I listened to a thought-provoking podcast about solitude while walking to my office on a cold Saturday morning at 6:45 AM. Increasing solitude has become a common aspect of people’s lives. Americans have reduced face-to-face socializing by 20%. (This trend may also apply outside the United States, but I cannot say for sure.) We are voluntarily increasing our isolation, … Read more

Three self-defeating ideas Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy works to disabuse people of are: I must not be frustrated as I pursue my strongest desires. I must do everything perfectly well. Everyone must approve of me.   REBT can help you live a purposeful life and enjoy the satisfaction of achieving your goals and dreams. Albert … Read more

I recently went on safari to Africa and observed a great deal of animal behavior. I wanted to learn something from the trip that would make me wiser. Here is what I took away that reinforced what I more or less already knew. Facing ongoing adversity is the natural condition of all living organisms from … Read more

Many people who try to use REBT do not accurately know what each letter stands for in the ABC framework. When this happens, they cannot effectively do self-therapy and achieve healthy negative emotions and self-helping behavior, two explicit goals of REBT self-therapy. REBT will not be effective until you clearly understand what each letter of … Read more

In the fall of 1983, while in graduate school, I first heard Albert Ellis speak at the Philadelphia Ethical Society. The lecture’s title was “21 Ways to Meet Potential Friends and Lovers.” I was in the audience with my girlfriend then, and she and I had a fun-filled evening listening to Ellis outline all the … Read more

In the spirit of the holiday season, I will give a free 90-minute Zoom lecture on Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) titled “Accepting What You Can Not Change – An Essential Life Skill” on Saturday, December 21st, at 9 AM in New York City. This free lecture is a gesture of appreciation to the growing Saturday Rational Emotive Behavioral Conversation Hour community. This … Read more

Sunday morning, December 1, 2024, New York City Okay, I will do a shame attack. I am a fallible human first, and a REBT psychologist second. Yesterday was a blow. For the past 225 weeks, I have had a volunteer for the weekly public demonstration on REBT. It was a surprise that none of the … Read more

Americans celebrate Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. Families customarily come together to share a feast to celebrate a bountiful harvest, give thanks for their blessings, and reaffirm interpersonal emotional connections. Unfortunately, it can be a day of pain for many people. Sadly, not everyone is in a position to enjoy the day with … Read more

Thanksgiving is a holiday meant to celebrate a bountiful harvest. We customarily gather with family and sometimes friends, hoping to reconnect with loved ones and reflect with gratitude on our blessings. A joyous family feast is then to ensue. Humans are imperfect; sadly, sometimes, people drink too much, the gratitude gets lost, and arguments erupt. … Read more

Teach your child to laugh at himself. Human beings are a funny race. They are incredibly inconsistent; They almost routinely practice, almost the exact opposite of what they preach; they behave with enormous stupidity even when they are unusually bright; they make the most ludicrous boners from birth to death, from morning to night, from country to country. Since your child is more than … Read more