304: TEAM-CBT,
Spirituality, and Beyond: Featuring Angela Poch
Rhonda begins today’s podcast, as usual, by reading two
touching emails from podcasts fans, including Coach Teddy, who said
that Podcasts 295 and 296 featuring live work with Zeina were
incredible, and Carol who was equally enthusiastic about Podcast
297 (on “Homework—Yuck!).
Carol also strongly recommends David’s book, Ten Days to
Self-Esteem which is a simplified version of Cognitive
Behavioral Therapy that can be used as a manual for therapy or
self-help groups.
Today, we interview Angel Poch, a certified life coach,
registered professional counselor, and certified Level 4 TEAM
therapist and trainer. She lives two hours north of Glacier
National Park in British Columbia, but teaches therapists and
treats people virtually from around the world. Her new booklet,
“The Truth Shall Set You Free,” integrates TEAM-CBT with a
Christian perspective and is available for free on her
website. https://www.angelapoch.com/.
She is a regular in David’s weekly virtual psychotherapy
training group at Stanford and assists in the teaching. She has
also worked tirelessly and selflessly behind the scenes making
David’s work way more accessible to lay people as well as mental
health professionals wanting to learn more about TEAM-CBT.
For example, she adds links to every new Feeling Good Podcast
on David’s website, so you can easily find and link to more than
300 podcasts. Check it
out!
She has also transformed a massive amount of David’s work into
electronic tools for shrinks, accessible in David’s online
shop:
Recently, she has created two amazing new documents you can
link to.
One is a spreadsheet that lists 138 of David’s TEAM-CBT tools
and techniques, like the “Anti-Procrastination Sheet” and many
others, with page links to the descriptions of how to use each tool
in David’s books, like Feeling Good, Feeling Great,
David’s TEAM-CBT therapist eBook, and many others.
Check it out!
This data base will be invaluable to interested lay people,
therapists, and teachers who want clear instructions on how to use
the Daily Mood Log, Relationship Journal, and numerous additional
tools and techniques.
Derek Gurney and Angela are working on an equally awesome
database for the Feeling Good Podcasts:
Check it out as well!
Angela begins her personal statement in today’s podcast by
describing her struggles with depression and irritability,
including some very dark days in 2006. Her doctor recommended an
SSRI antidepressant, and she went to integrative health program,
“Depression: the Way Out” that required participants to read
Feeling Good
Although she didn’t love the book, she resonated with the idea
that all of our feelings, positive and negative, result from our
thoughts, or perceptions, and her depression cleared up. She liked
that when she read Feeling Good, she got many new tools
she could use to change her negative thoughts and feelings. She
also appreciated the ideas in the book didn’t go against her belief
system, which many fear about psychology. David pointed out his own
father, a Lutheran minister, worried about this, and was very
suspicious of psychiatrists. Angela’s thinking, which resonates
with David’s, is that the core ideas of religion and psychotherapy
are actually high compatible, and even synergistic.
Angela explains that when she was a young child, she didn’t fit
in socially or even in her own skin. “I felt like I was a boy in a
woman’s body. I felt like I was in the wrong body, and prayed for
help.”
She started to see in a very limited, childlike way, her
thoughts were distorted, that a body was just a body and she could
trust God wouldn’t give her more than she could bear. These new
realistic, counter thoughts relieved the negative body dysmorphia
she’d been struggling with. She reports, “I decided it was okay to
be flawed and not fit in.” The rest of her young childhood was
mostly joyful.
In middle school she was the target of mean-spirited bullying
because she was a tomboy. She developed intense social anxiety and
was relieved when her mom took her out of school. She was
homeschooled for a few years and studied Karate to exercise and
develop some confidence.
High school brought new challenges. She describes responding
with her version of the Five Secrets of Effective Communication to
an aggressive bully who threatened her with brass knuckles and
challenged her to fight her. However, the girl backed off and
started telling people that Angela was her friend!
After a bad relationship, Angela started to struggle with
depression and described her suicide attempt when she was 18
because “I wanted the pain to stop.”
She explains that:
I met my husband, moved home, and
started reading the Bible. I was impressed by the passage, “the
truth shall set you free.” I realized I had to control my own
thoughts rather than look for the approval of others, but she still
didn’t totally recovery from my anxiety.
The cognitive piece in Feeling Good helped Angela a
lot. She states, “I pursued a lot of careers, never holding down a
job for more than 6 months, and one day someone asked if I’d
considered a career in counseling. . .” She went on to take one of
David’s four-day live intensives in Whistler BC where she learned
TEAM-CBT and hasn’t looked back since! After learning and applying
TEAM, Angela was able to crush her social and other anxieties.
Angela has a deep love for her Creator and has done a great
deal of thought about the integration of her Christian faith with
TEAM-CBT.
David also has a strong interest in the overlap between
TEAM-CBT and virtually all religions and spiritual paths. He
described an unusual and overpowerful spiritual experience he had
as a medical student crossing the Nevada desert that made a strong
impact on him.
Angela would like to mention,
“I have a profound gratitude for
David’s work. He makes things so clear and relatable. His approach
is applicable to all faiths or no faith if one is truly ready to
give up their negative thoughts and feelings. As we aim for the
truth, and let go of the so called “self,” we find peace and joy. I
will forever be indebted to him because I would not be able to help
people without TEAM and that brings me joy every day!”
I, David, would like to thank Angela for her intense and
tireless devotion to helping spread the “gospel” of TEAM-CBT in so
many ways!
Thanks for listening today!
Angela, Rhonda, and David
I
About the Podcast
This podcast features David D. Burns MD, author of "Feeling Good, The New Mood Therapy," describing powerful new techniques to overcome depression and anxiety and develop greater joy and self-esteem. For therapists and the general public alike!