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"I sound stupid! . . . Ouch!"

Have you every struggled with performance anxiety, thinking you might fail or not be good enough? I think it is fair to say that every therapist in my Tuesday training group at Stanford has struggled with fairly intense feelings of anxiety and self-doubt, and perhaps you have, too, thinking you should be smarter or better than you are, and fearing that others would judge you if they saw your \\u201ctrue self.\\u201d In fact, I would suspect that most of our podcast fans have struggled with these feelings at some time during your life, and maybe even recently or now.

Well, today, we\\u2019ve got a wonderful program in store for you. Our own Dr. Rhonda Barovsky asked me for personal help with her own anxieties about being the new podcast host. I asked if she wanted to do it live, on a podcast, and she generously agreed!

In this heart-warming and very human session, Rhonda shares the negative thoughts and feelings she had when she listened to herself on several podcasts and begin noticing this or that error she made. She felt intensely down, anxious, ashamed, inadequate, rejected, embarrassed, discouraged, frustrated, and angry, to name just a few of her negative feelings, and her mind was flooded with negative thoughts like these:

1. I sound stupid and inarticulate, and some of my comments were inaccurate, like when I said psychiatric diagnoses are meaningless labels.
2. I\\u2019ve had feelings of insecurity ever since I was a child, and should be over this by now!
3. David is going to regret having me as the podcast host!
4. Everyone will know I\\u2019m a fraud, and no one will like or respect me.
5. People will judge and reject me, and I\\u2019ll end up ostracized and alone.

She believed these thoughts at 100%. You might recall that the Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for emotional distress are:

1. You have one or more negative thoughts.
2. You believe the negative thoughts.

In today\\u2019s podcast, you will hear the first half of the session, which included T = Testing as well as E = Empathy. During the Empathy phase, David also included two Uncovering Techniques, the individual Downward Arrow Technique and the Interpersonal Downward Arrow Technique, so that he and Rhonda could identify the Self-Defeating Beliefs under the surface, like Perfectionism, Perceived Perfectionism, the Approval Addiction, Superwoman, and more.

This is because there are two goals in TEAM-CBT. The first goal is to crush the negative thoughts in the here and now, so that you\\u2019ll feel relief. The second goal is to modify the Self-Defeating Beliefs so you\\u2019ll be less prone to similar thoughts and feelings in the future.

In next week\\u2019s podcast, you will hear the second half of the session, which included A = (Paradoxical) Agenda Setting and M = Methods. You\\u2019ll also hear the final T = Testing to find out how effective the session was, and how Rhonda rated David on Empathy and Helpfulness.

I think you\\u2019ll find that both sessions are incredibly inspiring and wonderful sources of learning as well. I want to give a shout out to Rhonda for being so courageous and vulnerable and real, and for making this live therapy session possible! After you\\u2019ve heard Part 2 next week, let us know what you think!

You\\u2019ve all responded very positively to the live therapy we\\u2019ve done on the Feeling Good Podcasts, and you\\u2019ve asked for more. Rhonda and I are committed to making that happen for you, and we are both so grateful for your support, which means a lot to both of us. Thank you!

David and Rhonda

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