Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy

Triple-Column Technique

The triple column technique is the main method Dr. Burns teaches his patients to combat internal self-critical dialogue. He recommends doing this daily for 15 minutes, for at least 2 weeks. To measure your improvement, fill out the Burns Depression Checklist every week.

Automatic Thoughts (Self-Criticism)	Cognitive Distortion	Rational Response (Self Defense)

Your responses will not be saved. If you wish to keep them, take a screenshot before leaving or reloading the page.

How To Use

In Automatic Thoughts, write down hurtful self-criticisms you make when you are feeling worthless and down on yourself.
In Cognitive Distortion, identify the thinking errors (cognitive distortions) in each of your negative automatic thoughts. A list of distortions and definitions is available below.
In Rational Response, substitute your automatic thought with a more rational, less upsetting thought. This can't be you rationalizing or saying things you do not believe are objectively valid. Instead, try to recognize the truth.

Cognitive Distortions

All-Or-Nothing Thinking: Black and white thinking. If something isn't perfect, there's nothing good about it.
Overgeneralization: A single bad event will happen again and again. Someone rejects you, and you come to believe everyone will reject you.
Mental Filter: Focusing on a negative detail that causes you to see an entire situation in a negative light. Seeing a person being cruel makes you think all people are cruel.
Disqualifying The Positive: Positive experiences are twisted to be negative. Someone compliments you and you think they're only being nice.
Jumping To Conclusions: Without having all of the facts, you decide the worst outcome has happened.
- Mind Reading: You believe other people are thinking badly of you. If someone is laughing, they're laughing at you.
- The Fortune Teller Error: The future seems entirely grim. You're about to go out with friends and can only think about how miserable it will be.
Magnification (Catastrophizing) or Minimization: A mistake or quality is blown out of proportion or reduced to nothing. You make a mistake and believe it will ruin your life. You think about your strengths and believe they aren't worth anything.
Emotional Reasoning: "I feel it, therefore it must be true." You feel worthless, so you believe you are.
Should Statements: You think you "should" or "must" feel a certain way or do something, causing self-loathing when you fall short. This thinking can also apply to others: "They 'should' treat me nice because I was nice to them."
Labeling and Mislabeling: Attaching a negative label to yourself: "I'm a loser." This is self-defeating. Attaching labels to others, "He's a horrible person." This can cause resentment.
Personalization: You feel responsible for someone or for a situation. While you can have influence on the world, you can't control it.

Example

This example is from the perspective of someone who realizes they are late for an important meeting.

Automatic Thoughts (Self-Criticism)	Cognitive Distortion	Rational Response (Self Defense)
I never do anything right.	Overgeneralization	Nonsense! I do a lot of things right.
I'm always late.	Overgeneralization	I'm not always late. That's ridiculous. Think of all the times I've been on time. If I'm late more often than I'd like, I'll work on this problem and develop a method for being more punctual.
Everyone will look down on me.	Mind reading Overgeneralization All-or-nothing thinking Fortune teller error	Someone may be disappointed that I'm late but it's not the end of the world. Maybe the meeting won't even start on time.
This shows what a jerk I am.	Labeling	Come on, now, I'm not "a jerk."
I'll make a fool of myself.	Labeling Fortune teller error	Ditto. I'm not "a fool" either. I may appear foolish if I come in late, but this doesn't make me a fool. Everyone is late sometimes.