Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) acknowledges that it is challenging for humans to think flexibly and in a non-extreme way. In REBT, we encourage you to keep your preferences and desires but to avoid transforming your desires into absolute demands. It is easier to follow this recommendation when the object of your desire is a … Read more

Most people who fail complain that they are victims of circumstances. Those who get on in this world are those who go out and look for the right circumstances. And if they can’t find them, they make them on their own. ​                           … Read more

In my view, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy is as much a way of living or a philosophy of life as it is a form of cognitive-behavior psychotherapy. I have practiced this philosophy for thirty-one years and find it very beneficial. I have tried to distill the main ingredients of this liberating philosophy to as few … Read more

​Humans are highly imperfect and fragile. We are social animals who thrive on relationships with other humans. Relationships with significant others are often frayed or ended by the experience of unhealthy hurt. It is sad when people become estranged from family and friends due to hurt feelings. People sometimes are uncomfortable acknowledging feelings of hurt. … Read more

Perhaps the most challenging role a person can play is playing the role of a parent. It is a great responsibility to parent one, two, or more children in today’s world. There is nonstop decision-making. Once a person becomes a parent, they never sleep the same. As infants and toddlers, children require constant supervision. Raising … Read more

At his trial for impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens, Socrates famously said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” On the first day of this new year, I have been reflecting on four questions: What would you do if you had all the time and money in the world? How would you live if you … Read more

Movies and paintings depict families in an idyllic way at this time of the year. Brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, grandparents and cousins gather around a warm fireplace and enjoy food and drink merrily. People joyfully sing songs and exchange gifts as snow falls outside, creating a picturesque landscape. Everyone is paired off happily … Read more

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) argues that you can achieve emotional health by cultivating your capacity for enlightened self-interest. This concept means that you learn to think and feel in ways that allow you to take action to put yourself first and others a close second. Enlightened self-interest does not mean that you must always … Read more

Depending on the circumstances, most humans find adapting to change difficult at one time or another in their lives. When children and adolescents change schools or when a divorce occurs, they can feel anxious and depressed in response to the change. When adults change jobs or career paths, move from one location to another, or divorce, … Read more

We all grow old, except for those who die young. We lose our beauty, our strength, and our speed of thought and memory. We lose the opportunity to take specific paths in life as time goes on. We lose our friends and lovers. We lose so much as we age. Fortunately, we also may have … Read more