Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT)

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Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT)
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View of Human Nature human beings

• have both rational and irrational thinking
• are self-talking and self-evaluating
• have a tendency toward growth and actualization
• keep ourselves disturbed through self-talk
• have the capacity to change cognitive, emotive,
  and behavioral processes

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Key concepts in REBT

• Stresses thinking, judging, analyzing, and doing
• Assumes that cognitions, emotions, and behaviors
  interact to have a causal effect relationship
• Is a highly didactic, directive approach
• concern thinking and feeling
• Emotions are mainly generated by our beliefs,
  evaluations, interpretations, and reactions to
  life situations

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View of Emotional Disturbance

• We learn irrational beliefs from significant
  others during childhood
• Teach clients to feel un-depressed even when they
  are unaccepted and unloved by significant others.
  
• Self-blame ? emotional disturbances
• Irrational idea ? internalize ? self-defeating
• We have a tendency to make ourselves emotionally
  disturbed by internalizing self-defeating beliefs

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The A-B-C theory of personality
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Irrational Ideas

• Irrational ideas lead to self-defeating behavior
• Some examples
• I must have love or approval from all the
  significant people in my life.
• I must perform important tasks competently and
  perfectly.
• If I dont get what I want, its terrible, and I
  cant stand it.

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Therapeutic Goals

• Minimize emotional disturbances
• Decrease self-defeating behaviors
• Become more self-actualized
• Acquire unconditional self-acceptance and
  unconditional other acceptance
• Think rationally, feel appropriately, and act
  more effectively in achieving the goals of living
  happily

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Therapists function and Role

• Discover clients irrational beliefs
• Make connection of how irrational beliefs lead to
  emotional disturbances
• Modify clients irrational beliefs.
• Dispute irrational beliefs and substitute
  rational beliefs
• Not spending too much time on exploring clients
  early history

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The Therapeutic Relationship

• The therapeutic relationship is important, but
  intensive relationship is not required.
• Therapists show great faith in their clients
  ability to change themselves.
• Therapists disclose their own beliefs to clients

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Therapeutic techniques--Cognitive methods

• Disputing irrational beliefs
• If I dont get what I want, it is not at the end
  of the world
• Writing cognitive homework
• Applying ABC theory to daily life problems
• Changing ones language
• It would be absolutely awful.?It would be
  inconvenient
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Make a list of advantages/disadvantages of
  smoking

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Therapeutic techniques--Emotional Methods

• Rational-emotional imagery
• Imagine the worst things that could happen to
  them
• Role playing
• Shame-attacking exercises
• Take risks to do something that the clients are
  afraid to do because of what others might
  thinkuntil they realize that their feelings of
  shame are self-created.
• Forceful self-dialogue
• A dialogue with oneself

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Therapeutic techniques--Behavioral methods

• Activity homework
• Write assignments that target on irrational
  beliefs in order to reduce them
• Reinforcements and penalties
• Reward?when accomplish a task penalize?fail to
  attempt a task
• Skill Training
• Assertiveness training

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Research on REBT

• More than 250 studies
• Most research on irrational beliefs
• Review of outcome studies
• REBT was more significantly more effective than
  other therapies or control group in 31 of 47
  studies (DiGiuseppe Miller, 1977) and in 49 of
  89 studies (Silverman, McCarthy, McGovern,
  1992).
• Research Efforts
• Most studies focus only on cognitive methods

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Summary and Evaluation

• Contributions
• focus on how we interpret and react to events
• put insight into action
• teach clients how to be their own therapists
• Limitations
• too confrontational
• ignoring the past
• power imbalance (teacher-student)