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

Albert Ellis, the originator of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), created a system of ideas that helps people go beyond overcoming emotional disturbance. Since he wrote his first unpublished manuscript at age 19 on pursuing happiness, Ellis wanted to enable people to self-actualize and experience increased pleasure, satisfaction, meaning, and joy in life. People seem … Read more