Therapy for Traders to overcome loss

An experienced trader writes to me:
"I am having a good year trading but today marks the THIRD TIME this year that I've made a critical error which goes against my whole philosophy of trading.
I am a trend trader. That is how I make very consistent gains regardless of what the market is doing...I was buying a stock at levels where I believed it would bounce...of course the stock didn't bounce so I added more at lower levels and more even lower...
I got out of the trade on a rally, but it cost me the next two weeks of average profits...
I knew it was stupid when I was doing it, yet I continued to compound the problem. I didn't necessarily want to be right and make money on the trade, just minimize the losses (by buying more at lower levels)...
What I am not comfortable with is WHY I engaged in such risky behavior...what is the root, how do I find it, eradicate it?...The other two times were similar trades with similar results."
This is a very typical scenario that I help traders with. In this post, I'll walk you through how I view such problems and what I typically recommend.
The framework that I operate from, broadly speaking, is one that is known as brief therapy. These short-term approaches accelerate cognitive, emotional, and behavioral change by emphasizing hands-on skills building and the creation of powerful, new experiences that change how we view things.

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