A new program at the University of Virginia is aiming to shift the rigid, negative thoughts that come with mental disorders.
Take, for example, the prospect of asking your boss for a raise. The notion would make many people feel a bit nervous, but not prevent them from asking. For others, the notion brings nothing but bad thoughts, perhaps spawning fears of the boss screaming obscenities and firing them on the spot. This mind-tangle is so daunting it leads many people to inertia.
The new, online program being developed at UVA can train people to imagine different, positive outcomes to lots of different scenarios. Unlike other online applications that might seem similar, this program will go through continuous study and be refined as needed.
“It is four sessions long and each session is about 15 to 20 minutes,” said Bethany Teachman, a licensed clinical psychologist and a professor of psychology at UVA. “People will see a variety of brief stories that are missing an ending. We encourage them to fill in those endings in different ways across the different sessions.”
In essence, Teachman said the program, which is anonymous, is designed to teach users to develop a new style of thinking. “We want to give people practice in learning how to think about those situations in new ways, because we think that people who are prone to anxiety, depression and negative mood tend to have a pattern of thinking that things will turn out badly, and that can have really serious, negative consequences.”