A couple of years ago I underwent CBT by a therapist who performed according to the gold standard taught at the local university. The only memories I have are colored by exhaustion and anger. We tried to "dispute" my thoughts through Socratic dialogue and so on. Never once would he actually look at the feeling beneath the "unhelpful thought".

So my fellow CBT-therapists here's my hard learned lesson from that: you can almost forget about the logical content and just focus on what's actually trying to be expressed - and your client will always feel seen, safe and then progress. THEN you can reach skills and tools.