Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is a distinct form of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). It is the pioneering form of cognitive behavior therapy developed by Dr. Albert Ellis in 1956 and which other versions of CBT have since borrowed from, been influenced by, or attempted to improve upon.
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REBT Teaches You Practical Ideas & Strategies for Achieving Your Goals
Emotional Responsibility
Adversity occurs. Choose a healthy response to it. Focus on what you can change & accept the unchangeable.
Unconditional Self & Other Acceptance
Humans are fallible. Evaluate behavior & reward or penalize it. Unconditionally accept people despite their flaws.
Uncertainty Tolerance
Only probability, not certainty, exists. Take calculated risks, avoid foolhardy ones, and do what is best in the long run.
Long Term Hedonism
Frustration & discomfort are difficult to bear, not unbearable. Tolerate the required effort to achieve your goals. Accept that the easy path often fails us.
Self Reliance
Think independently, make your choices & be responsible for the outcomes. Do not blame external factors for your plight; work to overcome them.
Vitally Absorbing Interests
Cultivate & maintain vitally absorbing interests & significant human involvements to live a meaningful life.
Tolerance of Life
Perfection & utopias do not exist. Everything changes. Adopt realistic attitudes to face life's adversities. View happiness as a choice.
Strong Desires, Not Rigid Attitudes
Keep your desire for excellence, success, control, respect, love, & approval. See them not as necessities for happiness. Accept that you never have to have what you want & can still find happiness through alternative paths.
Why Choose REBT?
REBT is a problem-focused, solution-oriented approach. I begin to intervene in session one. REBT is not vent, vent, vent therapy. Although I do a brief assessment, empathetically listen, and get to know you, I attempt to teach you something helpful from our first meeting. I teach you the critical role your attitudes play in determining your self-defeating emotional and behavioral reactions to your challenges and problems. There are things you can change and things you cannot. In session one, we apply this powerful idea to your circumstances. I show you how to think and react effectively so you may do what you can to improve things. I give you my The REBT Pocket Companion for Clients, 2nd Edition, to take home and use to deepen your understanding of the core concepts and strategies of REBT. Improvement and emotional relief can start in session one.
Learn MoreREBT as A Philosophy of Life
REBT is an action-oriented, philosophy-based psychotherapy that goes beyond being an evidence-based, unique form of CBT therapy. It suggests an orientation to life to promote emotional well-being, resilience, happiness, satisfying relationships, and a sense of purpose. As a philosophy of life, REBT encourages you to incorporate these elements into your daily life.
● Self-interest & Social interest
● Self-reliance & Independent thought
● Frustration Tolerance & Adaptability
● Acceptance of Others
● Acceptance of Adversity & Death
● Healthy Sense of Humor
● Self-Acceptance
● Self-Discipline
● Emotional Responsibility
● Having a Mission in Life
● Scientific Thinking
● Calculated Risk taking
Is REBT for You?
Do you want to be in therapy or profit from it? Reflect on this for a moment when considering choosing Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. REBT is a problem-focused, solution-oriented therapy. It is a well-organized system of concepts for coping with life. I teach my patients skills and ideas for addressing their emotional and behavioral problems. I help people see how they unwittingly create and maintain self-defeating reactions to difficult circumstances that add to their burdens. I help you work through your resistance to changing the attitudes underpinning your self-defeating emotions and behaviors. I devise and negotiate. homework assignments that build on our sessions. These assignments aim to strengthen healthy attitudes and help you to learn new responses, so you can change what you can and live happily despite the unchangeable aspects of life. Lastly, I help you think creatively about ways to influence the other people you are having a problem with and to change external conditions favorably.
Learn MoreLength of Treatment
REBT is an efficient approach to psychotherapy and life coaching. It is not vent, vent, vent therapy – “See you at the same time next week.” The length of treatment and outcome are dependent on several factors. The first is the nature of your problems and goals, the time you invest in learning the core ideas and strategies of REBT, and your willingness to implement these ideas and strategies into your life.
I recommend scheduling two sessions during the first two weeks to get started and then changing to every other week. REBT is a relatively short-term therapy aimed at producing long-term results. The goal is to teach you practical ideas and a self-helping process you then use so that your treatment need not go on forever. I aim to be the last psychologist you consult because you have learned how to help yourself when experiencing self-defeating emotions and behaviors.
Between Session Work & Practice
Research in REBT\cognitive behavioral therapy has shown that regularly spending small amounts of time between sessions making efforts to learn and apply REBT ideas and strategies yields significant therapeutic results. To change in ways you desire, you first need an accurate understanding of REBT’s core ideas and strategies, and then soon after, you must attempt to implement these ideas and strategies in different situations. Below is a list of recommended activities you can carry out between sessions to maximize your investment in the therapy sessions you schedule with me.
- Read handouts and books to gain knowledge of REBT\cbt skills and ideas. Start with The REBT Pocket Companion for Clients, 2nd Edition which I have given to you.
- Forcefully repeat to yourself a few times per day the rational attitudes I have written on index cards and given to you.
- Go to REBTDoctor.com and sign up for my free emails on REBT. Read and act on those emails.
- Attend my free Saturday morning Zoom conversations and watch another person discuss a problem with me. Watching them struggle with their rigid and extreme self-defeating attitudes will help you learn REBT and apply it to your life.
- Listen to free audio recordings found at REBTDoctor.com while driving, cleaning, cooking, walking to work, etc. Listen to the same presentation multiple times to deepen your understanding.
- Watch the free video at REBTDoctor.com to gain a good understanding of REBT philosophy & skills.
- Practice listening to relaxation training audio or self-hypnosis audio.
- Experiment with writing down the letters ABCDE when upset or procrastinating and changing your Basic Attitude at point B through disputing and reflection.
- Experiment with new behaviors that are uncomfortable, awkward, unfamiliar and therapeutic
- Assertive behaviors
- Calculated risk-taking behaviors
- Practical shame attacks
- Experiment with Rational Emotive Imagery for 3 minutes per day for 30 days. (Rational Emotive Imagery)
- Use rewards and penalties to influence your behavior. For strong procrastination, avoidance and resistance, penalties that sting may be necessary.
- Use your phone’s recorder to make a recording in your voice of all the rational attitudes I have written on index cards for you. Then listen to it multiple times to enhance your conviction in those views.Make new recordings as my work with you goes on.
- Continue to refresh and deepen understanding of essential REBT skills and ideas by reading any book by Dr. Albert Ellis, Dr. Windy Dryden or me. Also relisten to REBT audio found at REBTDoctor.com when driving, cleaning, bathing, cooking, walking to work, etc.
- Continue doing any previous homework assignments you have found to be helpful in the past.
- Create homework assignments aimed at extending your growth as a person and maintaining your therapeutic gains.
- Continue to use & master new behaviors (e.g., assertiveness, calculated risk-taking, shame attacks).
- Introduce, teach, and model REBT to others in a way that is not disagreeable to them.
- Return to therapy for a booster session to apply REBT to a new problem if needed.
- Download and read Dr. Ellis’s short paper on How to Maintain Your Treatment Gains, found below.