I have a CBT based therapy too and so I totally get what farmergirl is saying, and yes, it's healthy! There is a difference between feelings that need to be processed and felt, and feelings that are based on irrational thoughts. Like, for example, sunrise says she felt sad because her 20+ year relationship was ending. In that case, my t would say to allow myself to feel the feelings, feel the sadness and don't distract myself from the feelings. But on the other hand, if I was feeling sad because I was thinking that nobody likes me, or thinking something else based on negative thoughts that aren't true or are distortions of reality, then my T would say NOT to allow myself to feel those feeling. She would encourage me to recognize the distorted thoughts and change those thoughts in order to change the feeling. An example of that would be feeling sad that nobody like sme or nobody is there for me. I could recognize that as a distortion right away based on the all or nothing word "nobody". It's just not true that nobody likes, etc. Change the thought, think about the real truth and th sadness goes away. It's pointless to feel sadness based on distortion of thoughts.

Anyway, hope that makes sense and might be why farmergirl and sannah seem to be on two different pages here. I know many people see CBT based therapy as kind of invalidating of feelings and trying to shut them off, when in fact that is not true at all. It is very empowering to realize that we do have more control over how we feel at any given moment. It is also usefull in that we all need to be able to "put away" our feelings at times, even if they are feelings we need to process (grief, sadness, anger etc.) There are times to let it all out and that is healthy, but there are also times when it's not appropriate to let them all out (on the job, parent-teacher conferences etc)