I agree, make an effort and give your therapist's suggestions a shot.

Negative thinking, eh? Does this include poor self-worth. Ask your therapist about behavior therapies (Cognative Behavior Therapy is more common, Dialectical Behavior Therapy is geared more towards personality disorders). This therapy starts with addressing negative automatic thoughs. First you need to recognize them. Then you need to realize they are not working. Then you find solutions to finding alternate ones. With a great deal of practise you learn to redirect these authmatic thoughs to better outcomes. The negative thoughts won't dissappear on you, but how you react to them can be changed. This helped me a very great deal with improving what was a very poor self-worth.