Clear Thinking was written to teach adolescents and young adults how to change their minds -- about themselves, each other, and the world. If we help them change their minds, clear their thinking, then we also help them feel better and cope more effectively.

How? Clear Thinking is based on the work of cognitive therapists: Aaron Beck (Cognitive Therapy), Albert Ellis (Rational Emotive Therapy), Maxie Maultsby (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and others. The Clear Thinking approach adapts their techniques to fit the special needs and abilities of young people. New words and images correspond to their life experiences. No long explanations -- instead, we characterize ideas with pictures and describe them with straightforward, everyday words. Readings are brief and written at a 6th grade reading level, but the content is about issues that matter to all ages.

For example, here is how cognitive restructuring, the therapeutic model that Clear Thinking is based on, might be explained:

"If we don't think clearly about our
thoughts, feelings, and actions,
when something bad happens, we feel snarled up and miserable.

We can learn to untangle what we think, what we feel, and what we do. We think about each strand separately.
Then we braid them into a strong, smooth rope that pulls us to personal power."

Clear Thinking was first designed for use in classrooms and is based on skills teachers use every day. Because the instructor's guide explains the concepts and goals of every activity, even those who have not been trained to work on thoughts and feelings can use the program effectively. Therapists experienced in using Cognitive Behavioral Therapies (CBT) find the materials a ready fit with their practice. It helps people of all ages who are challenged by abstract ideas grasp their meaning when it is conveyed in simple words and images .

Icons guide the way to find . . .

116 fully explained teaching activities

Key ideas behind each topic and activity

Points to make in read-aloud teaching scripts

Materials to make or gather

Ties to concepts taught earlier

Alerts and notes

Clear Thinking is research-based and evolved over ten years' development and daily use in hospital school programs for students with emotional and behavior problems. Now it is a highly regarded clinical tool, widely used in at-risk programs, special classes for students with Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities, school programs in day-treatment and alternative placements, classrooms and therapy groups in community and residential settings.

First we teach our students/clients basic thinking skills, how to . . .

• clear away dark thinking habits,
  the beliefs and perceptions that mislead and disturb them;
• challenge dark thinking
  by saying new things to themselves and visualizing themselves
  managing their anger, anxiety, fear;
• think consequentially,
  planning how to gain what they want and need in ways that will help them avoid trouble;
• understand the brain,
  to use its creative thinking power to regulate the intensity of their strong survival emotions;
• think like their own personal scientists,
  demanding evidence that what they believe is true and worth believing.

Self-defeating beliefs and cognitive distortions are personified as characters, the Whispering Shadows. Then we teach easy-to-grasp strategies for banishing the Shadows with the words Clear Thinkers and Star Thinkers say. These techniques help young people reinterpret happenings so they seem less overwhelming. They learn to guide themselves with calming, constructive thought.

By the end of the program, we bring our
THINK, FEEL, and DO
strands around full circle:

"Thinking clear thoughts is not enough.
Feeling wonderful feelings is not enough.
In the end, I have to do what's needed.
I can think clearly and feel calm and confident, but if I don't do what needs doing, I'll still have trouble.

But wait -- what I do isn't the end. What I do has results. What I do influences people and events and results in costs and payoffs. The costs and payoffs of my actions lead to more thoughts and feelings. The circle is complete:
think, feel, do."