I enjoyed being interviewed for an NPR radio story on the Cognitive Therapy approach to New Year’s resolutions. When I’ve been interviewed for radio shows in the past, I’ve almost always talked to the interviewer by phone from my office. But this time the reporter, Joanne Silberner, asked me to go to the local NPR affiliate (WHYY) in Philadelphia, so I got to wear headphones and speak into a big microphone (and had the nicest conversation with the sound engineer).
Joanne interviewed me for almost an hour. Most of what I talked about wasn’t included in the final piece though (Joanne oriented the story toward one specific New Year’s resolution — losing weight. See the post below). Here’s what didn’t make it onto the show: I talked about how Cognitive Therapy basically helps people set resolutions (that we term “goals”) at the very first treatment session when we ask, “How would you like to be different as a result of therapy? How would you like your life to be different?” I talked to Joanne about how we help people get to their goals by:
(1) making sure that people’s goals are realistic
(2) helping people break down big goals into small steps
(3) collaboratively devising a plan to implement these steps
(4) problem-solving difficulties that interfere with implementation
(5) effectively responding to “sabotaging” thoughts that interfere with implementation
The interview was fun, despite the fact that I was incredibly congested, following a bad head cold. I’ve now done so many media interviews that I don’t get nervous at all any more. (I used to be worried about getting asked questions I didn’t know the answer to…)