Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy

In the mid-1950’s Dr. Albert Ellis, a clinical psychologist trained in psychoanalysis, became
disillusioned with the slow progress of his clients. He observed that they tended to get better
when they changed their ways of thinking about themselves, their problems, and the world. Ellis
reasoned that therapy would progress faster if the focus was directly on the client’s beliefs, and
thus was born the method now known as Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy.

REBT was originally called ‘Rational Therapy’, soon changed to ‘Rational-Emotive Therapy’
and again in the early 1990’s to ‘Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy’. REBT is one of a
number of ‘cognitive-behavioural’ therapies, which, although developed separately, have many
similarities – such as Cognitive Therapy (CT), developed by Psychiatrist Aaron Beck in the
1960’s. REBT and CT together form the basis of the family of psychotherapies known as
‘Cognitive- Behaviour Therapy’.

According to the REBT model, people experience undesirable activating events, about which
they have rational beliefs (RBs) and irrational beliefs (IBs). These beliefs then lead to emotional,
behavioral, and cognitive consequences. Rational beliefs (i.e., helpful/effective beliefs) lead to
functional consequences, while irrational beliefs (i.e., unhelpful/negative beliefs) lead to
dysfunctional consequences. Clients who engage in REBT are encouraged to actively dispute
their IBs and to assimilate more efficient, adaptive and rational beliefs, with a positive impact on
their emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses (Ellis, 1962; 1994; Walen et al., 1992).
Thus, REBT is a psychological theory and a treatment consisting of a combination of three
different types of techniques (cognitive, behavioral, and emotive) we can use to help ourselve
feel better physically and emotionally, and to engage in healthier behaviors.

Cognitive techniques are specific strategies to change or modify unhelpful and/or negative
thoughts concerning a particular event. (For example, learning to change one’s thoughts to cope
better with one’s depression). Behavior techniques involve learning practical techniques that help
us to cope in demanding or stressful situations, such as depression and/or loss. Examples of
behavioral strategies include learning how to plan and manage your daily schedule, and learning
how to distract yourself from negative thoughts. Emotive techniques are designed to help us
change our negative thoughts by emotional means. Humorous methods, poems, songs etc.
generate feelings that help challenge and change negative thoughts.

According to the cognitive theory, the effect that our thoughts can have on our physical,
behavioral and emotional responses to a particular situation can be illustrated using the following
diagram:

A = Activating event or situation that we experience

B= Beliefs or thoughts regarding the situation

C = Consequence: How we feel or act based on these beliefs

Irrational Thinking
 To describe a belief as ‘irrational’ is to say that:

1. It blocks a person from achieving their goals, creates extreme emotions that persist and
which distress and immobilise, and leads tobehaviours that harm oneself, others, and
one’s life in general.
2. It distorts reality (it is a misinterpretation of what is happening and is not supported by
the available evidence);
3. It contains illogical ways of evaluating oneself, others, and the world: demandingness,
awfulising, discomfort-intolerance and people-rating; When talking with clients, we often
refer to beliefs as ‘self-defeating’ rather than ‘irrational’, to emphasise that the main
reason for replacing a belief is because it negatively affects their lives.

A-B-C-D-E Model

A often people experience undesirable activating events

B about which they have rational and irrational beliefs/cognitions

C these beliefs lead to emotional, behavioral, and cognitive consequences

D clients who engage in REBT are encouraged to actively dispute their IBs

E clients are encouraged to assimilate more efficient RBs

A’s (Activating Events)

Example: “I feel depressed because of my unsuccessful life, and wonder how I am going to get
through the rest of the day.”

B’s (Negative or Unhelpful Beliefs)

Demands – “I must absolutely be able to do all of my errands today and I can not accept not
doing it!”.

o Awfulizing/Catastrophizing “I had to take two naps today, and that’s AWFUL! This is the
worst thing ever! I’m usually active all day long.”
o Frustration Intolerance – “I can’t stand being depressed like this!”
o Self-Downing – “I was too depressed to take care of my duties. I’m an insensitive and a
terrible person.”
o Other-Downing- “He/she did not do his/her duties. He/she is totally insensitive and useless.”
o Life-Downing – “Life is worthless because I feel so worn out.”

C’s – Consequences following the events

o Unhealthy negative feelings.
o Unhelpful behaviors.
o Negative Physical Consequences of Distress.

D’s – Debating your Negative Beliefs

After recognizing negative or unhelpful thoughts, the next step is to DEBATE or challenge them
empatically.

E’s – Effective/Helpful Beliefs

Once we have successfully debated against our negative beliefs, we are ready to replace them
with new more effective or more helpful beliefs. Healthier beliefs may sound like one of the
following:

Preferences – These are a healthier, more rational alternative to demands. Preferences are when
you wish for something, or want it very badly, but do not demand that it must be so. For
example, “I really wish I had the energy I used to have, and I am doing my best to have it, but I
can accept that sometimes the things are not the way I want them to be” instead of saying, “I
MUST feel exactly the way I did before I got depressed, otherwise I can not accept it.”

o Anti-Awfulizing – This is a healthier, more rational alternative to awfulizing. This is

when you can recognize that a situation is very bad, without thinking it is 100% AWFUL. For
example, “Being too tired to go to work 5 days a week is really bad, but not the worst thing
ever; at least I know this won’t last forever, and staying at home does give me more time to
catch up with my friends,” instead of thinking “Feeling this tired is AWFUL, the worst thing
possible!”

o High Frustration Tolerance – This is a healthier, more rational alternative to frustration

intolerance. This is when you realize that even though you may find a situation very difficult,
you can stand it. For example, “I hate feeling so depressed, but I’ll just keep finding new
ways to cope with it, and I’ll keep going!” instead of thinking “I can’t stand feeling so
depressed! It’s unbearable!”

o Anti-Self-Downing – This is a healthier, more rational alternative to self-downing. This is

when you are able to accept yourself and approve of yourself, even when you’re not perfect. For
example,“Ok, I’m not handling the depressed mood as well as I would like. I’m usually such
a strong person, and now I find myself often nervous. But I recognize that I’m still a good,
worthwhile person, even if I’m not as strong as I thought.” This thought is a more rational,
positive alternative than calling yourself names like, “I’m a weak, terrible person.”

o Anti-Other-Downing – This is a healthier, more rational alternative to otherdowning. This is

when you’re able to accept others, regardless of mistakes they might have made, or things they
might have done to upset you. For example, “I’m pretty upset at my partner for not listening to
me. But I recognize he/she is still generally a person, who does lots of great things for me.”
This is an alternative to thinking “He/she is not a good listener, and that makes him/her a horrible
person.”
o Anti-Life-Downing – This is a healthier, more rational alternative to life-downing. This is
when you’re able to be accepting of how your life is, even when it is not exactly as you would
like it to be. For example, you might think, “This isn’t how I planned for my life to be, but I
recognize that life is a mixed bag, full of good as well as bad events,” instead of thinking “Life
is meaningless and useless now that I have depression.”

Applications of REBT

REBT has been successfully used to help people with a range of clinical and non-clinical
problems.

Clinical applications

• Depression
• Anxiety disorders, including obsessive compulsive disorder, agoraphobia, specific phobias,
generalised anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, etc.
• Eating disorders, addictions, impulse control disorders
• Anger management, antisocial behaviour, personality disorders
• Sexual abuse recovery
• Adjustment to chronic health problem, physical disability, or mental disorder
• Pain management
• General stress management
• Child or adolescent behaviour disorders
• Relationship and family problems

Non-clinical applications

• Personal growth – REBT theory contains detailed principles (for example, enlightened self-
interest, self-acceptance, risk-taking) which can be used to help people develop and act on a
more functional philosophy of life.
• Workplace effectiveness – DiMattia (DiMattia & Ijzermans, 1996) has developed a variation of
REBT known as Rational Effectiveness Training which is increasingly being used in the
workplace to aid worker and managerial effectiveness.

References

David et al., (2004), REBT Depression Manual/Protocol – BBU.

Froggatt W. (2005). A Brief Introduction To Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, 3rd Ed.