Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy makes the assumption that the primary purpose of life is to maximize pleasure. In order to maximize pleasure and minimize suffering we advocate being a long term hedonist. This means living for both today and tomorrow. If one only lives for the pleasures of today then there is a good likelihood that … Read more

Let’s be honest. We all want to live well with our fellow humans but at times it can get difficult to do so. Humans are unique, hold different points of view and often we do not agree. When conflict occurs we often strive to influence the other person to adopt our point of view. We … Read more

One of the defining and liberating features of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy is what we call the elegant philosophical solution. In our society people often attempt to inspire and help each other by uttering the phrase “This too shall pass.” This is approach is sometimes helpful but sadly in life some bad situations linger on and do … Read more

People create emotional disturbance by engaging in what REBT calls self-rating. There are two types of self-rating. One is when you self-down and the other is when you self-up.   Self-downing is when you hold beliefs like “I have to be the best, the top dog, and the standard I use to judge this is how … Read more

Fallible humans easily view things they strongly want as absolute needs. When we engage in this thinking trap we create unnecessary misery and despair. For example, we may want love from a particular person, career success, or a better job and then wrongly jump to the conclusion we absolutely need these things which are important … Read more

As you think about things and also when you speak to others reflect on how you describe what is going on. Do you think and say “He made me so mad!” or do you think and say “I made myself so mad about what he did!” In REBT we teach people how to think in a sensible way in … Read more

Learning to think in a more self-enhancing way is difficult. People are prone to sloppy thinking. As fallible humans we easily jump to false conclusions, overgeneralize, look at things in categorical ways and make predictions we are certain will occur when in fact none of us are able to predict the future with accuracy.   … Read more

I distinguish between practical solutions and philosophical solutions in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. Recall the ABC model of REBT. The letter “A” stands for adversity. B stands for beliefs about your Adversity. The letter “C” stands for your consequential self-defeating emotions about your adversity, which according to REBT theory stem largely from your beliefs.   … Read more

Strive to improve your frustration tolerance each day. It is the human condition to both want and rigidly demand that we get what we want on our terms. For most people this demanding only occurs with a few goals but when it does, it is quite handicapping. The demands we often make are for our … Read more

My good friend and REBT colleague Dr. Windy Dryden is an expert on self-discipline. He makes the point that there are three main principles to self-discipline:   “It is worth doing.” “I am worth doing it for.” “I only make it harder for myself if I don’t do it.” In Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy we … Read more