“Your mind believes what you tell it.” — Paul J. Meyer

Negative self-talk is a common problem. The trick is to learn how to turn your inner dialogue from a critic to a coach. The Triple Column Technique is a proven practice for improving your internal self-critical dialogue.

In Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Revised and Updated , David Burns introduces the Triple Column Technique as a method for developing a more effective self-evaluation system.

Overview

Here are the key points:

Train yourself to write down your critical thoughts. Train yourself to write down critical thoughts that run through your mind.

Train yourself to write down critical thoughts that run through your mind. Identify distortions . Learn why these thoughts are distorted.

. Learn why these thoughts are distorted. Talk back to your distorted thoughts. Practice talking back to them to develop a more realistic self-evaluation system.

Summary of Steps

According to Burns, the keys steps to use the Triple Column Technique are as follows:

Step 1 – Create the Triple Column Technique table.

Step 2 – List your self-criticism.

Step 3 – Identify cognitive distortions.

Step 4 – Identify rational thoughts.

Step 1 – Create the Triple Column Technique table

According to Burns, to create the table for the Triple Column Technique:

Draw two lines down the center of a piece of paper to divide it into thirds. Label the left-hand column “Automatic Thoughts (Self-cricitism) Label the middle column “Cognitive Distortion” Label the right-hand column “ Rational Response (Self-defense)”

Step 2. List your self-criticism.

According to Burns, in the left-hand column, write down all the hurtful self-criticisms you make when you are feeling worthless and down on yourself.

Step 3 – Identify cognitive distortions.

According to Burns, in the middle column, write down the cognitive distortions. Using the list of 10 Distorted Thinking Patterns , see if you can identify the thinking errors in each of your automatic negative thoughts. The 10 Distorted Thinking Patterns are:

All-or-nothing thinking

Overgeneralization

Mental filter

Disqualifying the positive

Jumping to conclusions (Mind reading, fortunate teller error)

Magnification or Minimization

Emotional reasoning

Should statements,

Labeling and Mislabeling,

Personalization.

Step 4 – Identify rational thoughts.

According to Burns, substitute a more rationale, less upsetting thought in the right-hand column. Don’t try to cheer yourself up by rationalizing or saying things you don’t objectively believe are valid. Instead, try to find a more objective fact. Your response can take into account what was illogical or erroneous about your self-critical automatic thought.

Example Triple Column Technique

Burns includes an example of a Triple Column Technique:



Automatic Thought (Self-Criticism) Cognitive Distortion Rational Response (Self-Defense) I never do anything right. Overgeneralization Nonsense! I do a lot of things right. 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."

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