Depressed? Can't Get Moving? Try 5 Minute Rule!

Early in CBT for depression, therapists work with clients to plan activities to boost experiences of pleasure, accomplishment or overcoming avoidance. During activity planning, a common roadblock is inertia -- clients feel too tired or don’t have enough energy to carry out planned activities.

Christine A. Padesky, PhD, describes a cognitive behavioral therapy method she introduced called the “5-minute Rule.” Padesky models language she uses to give clients a rational for the 5-minute rule. She addresses how to take a learning attitude and questions to ask when clients do not experience any positive impact of doing activities for 5-minutes. Finally, she describes benefits and positive outcomes that frequently result from use of the 5-minute rule with depressed clients. Video and still photos show Padesky using the 5-minute rule in her own garden.

[see Timestamps at end of this section]

RESOURCES (please note, we use bit.ly links when the web address is lengthy)

1) For deeper understanding of this and other CBT Clinical Tips presented here, read: “The Clinician's Guide to CBT Using Mind Over Mood, 2nd Edition” (2020). Available at a discount from Guilford Press: https://bit.ly/2L5tR86

2) Get 60 client Worksheets from “Mind Over Mood, 2nd Edition” (2016). Available at a discount from Guilford Press: https://bit.ly/3b7UXpZ

3) View selected “Mind Over Mood” worksheets: https://www.mindovermood.com/workshee...

4) For additional clinical/supervision tools, brief guides, and rating scales visit: https://www.padesky.com/clinical-corn...

5) Follow Padesky on   / padesky  

TIMESTAMPS for the video
00:00 Intro
00:16 Activity Scheduling
00:38 Didn't do the activities - what happened?
00:49 Overwhelmed, pessimistic, inertia
01:26 Introduce the 5 minute rule
02:06 "Are you serious?"
02:34 Experiment - try it yourself
02:56 Take a learning attitude
03:36 High possibility for success
04:24 Consider subscribing
04:28 Padesky in the garden