The Optimal Life

The Power of your Predictive Brain

Elliot Barnett Season 1 Episode 7

In this episode, Elliot introduces the groundbreaking research that pushed Cognitive Response Therapy to an all-new level, the research of predictive coding.

Your mind is constantly generating predictions that drive how you show up in the world, which then drives habitual patterns, which then becomes your life.

If this model holds true — and the mounting evidence suggests it does — then the implications for mental health are enormous.

It means that disorders aren’t diseases in the traditional sense. They’re maladaptive prediction patterns.

It means therapy isn’t about managing symptoms — it’s about retraining the prediction system itself.

And it means transformation isn’t about fighting who we are — it’s about teaching the mind to expect something better.

That’s the foundation of Cognitive Response Therapy, and why it represents a key part of the new era of mental health.