Feeling Great App

05/04/2026

💡 Have you ever rewritten a memory?

Dr. David Burns shares the case of a brilliant young woman whose fear of public transportation baffled both of them, until the real source came to light. One session of Memory Rescripting freed her from her past.

Read the story in Psychology Today:

When fear is rooted in memories of helplessness, working only in the present may not be enough. The memory rescripting technique can sometimes lead to fast and lasting recovery.

04/30/2026

💡 What if the most powerful person in the room is also the most afraid?

Dr. David Burns shares the story of a man who controlled markets and led thousands of employees, but couldn't make small talk with his own family. One subway ride broke through decades of misery.

Read more in Psychology Today →

A powerful executive lived in constant terror of social contact. A radical therapeutic assignment transformed his life.

04/29/2026

You crush it ☑️ Then your brain goes, "That doesn't count."

Dr. David Burns breaks down discounting the positive, the thinking error behind impostor syndrome and why so many people can't see their own success clearly.

04/27/2026

💡 A moving case study suggests that even complex, lifelong trauma can sometimes heal rapidly — by changing beliefs and testing fears in the present moment.

It challenges much of what we assume about trauma .

Dr. David Burns shares the story in Psychology Today.

A moving case suggests that severe, complex trauma can sometimes be addressed by changing beliefs and testing fears in the present moment—not reliving the past.

04/23/2026

💡 What if healing doesn't require reliving the past?

New research, honored as an Essential Read by Psychology Today , challenges one of mental health's deeply held assumptions.

The data is striking: once we know how someone feels right now, their entire emotional history adds little to predicting recovery.

The fastest path to healing isn't found in the past, but in the present moment.

Read more →

New data suggest healing doesn’t require reliving the past. When present-moment thoughts change, even long histories of depression and anxiety can fade quickly.

04/21/2026

He was the best athlete in his field ⚾️ But he was so anxious he couldn't perform.

Then one therapist told him something unusual: "I'm not going to make your anxiety go away." Seven minutes later, it was gone.

In this video, Dr. David Burns shares the story and the surprising lesson behind it.

04/20/2026

💡 How do you know if therapy or a mental health app actually works?

Our findings are striking: the placebo effect is real, but cognitive change from the Feeling Great App is far more powerful.

Together, they produced remarkable outcomes for people experiencing feelings of depression and anxiety.

Read more in Psychology Today:

How can we tell if a depression treatment works beyond placebo? A new real-world method measuring placebo shows that expectation matters, but cognitive change matters far more.

04/16/2026

💡 What if instead of hiding your flaws, you revealed them?

Dr. David Burns shares a remarkable case study of a man who struggled with severe social anxiety for years — and the counterintuitive technique of publicizing the thing he was most ashamed of. His life was changed in one afternoon.

Read more in Psychology Today →

A handsome man, crippled by social anxiety, believed his sweating made him repulsive. During therapy, I asked him to do something radical: make a public spectacle of himself on purpose.

04/15/2026

After a breakup, she was convinced she was unlovable.

Dr. David Burns explains how Overgeneralization works: you take one bad experience and turn it into a life sentence.

A failed relationship becomes "I'll always be alone." One mistake becomes "I never get anything right."

This video is the second in our series on the 10 cognitive distortions — the thinking errors behind depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem.

04/08/2026

Ever feel like if something isn't perfect, it's a total failure?

That's an example of All-or-Nothing Thinking, one of the most common ways our brains trick us into feeling terrible.

In this video, Dr. David Burns breaks down how it works and shares a personal story about a time he fell into the trap himself.

This is the first in our series on the 10 cognitive distortions — the thinking patterns behind depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem.

Comment 🫣 if you've ever had All-or-Nothing Thinking 🗯️

03/31/2026

What do you do when your boss calls your work “garbage” and throws it in the trash?

In this unforgettable story, Dr. David Burns shares how one woman used two powerful tools—Disarming and Stroking—to turn a relentlessly critical boss into an unexpected ally.

Instead of fighting back or shutting down, she responded with honesty, respect, and warmth. The result? A major career breakthrough, and a powerful lesson in the art of transforming even the toughest conflicts.

Have you ever had to deal with a boss or coworker like this? Share what happened 👇

02/20/2026

💡 Research shows that much of the benefit people experience from antidepressants may actually stem from their own expectations, not the pill itself.

So if you got better on an antidepressant, you may deserve far more credit than the medication does.

Dr. David Burns explores what this means for how we think about overcoming depression.

Read more in Psychology Today.

What if the biggest driver of the antidepressant “effect” isn’t the drug, but your expectation? Learn why the placebo effect can create real change and what it means for recovery.