Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

(REBT)

Albert EllisBorn: September 27, 1913,

Pittsburgh, PA REBT was founded in the mid 1950s

believed that the role of the therapist was to help the client understand and act on the understanding that his/her personal philosophy contains beliefs that lead to his/her own emotional pain. He stresses actively working to change a clients self-defeating beliefs and behaviors by demonstrating their irrationality and rigidity.

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

• Is an active-directive, solution-oriented therapy which focuses on resolving cognitive, emotional and behavioral problems in clients.

• It differs from psychoanalysis in that it places little emphases on explaining the past, but instead, focuses on changing the current evaluation and philosophical thinking about our lives, others, and ourselves. (wikipedia)

Fundamental Tenants

• Emotional suffering results primarily, thought not completely, from our evaluations of a negative event, not solely by the event per se. In other words, human beings, on the basis of our belief system, actively, though not consciously, disturb themselves and even disturb themselves about their disturbances.( Wikipedia)

• We incorporate what Ellis calls “isms” or “musturbations” into our lives…the “shoulds”, “oughts” and “musts” and rigidly and forcefully emotionally subscribe to these absolutisms and needlessly disturb ourselves. From these absolutes can develop feelings of anxiety, depression, rejection, rage, guilt and alienation.( Wikipedia)

Framework of REBT

Rational beliefs• Lead to goal attainment• More inner harmony• Reduce conflicts with others

and allow for good mental health

• Rational thinking, emoting and behaving mean rationally, logically and pragmatically evaluating oneself, others, and life as they really are.

Irrational beliefs• Prevent goal attainment• Lead to inner conflict• Increase conflict with others

and lead to poor mental health• Irrational thinking , emoting

and behaving leads to the development of emotional difficulties such as jealousy, self-blame, guilt, low-frustration tolerance, depression and anxiety.

Assumes human beings have both rational and irrational tendencies.

Where Might These Beliefs Have Originated?

• Childhood - when and where they were uncritically embraced

• Environmental factors – those event that happened in our lives that we allowed to be negatively reinforced

• Strong, inborn biological tendencies – illogical over- generalizing, negative personality. Ellis states here that “people are born and reared with the ability to look at the data of their lives, particularly the negative things that happen to them against their goals and interests, and to make inaccurate inferences and attributions about these data.” (Wikipedia)

Work of the REBT Therapist • REBT teaches the client to identify irrational and self-

defeating tendencies which by nature are unrealistic, illogical and absolutist. The counselors role is to forcefully and emotionally dispute them and replace them with more self-helping ones.

• The goal is to show the client that whenever unpleasant events occur in their lives, people have a choice: Making themselves feel healthy and self-helpingly sorry, disappointed, frustrated and annoyed…or causing them feel unhealthy and self-defeated horrified, terrified, panicked, depressed, self hating and self-pitying. (Wikipedia)

Causes of Disturbing Thoughts Ellis developed the three Core Beliefs that cause

disturbances:

• “ I MUST be thoroughly competent, adequate, achieving and loveable at all times, or else I am an incompetent and worthless person”. This belief usually leads to feelings of anxiety, panic, depression, despair and worthlessness

• Other significant people in my life MUST treat me kindly and fairly at all times or else I can’t stand it and they are bad, rotten, and evil persons who should be severely blamed, damned, and vindictively punished for their horrible treatment of me”. This leads to feelings of anger, rage, fury, vindictiveness and leads to actions like fights, feuds, wars, genocide, and ultimately an atomic holocaust.

• Things and conditions absolutely MUST be the way I want them to be and MUST never be too difficult or frustrating. Otherwise life is awful, terrible, horrible,

catastrophic and unbearable”. This leads to low-frustration tolerance, self-pity, anger, depression and to behaviors such as procrastination, avoidance and inaction

The A-B-C Theory• The activating event or the adversity a person faces. Example: a

challenge.• Represents the evaluation (cognitive-affective-behavioral) of the

activating event• The emotional consequence and self-defeating behaviors

The key to REBT thought is the evaluation of the event, not the activating event itself, causes the emotional consequence. We are largely responsible for creating our emotional disturbances through beliefs we associate with the events in our lives. By attaining a more rational evaluation of ourselves, others and the world, we are more likely to behave and emote in a more life-serving and adaptive way

Ellis believes that people can best accomplish this goal (rational behavior) by:

• Avoiding pre-occupying themselves with A (the challenge)

• Acknowledge yet resist the temptation to dwell endlessly on the emotional consequences at C.

• Choose to examine, challenge, modify and uproot B –the irrational events they hold about the activating events in A. (Corey).

Introduction of D and ED - Disputing the beliefs and

values that they have come to see are irrational and can be linked to their emotional and behavioral disturbances. In a form of cognitive therapy, the individual:

1. Detects irrational beliefs an sees that they are illogical and unrealistic.

2. Debates these irrational beliefs and shows oneself how they are unsupported by evidence.

3. Discriminates between irrational thinking and rational thinking. (Corey).

E – Effect of disputing. Involves the relinquishing of self-destructive ideologies, the

acquisition of effective new beliefs, and a greater acceptance of oneself, of others, and of the inevitable frustrations of everyday life. (Corey)

The Mental Wellness of REBT • Unconditional self-acceptance, other-acceptance and

life-acceptance are of prime importance in achieving mental wellness.

• People and the world are fallible, and that people better accept themselves, life’s hassles and unfairness and others “as is”.

• People better consider themselves valuable just as a result of being alive and kicking; and are better off not to measure their “self” or their “being” and give themselves any global rating because all humans are far too complex to rate, and all humans to both good and bad deeds and have both good and bad attributes and traits. (Wikipedia).

Beginning Therapeutic Process

• According to Ellis, “we humans have a strong tendency not only to rate our acts and behaviors as “good”, “bad”, “worthy” or “unworthy”, but also to rate ourselves as a total person based on our performances.

• Group leaders will teach members how to separate the evaluation of their behaviors from the evaluation of themselves.

Dangers of Self-Rating

• Self-centeredness and self-consciousness• Low self-esteem• Tendency to prove oneself rather than enjoy

oneself• Tendency to damn oneself and others• Feeling that what one accomplishes, it is never

enough• Manipulation of others• Sabotaging of one’s goals

Replace Self- Rating with Unconditional Self-Acceptance

• Accepting the fact that change is the product of hard work and practice

• Acceptance of what we cannot change• Accepting the reality that we are imperfect• Avoiding damnation of ourselves and others

(Corey)

Therapeutic Techniques and Procedures

• Utilizes a wide range of cognitive, emotive and behavioral methods with most clients, and blends techniques to change clients patterns of thinking, feeling and acting.

• Integrative therapy – adapting various methods that are also used in existential, humanistic other therapeutic approaches.

• Concern for changing feelings and behaviors that flow from dysfunctional thinking patterns

• Goal is to minimize symptoms by bringing about a profound change n philosophy.

Problems Treated in REBT • Anxiety• Depression• Anger• Marital problems• Poor interpersonal skills• Perfectionism• Morbid jealousy

• Parenting skills• Character disorders• Obsessive/Compulsive Disorders• Eating Disorders• Psychosomatic Disorders• Addictive D/O• PTSD• Psychotic D/O

In the case of involuntary referred individuals, the therapist must find ways of motivating them by showing them that they can benefit in some bays by taking REBT seriously.

Intervention Techniques May Include

• Humor• Didactic Presentations of REBT• Cognitive rehearsal of desired behaviors• Unconditional acceptance

Specific In-Session Techniques • Strong and forceful language

• Disputing methods

• Assertiveness training

• Social skills training

• Role-playing

• Behavioral reversal

• Teaching rational coping self-

statements • Rational emotive imagery

• Cognitive therapy

• Information giving

• Modeling• Relaxation training• Rational role reversal• Problem-solving training• Imaginable

desensitization• Contingency contracting• Operant methods• Cognitive restructuring• In-vivo desensitization

Cognitive – Emotive - Behavioral Methods of REBT

Cognitive: • Demonstrates to clients that their beliefs and

self-talk are keeping them disturbed.Methods used: • Teaching the A-B-Cs of REBT• Active Disputation of Faulty Beliefs• Teaching Coping Self-Statements• Psycho-educational Methods• Cognitive Homework

Emotive: Exploring feelings and experiences

Methods used: • Unconditional Acceptance• Rational Emotive Imagery• Use of Humor• Shame-Attacking Exercises• Role Playing

Behavioral: • Self-management methods work best

when clients control their own behavior rather than allowing themselves to be controlled by their leader

Methods used: • Homework Assignments• Reinforcement and Penalties • Skills Training (Corey)

Advantages of REBT Work Applied to Group

• Homework assignments are more effectively carried out in groups than 1-1 therapy.

• Effective milieu for several techniques• Group acts as a lab, behavior is directly observed, the group

exists in a social context so many of group can be more easily assessed and explored than they might be individually

• Learn how to apply the A-B-C Model to upsetting situations and then learn how to correct faulty thinking and behaving, learning from others and their application of the model to their situation.

• Seeing change in group members• Self-disclosure will hopefully lead to unconditional self-

acceptance. Learning that taking risks in revealing may pay off.• By groups being what they are in nature, may encourage those

individuals who are rigid and bound by old patterns of dysfunctional behavior to accept the challenge and reevaluate those patterns and adopt new ones. (Corey)

Applications of REBT to Brief Group Work

• Group members can quickly learn how the disturb themselves. The A-B- Cs of their problems can be clearly and simply shown, easily grasped, and quickly put to use in therapy.

• Because of the active/directive nature of REBT, members can alleviate their disturbances in the shortest feasible time.

• By using the cognitive, emotive, and behavioral methods of REBT for even a brief time, members can internalize a constructive philosophy that shows them new ways of approaching situations. (Corey)

Applying REBT to Group Work in Schools

• Because it is a cognitive behavior model in nature, it helps deal with situations beyond their control.

• It is an intervening tool for those children who tend to exaggerate negative events.

• Useful in helping adolescents to think differently as they are a population that tends to embrace many false beliefs. (Corey)

Applying REBT to Multicultural Populations

• Intervention tool for a member of a culture that requires hard work, cooperation, interdependence, respect for the family.

• Focuses of the problems of living, not the diagnosis, as in the case of a person diagnosed with a mental illness.

• Intervention tool for discussing ethno-centric issues in an understanding and supportive environment may lessen what is thought to be a larger problem than it could be. (Corey)

Applying REBT to Multicultural Populations

• Intervention tool for a member of a culture that requires hard work, cooperation, interdependence, respect for the family.

• Focuses of the problems of living, not the diagnosis, as in the case of a person diagnosed with a mental illness.

• Intervention tool for discussing ethno-centric issues in an understanding and supportive environment may lessen what is thought to be a larger problem than it could be. (Corey)

Contributions and Strengths of REBT

• Magnitude of past events vs. personal responsibility in acquiring self-acceptance and rational beliefs and convictions.

• Uncritical acceptance of certain premises still brings with it a personal

• Responsibility of periodic scrutinizing with the continuation of effective

• Thinking and Behaviors.– Training group leaders to unblock their own irrational

beliefs in order to effectively facilitate a group.• REBT theory insists that insights are followed

(Corey)

Limitations of REBT

• Imposition of leaders values on the members.• Members may be subjected to group pressure.• Adopting goals that the therapist sells rather

than working within their own framework.• Therapists must be highly aware of their own

motivations, watch for biases and altruism.• Client dependency on the leader about what

constitutes rationality. (Corey)

References

Corey,G. (2004). Theory & Practice of Group Counseling. Belmont, California: Brook/Cole.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Ellis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_Emotive_Behavior_Therapy