I hope this isn't a stupid question, but how is this significantly different from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy? My understanding of CBT is that through guided training you are able to take the automatic negative thoughts you have and through introspection realize that they're not as devastating as you may think they are, and over time and with practice you turn the automatic negative thoughts into more realistic and optimistic thoughts.

EDIT: This is not to imply that this technique is bad; on the contrary I'm very fascinated by the topic, and just want to make sure I understand it.