The History Of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

The action-oriented therapy developed by Albert Ellis is one of the influential schools of thought in psychology.
Albert Ellis (1962) wanted to develop an action-oriented therapy to produce results.
According to Albert Ellis, psychoanalytic therapy helped his clients in being aware of unconscious problems but, it did not make any changes in their behaviors.

Next, he experimented with several techniques.
Eventually, he developed the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy.
Rational therapy was its original name.

This psychotherapeutic technique was one of the very first behavior cognitive techniques.

Albert Ellis led the way to the notion that knowledge mostly suggests that events cause emotional and behavioral problems.

Ellis said that all behaviors are verified not by events but by the person’s interpretation of those events.

He discovered ABC, in which he argued that it is beliefs (B) about activating events (A) that conclude problematic consequences (C).

How Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy works in practice

In this technique, the therapist and client work together in an active-directive manner.

The therapist will try to make the patients see the irrationality of what they believe in.

The therapist will then aim to change their internal ideas.
This means that the patients will be taught that if they start to feel upset in real life condition, they should stop and ask themselves what they are saying themselves about the condition.

Sometimes, the therapist will instruct the patients to imagine a particular situation and act to it.

What Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy wants to accomplish

“Modify behavior by changing the way the patient thinks and acts​t about things.”

The Role Of The Therapist in REBT

The role of the therapist is to make patients deal with and confront their own illogical thinking and find more appropriate actions to act to it.
The therapist becomes a directive teacher by attempting to get the patient to make use of common sense.
Therapist empowers the client to aid himself through future difficulties.

The therapist also makes the client realize that he is mistakenly blaming external events for unhappiness and psychological distress.

Process Used In Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

a. Cognitive Techniques

i. Rational Analysis

This method focuses on particular events from the client’s life.
The therapist demonstrates the way of disputing the irrational beliefs accompanying the distress.

ii. Double-standard Dispute

If the client is considering a behavior as a “should”, the therapist asks him if he would recommend the same “should” to someone close to him.

If the client says no, the therapist will make him see that the behavior shows a double-standard.

iii. Devil’s Advocate

It is better to use this technique for consolidating purposes

iv. Reframing

The therapist conveys that the unfortunate events are ‘disappointing’, ‘uncomfortable’, ‘unreasonable’, and ‘unbearable’.
Rational beliefs bring us closer to getting good results in the real world.
Albert Ellis

b. Emotive Techniques

i. Rational-Emotive Therapy

The therapist instructs the client to imagine a situation that would usually make him upset in actual life.

The client will then be allowed to change the negative feelings to positive.
This is done several times until the client is no longer bothered by the situation.

ii. Shame-Attacking Exercises

The goal of this technique is to help the client feel unashamed even though others disapprove of his actions.
People have motives and thoughts of which they are unaware.

**c. Behavioral Techniques
**

i. Exposure

One example of exposure is letting a lonely person go out and mingle with others.

This could make the client realize that being with people is not that unpleasant after all.

ii. Stepping out of character

This is usually done for inconsistent behavior.

A person who has perfectionist personality may be requested to do intentionally something beyond his normal self.

The art of love is largely the art of persistence. Albert Ellis

For which disorder is REBT best used

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy can treat people with anxiety disorder, depression, phobias, emotional distress and stress.

REBT Critique

Some researchers characterized REBT as pseudoscience because of unfounded hypotheses.
Researchers and therapists from the third generation behavioral theory have criticized the scientific basis of RET.
It is doubtful whether it cognitions can be irrational, and it many think that every cognition has a function within the historical or situational context of the client.
This has led to the development of other therapies and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT); mindfulness-based cognitive therapy also called mindfulness and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).
These are behavioral treatments that rather than trying to change the meaning of the cognition focus on the function it has for the client.
Albert Ellis has paid considerable attention to opportunities to combine ACT with RET.
I hope you have enjoyed this article Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy.