Which technique teaches clients that they can control their thoughts and feelings?

• A. Priorities
• B. Social interest
• C. Spitting in the client's soup
• D. Push-button

Answer: (D)

The idea here is to give clients a concrete way to interrupt automatic reactions and realize they can influence their internal experience. The push-button technique frames emotional control as a skill: when a triggering thought or feeling arises, the client “presses a button” to pause the automatic response and choose a more adaptive way to think or behave. This creates a brief cognitive break between stimulus and response, which is essential for cognitive-behavioral work.

In practice, a client notices a cue that usually sparks anxiety or anger, mentally presses the button, takes a moment to breathe, and then reframes the situation or selects a coping response (for example, challenging a negative thought or choosing a calm action). Over time, this reinforces the belief that thoughts and feelings are controllable to some extent, boosting self-efficacy and reducing impulsive or automatic reactions.

Other techniques focus on shifting values or provoking resistance rather than teaching direct cognitive control, so they don’t address the core ability to consciously regulate thoughts and feelings in the moment.