Overview of Session 9: Elective Skill Topic 3, Managing Negative Moods and Depression
Total Time: 1 hour
Delivery Method: CBT-focused individual therapy
Materials (all forms are at the end of this section):
• Thinking Errors That Dampen One’s Mood (form 9D)
• Managing Negative Moods and Depression (form 9E)
• Pleasant Activities (form 4C)
Goals for This Session:
• To become more aware of how moods affect marijuana use
• To learn strategies to recognize, process, and cope with these emotions
Session Outline:
1. Address the possibility of negative moods
2. Discuss the importance of emotional triggers
• Review Thinking Errors That Dampen One’s Mood (form 9D)
• Ask the client to identify which automatic negative thoughts he or she may engage in before or during depressed, anxious, or irritable moods
• Discuss with the client guidelines for evaluating these thoughts
• Give client Managing Negative Moods and Depression (form 9E)
• Engage the client in problemsolving to address problems contributing to his or her negative moods
• Give the client Pleasant Activities (form 4C) and help generate a list of appealing activities
• Discuss balancing “have to” activities with “want to” activities
• With a depressed client, discuss strategies that may help the client start a necessary or desirable activity
3. Link negative moods and marijuana use
• Explore the relationship between the client’s marijuana smoking and his or her experience of negative moods
• Review Thinking Errors That Dampen One’s Mood (form 9D)
• Explain “cognitive distortions”
• Explore automatic thought patterns that appear to lead to negative mood states
• Explore methods of changing the client’s automatic thoughts
4. Terminate treatment