power over us despite our best intentions.” Some of you may have attended the webinar that Tony and I did in the fall, which is much the same as today. We have updated it, but when Jill asked us to do it because we have a bit of a theme of habits and addictions going this year, Tony and I jumped at the chance because it is personal for us. It is real for us. We both have struggled in various ways in different angles, and so our hope is that you will come along the journey with us as part of learning for yourself, but as well as learning for your clients.
In the DSM-5, there is no criteria for technology addiction. You cannot be diagnosed with a technology addiction based on DSM criteria currently. That does not mean it is not a problem. It does not mean it does not impact us. The forms of technology addiction can include social media, gaming, online shopping, things like reels or shorts or shows. Certainly pornography is a massive one. Even good things like emails and group chats, where we can be so connected to our phone. Just recently, I was meeting with a guy and we were looking at doing some scheduling. He said, "I do not have my smartphone with me." I said, "Why is that?" He said, "I just have a flip phone right now." Then I said, "That is interesting." He said, "I work for myself and when I am at work, I used to waste so much time on my phone that I have to leave it in my vehicle, but customers can still get a hold of me because I have my flip phone." He removed the phone from his presence while he was at work because he could not handle it. It had gained this control over him. I suspect that all of us resonate with that in some way. There are disturbing trends that are happening with our accessibility and availability of technology that has this control over us. Tony is going to highlight a little bit of that for us.
Tony Weiss: These are some pretty harrowing statistics. Buckle up. If the average human lifespan is around 79 years, we can estimate that about 26 of those years are spent sleeping, seven of those years are spent trying to fall asleep, 13 years working, four years eating, three years in the bathroom, three years in commuting, two years doing household chores. That leaves us with around 12 years of actual free time, true free time across an entire lifespan. Now consider this: the average person spends about seven years on their smartphone. That is seven out of the 12 years of their free time. What is even more alarming is for younger generations, this number is creeping towards 10 years, 10 out of 12 years of true free time. We are now spending almost all of our available attention and leisure by looking at our screens.
Mike Christensen: When we think about other people and addictions, it is easy to see the problem other people have, but when we do a little self-assessment, it is not a stretch to recognize that we all can get caught up in it. We are going to do a little poll of what I would suggest is a highly advanced group of people, mental health practitioners who know better. I want you to respond to this statement on a "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree" scale: "I spend more time on my phone or device than I would like." We will give you about 30 seconds to answer that, and then we will share the results. Do you strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, or strongly agree with that statement? I spend more time on my phone or device than I would like. Just give you a few more seconds to answer there. All right, Jill, would you share the results with us? Well, of the 415 that answered, we have 28% that strongly agree, 44% that agree, 12 or neutral, just 9 disagree, and only 8 strongly disagree. So there is the vast majority of us would actually like to spend less time on our phone advice. It has some measure of control over us. To bring this to life, ask yourself, are addictions really problems? Is spending too much time on my phone really a problem? I worked in an addictions treatment center for many years, and I used to think of them as problems. I do not see them that way anymore. I see any addictive substance or behavior as being an effective short-term solution. It provides some measure of either pain relief or pleasure or escape. In order to connect in a deep and empathic way, we need to actually shift our thinking about addictions and see them as powerful solutions that just may not be working anymore. Our phones are incredible devices. We can do a lot on them, with our work and research and learning things. But when they get overused or they steal our free time, up to 10 years out of our life, our goal is then to be able to support people in finding new solutions. First, we need to honor the brilliance and beauty of the current solution, the addictive behavior. Then we can address potential ways of getting free from it, getting relief from it. Tony is going to tell us, bring to life the story of Sarah to help us understand and get an inside look about what this is.
Tony Weiss: Sarah is a mom and a really skilled, fantastic therapist. She loves her work and places a lot of value on being connected and supportive of her family. Sarah is currently struggling, despite her best intentions, with getting sucked into scrolling on Pinterest, where she will research craft project ideas. She will do this instead of completing her therapy notes at the end of the workday. This frustrating habit is preventing her from keeping up with her professional obligations at the standard she expects from herself, which is a high standard. It leaves her feeling really stressed with the growing backlog of work and a terrible feeling that she is taking time away from her family. What we need to do in order to help Sarah is pinpoint a specific moment in time. What is the precise moment just before Sarah engages in the addictive behavior? We do this to discover all the thoughts, emotions, and driving motivational forces occurring in that specific moment. Once we do that, then we can learn and apply self-control methods and strategies that can be used in other similar moments when tempted to use. We need to isolate what the current behavior is, the drug of choice. For Sarah, that would be scrolling Pinterest for creative project ideas at the end of the workday at 4:30 PM. It is crucial that we really get a clear idea of exactly what is going on here, so we will be able to address all of the resistance and the issues that accompany it. Once we have the current behavior really nailed down, we would move to the goal behavior because once we take away a behavior, we need to replace it with something. It cannot exist in a vacuum. Sarah has chosen for her goal behavior, the one that will replace this, as completing her case notes and admin tasks for 30 minutes at 4:30 every day.
Mike Christensen: This foundational information really helps set us up to assess and address the resistance that will be present. When we have the current behavior, we know what the pull will be towards that behavior, and we also want to identify what will be the push away from the goal behavior. Why will she not want to do that? This is where we use something called The Double Paradox. The Double Paradox is very different than a standard cost-benefit analysis. It is paradoxical in nature. We are not looking at the cost and benefits of the addiction. We are only sitting on the side of the addictive behavior, aligning ourself with the pull to continue to use in this sense. So what you imagine for yourself, imagine you are Sarah, or you can think about your own smartphone use, your own app that you utilize. I know for me, it is YouTube. I get drawn into YouTube. For Sarah, it is Pinterest because she can research craft projects for her family. For Tony, it might be shopping on eBay for different things. But what would be the benefits of going on the smartphone? What are the advantages of that? Then we are going to look at what are the disadvantages of the new goal behavior. You could type it in the chat to Jill and maybe relate a few of them, but let us walk through some of the ideas that Sarah came up with. She said, "It is a nice break from clinical work." I love that idea. I know when I am at the end of my day, I am like, I could just catch a few sports highlights on YouTube, and it feels like a good break. "It is fun and it is inspiring." She can learn things and grow from it. "It is relaxing and easy." She does not have to think so hard. "It is a great way to help her mind be free and relax." And after all, "it is not so bad. There are worse things out there." Jill any other ideas?
Jill Levitt: I got “creative and fun”, “a way to give the brain something else to do”, a “task shift”, “a wind down time to go on Pinterest.” It is “convenient.” “I get a dopamine rush.” “I get to decompress.” “It is a reward for a draining day with clients.” “I get new ideas”, “connect with family”, “marks the end of a workday”. So many great ideas. People totally are into it.
Mike Christensen: I love that, and that is what makes it so appealing, and that is where app developers create algorithms to draw you in because they make it appealing. They make it wonderful, and there is some value. There is some purpose in it, and it is wonderful. Then we also want to look at what are the disadvantages of the new goal behavior? What are the drawbacks? What are the costs of doing case notes? I know for me, it is a necessary evil of my work. I love working with people, but I hate doing reporting in case notes. Put your ideas in. What is a drawback? What are the terrible things about doing case notes at the end of the day? For Sarah, she came up with a few things. "Discipline is tough." "It takes effort and energy at the end of the day." "It is hard work when you are tired," and she is going to have to deprive herself of some pleasure and escape. She is also going to have to find other time for her project, Pinterest craft research. What are some of the other ideas that are coming up there, Jill?
Jill Levitt: So, Mike, what I would say is some people followed the instructions and said the disadvantages of the goal behavior, but some people did the disadvantages of procrastination.
Mike Christensen: I am so glad that happened because that is exactly what our temptation is to do. It is to go for the disadvantages of the goal behavior. This is the opposite end of the spectrum. It is very paradoxical. We are really looking for what are the advantages or sorry, the disadvantages of the new goal behavior because that is what is going to prevent her from doing her goal behavior.
Jill Levitt: Disadvantages of goal behavior: "It is boring." I got a lot of that. "It is drudgery." "I am tired." Let us see. I am reading a couple that are more the disadvantages of procrastination. A lot of people did that, so it is very interesting. But they did not realize the paradoxical nature of this column. "Notes are literally the bane of my existence." "Need a break." I love that one.
Mike Christensen: That is fantastic. For those that were thinking about the disadvantages, that would be a straightforward cost benefit analysis. You could certainly use that, but what we want to do with an addiction is really align ourself with the powerful forces that will draw her into continuing with the behavior and push her away from the new goal behavior. You can use the same technique with any addiction. I used it for the guys in the treatment center with meth addiction or cocaine. What are the benefits of doing cocaine? What are the drawbacks of going to NA? What are the benefits of doing meth? What are the drawbacks of going to a treatment center or calling your sponsor? Now, once we have all of these, we want to identify that there are actually really two key benefits of using The Double Paradox. The first is it is a deep form of empathy. We want to understand the struggle. I do not know about you, but when I heard Sarah's list, I felt a lot more connected to her. I am wondering if some of you feel like, oh, that is me too. Also with the drawbacks, we want to get into that dark struggle together with our clients. The second reason is that it really puts the patient in the role of arguing for change. I am not trying to convince her to change. I am actually giving her the opportunity to continue with the solution that has been working for her in some way. The way we do that is we use what is called the pivot question, and we ask the question, "Considering all the costs and drawbacks of doing case notes and all the wonderful benefits of continuing to go on Pinterest, why would you want to give that up?" I think there is a little bit of Sarah in all of us that would not want to give it up. Sarah is not just a made-up case or a vignette. Sarah is a real person, and Sarah is here today, and we are going to draw Sarah in to do a little of modeling of some of the exercises that we are going to do. Before we do that, you would never do this with somebody just jumping in off the cuff. You need to, with everything we do in the TEAM-CBT approach, have a powerful therapeutic connection, an alliance. You have an empathic connection with them. Sarah is a colleague of mine who I have tremendous respect for, and she knows I am on her team. I am on her side. We are in the same goal together. We are in the darkness together, sharing some of these challenges. We have done some work previously, and so when I invited her to do this, I did it with confidence that she knows I am for her and have tremendous respect for her. Sarah, can I draw you in and ask you this question? Would that be okay?
Sarah Chickering: Yeah, thanks, Mike.
Mike Christensen: Sarah, we looked at all the benefits of going on Pinterest, how it really is such an escape and freeing for you. Considering all these wonderful benefits of going on Pinterest and all the awful things with case notes, why would you want to give up Pinterest? It is so great.
Sarah Chickering: It is really great, and I love going on there, but I noticed that I am getting further and further behind in my notes. When I am done for the day, I am actually not mentally finished. I am still thinking about those notes and what I have to do, even when I am having dinner with my family or for the rest of the evening. It just takes away from that time with them.
Mike Christensen: But it is so relaxing just to take a break and go on Pinterest.
Sarah Chickering: It is relaxing, but it is like the benefit of it is getting less and less because it is taking more and more time from my family and the other things that I need to do, and it makes me just, it makes me so frustrated about what I have to do when I spend time in there.
Mike Christensen: To step out of our demo here, you will notice what is happening is as a therapist, I am actually trying to convince Sarah to continue with Pinterest. It is not me that is doing that. I am actually just that internal resistance that she already has that we have brought to life using The Double Paradox, and she is now arguing for change. She is like, "No, I need to change this. I want to get back on track. I want to be free at the end of the day from having those notes hanging over my head and be able to just enjoy my family more." Once your client is arguing for change, then we can move into methods. So we ask ourself, how do we do this? How do we bring about change? Today, we are going to model two methods for you. The first one is called stimulus control. If you want more methods, there is a workshop coming up at the end of March on the 28th. We will have a link for it as well. It is a full day workshop where David and Jill are going to be teaching all of these methods a little more in depth. You will get a chance to do some practice, and you will learn about the rest of the motivational techniques that we utilize to address these as well. We are going to give you just a brief taste, but if you want more than that, it is certainly available to you. Sarah, the first technique I am going to suggest to you is one we call stimulus control, which is used in lots of different addictions. When we do not have the tempting stimuli in front of us, we are less likely to engage in it. So we want to remove that stimuli. For you, it might be putting your device in another room to prevent access to it until after 5:00 PM, or even removing Pinterest from your phone. For other people, it might be removing Facebook or Instagram or WhatsApp. But for you, would you be willing to remove Pinterest from your phone or put your device in another room?
Sarah Chickering: Oh boy, I do not know if I could take it off of my phone. I think that would be a little bit too rough for me, but I probably could put it in another room until I am done working, until my day was finished.
Mike Christensen: So it sounds like it would be hard to take it off of your phone, and you are willing to put your phone in another room. That may be effective enough. We may find in time and they will do some experiments and tests that even that is not enough. You may have to remove it from your phone. Would you be willing to do that if it continues to be a problem?
Sarah Chickering: I know it just sounds so difficult. I could start with putting it in another room and maybe see how that goes.
Mike Christensen: You can see there is a little bit of negotiation that goes on here. I am still offering her the opportunity to continue with her habit and addiction. It may be also the potential of limiting use. For me, I put a timer on my YouTube access, and that might be an avenue that Sarah would consider as well, or a timer as to when she can use it. But we are going to start with having it in another room until after 5:00. Okay, great. We want to use another technique here, and Tony is going to walk us through this next one and model it for you.
Tony Weiss: This next method is called The Devil's Advocate. This is one of my absolute favorite things to do in a therapy session with somebody. It is a cognitive and a role-play method where we really fight against and challenge the seductive, tempting part of our brain that is promising us relief or pleasure but always delivers that long-term pain and sorrow. The therapist, or I will be playing the role of the patient's tempting thoughts, the devil. The patient will be the angel. They will be arguing back with their rational, reasonable, self-controlling side of them, their self-control voice. The purpose of this method is to have the patient generate for themselves positive self-control thoughts that are 100% believable and real to them that they can use to gain some control back and defeat the tempting voice in their head. To review, some of Sarah's tempting thoughts were: "If I take a break, I will be more productive." and "I have been working hard. I deserve a break." Or the classic one, I do not know if you all can relate to this, I can totally relate to this one: "I will only stay on for one more minute." So we are going to demo the method. Before we do that, I am just going to go over how it works. In a tempting, seductive voice, the therapist is going to use word for word the patient's tempting thoughts and then hit them with that thought. The patient will respond using their self-control voice. They will be the angel. After one interaction using one thought, the therapist will pause and ask who won: the tempting voice or the voice of self-control. Furthermore, was it a small win or a big win? Was it a big win or a huge win? This is important to note: there will be no role reversal. I will not assume the angel voice, she will not assume the devil voice. We will stay locked in our roles. If the patient cannot defeat the tempting thought, we just fall back to empathy, voicing the resistance with open hands, non-judgmentally. So we are going to look at the tempting thought: "I have been working hard, I deserve a break." Sarah, do you know who I am?
Sarah Chickering: Yes, Tony, you are my tempting thoughts.
Tony Weiss: That is right. I am that part of you, that voice in your head. It is the end of the workday. You have done such a good job. You have been working so hard, Sarah. You deserve a break.
Sarah Chickering: I have been working hard, but you know I deserve to feel as though I am done with the day. I just want to be finished with these notes and get done, and going on Pinterest is not going to accomplish that. It is going to actually make me feel worse.
Tony Weiss: Was that who is winning? I am winning, small or big?
Sarah Chickering: That was a, I would say, a big win.
Tony Weiss: Big win, big or huge?
Sarah Chickering: Probably just big.
Tony Weiss: Yeah. Maybe you should just keep going on Pinterest. You really do deserve a break, and it is this really relaxing and beautiful thing that you are doing to research craft projects for your family. Maybe we should look at something else to work on. It is so relaxing.
Mike Christensen: I am just going to point out what Tony is doing here. There can be this real overwhelming urge for therapists to try and help their patients and convince them to overcome their addiction. Tony is staying paradoxical. He is saying, "I am with you. Maybe there is a part that does not want to go with it." So we fall back to empathy, like he has done, and just voice the resistance and go hands. Then we wait for our patient to respond. Go ahead, Sarah.
Sarah Chickering: I agree that Pinterest is a lot of fun, but it is so much more enjoyable to be with my family when I am fully there, and I really want to be with them and not have my mind somewhere else, not be thinking about notes. Honestly, I have an obligation to my clients to finish those notes while I can remember everything in the session, and I do not want to spend my time with my family doing something that is not really fully giving them myself.
Tony Weiss: I am convinced that Sarah wants to continue with this. So what we will do is we will repeat the same exercise and see if she can get a huge win. Sarah, it is me again. It is that voice of relaxation and self-care, and I am just reminding you, you have been working so hard. You deserve a break.
Sarah Chickering: I really deserve to feel like I have done a complete day, and my day is not finished until I have those notes done. My problem is believing you that if I take this time away, that I will be more productive. I won’t. I will feel less accomplished and I will be more stressed out. So I am going to get these notes done. I am not going to get on Pinterest now. It is not helping me.
Tony Weiss: Who is winning? Me, small or big?
Sarah Chickering: That was a big win.
Tony Weiss: Big or huge?
Sarah Chickering: Huge.
Tony Weiss: Awesome. So once the patient gets a huge win, both the therapist and the patient will write it down. Then I will model what we do next. Sarah, how true is that thought that you just had that you are actually going to feel less accomplished and more stressed out and that you deserve to feel like you have completed your workday in its totality? How true is that on a scale from zero to 100?
Sarah Chickering: I believe that 100%. That is true.
Tony Weiss: And what is more, let us go back to the tempting thought that you have been working hard and you deserve a break. In light of this new self-controlling thought, how convincing is this original tempting thought that you have been working hard, you deserve a break? Zero to 100.
Sarah Chickering: Probably 15 to 20%.
Mike Christensen: Awesome. Right now, you may be thinking this is a little bit simulated or a bit set up, and Sarah will for sure say that this has actually been a real problem for her, and while there are some aspects of it that is a little bit simulated, she will continue to struggle with this at times. She will need to continue to challenge those tempting thoughts. While the intensity of this problem, Sarah would be considered a very functioning therapist. She does eventually get all her notes done, and she has an extremely high standard, and she works with her family. The fact that it has been painful for her, and even though it may not be a really intense, overwhelming, life altering problem for her, it has been a struggle, and she deserves to get relief from that struggle, as do many of you that also indicated that you spend more time on your phone than you would like. For some people, it may require multiple approaches and additional methods. We may utilize things like self-monitoring. If you pulled out your phone right now, there is likely a tracking on it with every app that you use, and you can show you how much time you actually put in. You pull that out, it can be very sobering. There can be things like accountability check-ins. The basis of a lot of support groups is built on accountability. Things like the problem solution method or the decision-making form. Today, Sarah has done a pretty dramatic self-disclosure by putting herself out there in front of the over 500 people attending right now, and on the video. That can also be a powerful way to break free from it, taking the hiddenness out of it.
There are so many more techniques, David and Jill in the workshop on the 28th will be going over many of these techniques in more depth. One of my struggles was in the mornings. I am great at starting books but terrible at finishing them. So I have a whole stack of books that I started and did not finish, or ones that I wanted to read. Knowing I was going to do this webinar, I implemented some of these techniques at a new level for my reading. In the mornings, instead of going on YouTube, I commit to actually reading, and over the past month, I am on track now to read on average four books a month, and I was completing exactly zero a month before that. I was dabbling in a number of them, but it feels really good to overcome that. Now, I still struggle. YouTube calls out my name every morning and says, "come over here rather than doing your reading." So there may be additional methods. One of the books that was on my read list was Atomic Habits, and I think it is a great read and I would highly recommend it, where he goes over some more of the additional techniques. The other option that I highly recommend is if you go to Dr. Burns' website, feelinggood.com, at the bottom here, and you scroll to the very bottom of the homepage, he offers a free chapter on habits and addictions. When he was writing his book "Feeling Great," I lobbied for him. I said, "David, please include it, the habits and addictions in the book." I think his publisher said no, the book is too long. So he gives it away for free. You just put your email address in and he will send you a copy of that, and I highly recommend you get that. There are a couple of other resources there as well. Certainly on our website, feelinggoodinstitute.com, there are additional webinars on procrastination and some of the other habits and addictions that you can access. I want to save a little time for some Q&A, so I am going to invite Jill to lead us in that now.
Q&A Session