Theortically, I would agree. However…some additional thoughts.

There are those who, on the superficial or practical level, might say that trusting is a matter of willpower – "just do it (enough)" type of thinking and you'll become a trusting person. The deal with willpower is that it has less to do with will/mind as it does with body and physiology. Most folks today don't get enough sleep. Due to poor dietary habits, many folks operate regularly with low blood sugar. Most folks today are affected by some deep level of stress and overwhelm. These three elements alone augur 100% against will power and so it's no wonder folks in this category hardly ever change their thinking or their life in any way through "willpower."

As Barbara points out, there is a huge difference between teaching and learning. Effective teachers understand learning theory; ineffective teachers don't. And one indication of this understanding is that effective learning is a process, not a "one-off" event i.e., workshop, seminar, or sit-down at a computer-assisted instructional experience.

The type of content that needs to be included if trust is to be approached honestly and responsibly, IMHO, and stick, has as much to do with psychological principles, "soft stuff" as it does with a superficial "technology" approach to how to trust and be trusting. Many refuse to go there…on either side of the teaching/learning desk. Effective teachers start where the student is and if the student is dealing with (normal) emotional issues that affect trust, that's where one has to begin and few ever begin there. Too risky and too scary.

Just about every adult has been betrayed in some way, shape or form as a child. Whether it was a child who was wet and cried and whose caregiver misunderstood and fed him/her, a child who was crying because s/hew was hungry and their caregiver changed their diaper, a child who wanted and needed to be held and was put in a crib instead, a child who wanted mommy or daddy's attention and was physically or sexually or verbally abused or wounded in some way, shape or form – and so as a result the child internalized the experience of: "I can't trust you."  The emotions and energy of this wounding or trauma are in the child's body as well as the neuronal pathways in the brain. Until or unless one work with the emotions, the "thought" of trust won't stick, especially when there's an underlying emotion of fear, anxiety, trepidation that "you will betray me." The fact is that when there's a conflict between a thought (e.g., "I trust you") and an emotion "(I'm afraid of trusting you) the emotion will always (read: always) win out. This is another reason willpower alone, and "thinking" alone, most often cannot change one's way of being (all the support for cognitive therapy, etc. notwithstanding, IMHO).  

As for the The Burnham Rosen Group, two things of note: (1) Follow-up InterActive Coaching is part of the process; so it's not a "one-off" deal. (2) their use of the "thought-action-outcome" model says, "Motives are only thoughts. And while they are largely unconscious, once an individual is aware of his/her thought patterns (motives) and how they impact behavior, new thoughts can be produced to change that behavior."

I might disagree. There's a difference between knowing and awareness. Having no idea how they process this work, I would be curious how inculcating new thoughts and "knowing" would deal with the (childhood) fear, and other negative emotions that are contained in the body. Candace Pert's seminal work "Molecules of Emotion" and related research points to the need to work with the "emotional body" as well as the "mind" to effect true and lasting change which leaves one feeling truly authentic and real…not just a as a "new thinker" who still feels fear and suppresses emotions. (I wonder if they do this)

I would be curious if this "new thinker" also experienced the deeper emotions that accompany empathy, and compassion, for example, or is s/he just a "mentally" changed person that "gets the job done by the end of the day." I'm curious.

When we become aware of our unconscious, which we have to do in order to see our relationship to trust, it's not often a pleasant experience.  Moving through the fear to love and wisdom is not a "thinking" process alone. It takes time and "work." The work involves becoming conscious of our reactivity, defenses, feelings, beliefs and judgments, motives and values and this is not solely a "Oh, just change your thinking" process.

We also have to find our authenticity - also a challenging process. This is a tough and rough undertaking if it is to work. "Know thyself" is the first step and how many folks do you know who are ready, willing or able to do that (rhetorical)?

Truth creates trust. No truth, no trust. How many are willing to look at themselves to know their "truth" – warts and all. Perhaps our greatest challenge lies in getting to know our own truth, so we can fully own it, and speak it…which leads to trust and trustworthiness. Too often, our egos feel too vulnerable and insecure to take this exploration (so we'll do a "ropes" course instead!).

 Trust is a quality of the soul, of the heart, not just the "thinking" mind. That's where it is, that's where we find it and that's where we work with it. Not the ego mind alone.

We learn very young not to trust. We become conditioned very early on not to trust. And we bring these notions into adulthood. While we might "want" to trust others (with our rational/cortex brain) our limbic brain (fear/fight/flight emotional brain) usually takes oven when we are dealing with others with whom we have no deep or intimate relationship or contact, even spouses or partners. Unless we have done the "work," deliberately,  we will find it hard to trust. The psychic tension is just to commanding. Combined with the urge to not trust is the lack of an urge to love, because we don't trust ourselves. And when we don't trust ourselves it's impossible to trust others.

Trust is about expanding consciousness and this again is a (longish) process, not an event. The movement from lack of trust to a trusting attitude requires shifting perspective from personality to soul, to heart. A soul perspective enables us to grasp the essence, see the meaning and sense of what we are about to experience, that it is right, meaningful and purposeful. How many go into an interaction with that perspective these days?

Trust can only exist, though, to the extent that fear is absent. Either you have to deal with the issue of your fear to enable trust to be present, or you can focus on the relevant soul perspective in order to diminish the fear. Working on both levels would, of course, be the most effective. A one-stop workshop, or a "well, just change your thinking", probably not so much.

Sorry to ramble, Charlie, but you really tugged on my sleeve. I do trust it's OK with you.

"Ultimately, we must learn to trust ourselves. When we do this intimately and intelligently, the world opens full of meaning before us. We find that we ourselves are the doorway to a fathomless understanding of the source of life itself. We need only to learn to walk through it." -- James Thornton