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the father of rational emotive was born in Pittsburg but moved to New York and lived there for most of his life. He described his family as a mother who was independent, a father who cared about the family but was often away, and a younger brother and sister (Bernard, 2011). Ellis (2009) said his family was "pretty crazy" and that he raised himself. During his childhood he struggled with kidney disease and noted that he would work himself into a miserable state of mind and therefore learned at a young age that what people think affects their approach to life
Consequently, some of the origins of REBT can be traced to Freud and others to disillusionment with Freudian psychoanalysis
Ellis began concentrating on changing people's behavior by confronting them with their irrational beliefs and persuading them to adopt more rational ones.
a form of therapy that encouraged clients to learn how to dispute and overcome their maladaptive thinking. Ellis became unhappy that some people thought that rational therapy meant disregarding emotions, so he changed the name to rational emotive therapy.
"highly cognitive, very emotive, and particularly behavioral" form of counseling he had developed (Ellis, 1993). Ellis considered himself a philosophical or educational therapist and saw REBT as uniquely didactic, cognition oriented, and explicative.
He believed that REBT places people at the center of the universe and gives them almost full responsibility for their fat
Ellis noted that REBT, once a limited rational- persuasive therapy, had grown into a therapy that consciously used cognitive, emotive, and behavioral techniques to help clients children have minimal emotional repertoires and tend to express emotions in a quick, unsustained manner
When children grow old enough to use language
effectively, they acquire the abil- ity to sustain their emotions and possibly keep themselves emotionally upset. That emotional disturbance is the result of the innate predisposition to irrational thought and life experiences. Rather than concentrating on past events,
REBT practitioners emphasize present events and how people react to them
According to REBT, people have an innate desire to survive, to feel pleasure, and to move toward self-actualization
Ellis identified two innate biological propensities that compound with that growth potential
One is the tendency to think and behave irrationally.
He discussed self-evaluation and criticism and the inclination to accept untested assumptions about self, others, and the world as inborn capacities
the ability to think rationally and be proactive in detecting and disputing irrational beliefs to live a more self-actualizing life is also natural.
This biological capacity gives each person power and responsibility for changing
Thus irrationality and rationality exist within each person, allowing each to choose to follow a rational or an irrational life
explained that people would be emotionally healthier if they realized that all their beliefs and thoughts could be wrong. People need to check the truth, usefulness, and logic of beliefs. Certain values promote adjustment and mental health and others do not help in developing healthy attitudes and behaviors.
stresses that, as human beings, we have options.
We control our ideas, attitudes, feelings, and actions, and we arrange our lives according to our own dictates.
We have little control over what happens or what actually exists, but we do have both choices and control over how we view the world and how we react to difficulties, regardless of how we have been taught to respond.
People are neither good nor bad, according to REBT theory, if they respond to others with a rational belief system.
If individuals react with irrational beliefs, however, they view themselves and others as evil, awful, and horrible whenever they or others fall short of their expectations.
Ellis viewed people as naturally irrational, self-defeating individuals who need to be taught to be otherwise.
They think crookedly about their desires and preferences and escalate them in a self-defeating manner into musts, shoulds, oughts, and demands.
In assimilating these irrational beliefs, people become emotionally disturbed and feel anger, anxiety, depression, worthlessness, self-pity, and other negative feelings that lead to destructive behavior.
Ellis also stated that people can be "naturally" helpful and loving as long as they do not think irrationally.
Irrational thinking leads to self-hate, which leads to self-destructive behavior, and eventually to hatred of others, which, in turn, causes others to act irrationally toward the individual, thus beginning the cycle again. 1. Because it would be highly preferable if I were outstandingly competent, I absolutely should and must be; it is awful when I am not, and I am therefore a worthless individual. Alternative: It would be nice if I were outstanding in whatever I do, but if I am not, it is okay, and I will try my best anyway.
2.Because it is highly desirable that others treat me considerately and fairly, they absolutely should and must, and they are rotten people who deserve to be utterly damned when they do not. Alternative: I would prefer people to treat me considerately. However, I realize they will not always, so I will not take it personally when they do not, and I will make it my business to be considerate.
Because it is preferable that I experience pleasure rather than pain, the world should absolutely arrange this outcome, and life is horrible and I can't bear it when the world doesn't. Alternative: I realize that in life there are both pleasurable moments and painful moments. Therefore, I will try to make the painful moments positive learning experiences so I can endure trials and even benefit from them. stands for the idea that we must always perform well and have everyone's approval; if not, we are incompetent and unworthy. The results of self-demanding are
negative feelings and behaviors directed at self, such as self-hatred, anxiety, depression, procrastination, withdrawal, and obsessiveness. anxiety, depression, proscratination, withdrawal, self-hatred, obsessiveness
Other demandingness refers to the idea that people we encounter must always be considerate and fair; if they are not, they are unworthy, bad, and deserve to be
punished. The effects are anger, hurt, jealousy, vindictiveness, and violence.
World- demandingness implies that our life conditions should be enjoyable, hassle-free, and safe; if not, the world is horrible and unbearable. Anger, depression, self-pity, low tolerance, withdrawal, phobias, and addictions result (Ellis, 1994). These ideas of demands, thoughts, 1. I must be loved or approved from all significant people.
2. I must be thoroughly competent, adequate, and achieving in all possible respects.
3. Certain people are bad, wicked, or villainous, and they should be severely blamed and punished for their sins.
4. Things are awful, terrible, and catastrophic when I am frustrated, treated unfairly, or rejected.
5. Human unhappiness is externally caused, and I have little or no ability to control or change my negative feelings.
6. If something is or may be dangerous or fearsome, I should be terribly occupied with and upset about it.
7. It is easier to avoid facing many life difficulties and self-responsibilities than to undertake more rewarding forms of self-discipline.
8. The past is all-important, and because something once strongly affected one's life, it should do so indefinitely.
9. People and things should turn out better, and I must view things as horrible and awful if I don't find good solutions to life's grim realities.
10. Maximum human happiness can be achieved by inertia and inaction or by passively and noncommittally enjoying oneself.
11. My child is delinquent (or emotionally disturbed or mentally retarded); therefore, I'm a failure as a parent.
12. My child is emotionally disturbed (or mentally retarded); therefore, he or she is severely handicapped and will never amount to anything.
13. I cannot give my children everything they want; therefore, I am inadequate
These rigid systems of thought have patterns that lead to emotional problems. 1. People are born with the potential to be rational as well as irrational, self- constructive, and self-defeating.
2. People's tendency toward irrational thinking, self-damaging behaviors, wishful thinking, and intolerance is heightened by their culture and family.
3. People perceive, think, emote, and behave simultaneously.
4. REBT is cognitive, active, directive, homework-assigning, discipline-oriented, and likely to be effective.
5. REBT counselors value a warm relationship between client and counselor but do not believe the relationship is sufficient for change.
6. REBT counselors use role-playing, assertion training, desensitization, humor, operant conditioning, suggestion, support, and many other things to help clients change.
7. REBT maintains that most neurotic problems involve unrealistic, illogical, self- defeating thinking and that if those ideas are disputed, the thoughts can be minimized.
8. In REBT, clients learn how activating events
(A) contribute to but do not cause emotional consequences
(C) but the interpretation of the event—their unrealistic and overgeneralized beliefs
(B)—are the causes of the upsets. Clients gain insights about the A-B-C pattern, about how they have made and keep themselves upset, and that only hard work and practice will correct irrational thoughts.
9. REBT represents the contents of the mind: rationality and emotions. REBT counselors try to change people's thinking and feeling to enable them to change behavior with a new rational understanding and a new set of emotions (pp. 188-190).
10. Do not blame, damn, denigrate, or condemn people for choosing irrational ideas, inappropriate feelings, or defeating behaviors.
11. Discourage absolutes, such as must, should, always, never, and ought, in clients' thinking. There are no absolutes (pun intended).
12. Therapists definitely do not determine whether clients' ideas or behaviors are rational or irrational. the counselor disputes and challenges them. Ultimately, the goal is for children and adolescents to recognize irrational beliefs, think them through, and relinquish them.
the goal is for children and adolescents to recognize irrational beliefs, think them through, and relinquish them As a result of this process and therapy, clients, it is hoped, reach three insights.
First, the present neurotic behavior has antecedent causes.
Second, original beliefs keep upsetting them because they keep repeating these beliefs.
Third, they can overcome emotional disturbances by consistently observing, questioning, and challenging their own belief systems.
the counselor vigorously attacks the irrational beliefs in an attempt to show the children how illogically they think.
Using the Socratic method of questioning and disputing, the counselor takes a verbally active part in the early stages of counseling by identifying and explaining the child's problem.
If counselors guess correctly, which happens often, they argue with and persuade the child to give up the old irrational view and replace it with a new, rational philosophy Counselors begin by asking the child to talk about the problem (Step 1)
and then reaching agreement on the goal of the session (Step 2). alerted practitioners that conflicts may arise because clients may want to change the activating event, whereas counselors may want to focus on the consequence.
Client and counselor need to reach consensus at the second step.
Counselors then ask for a specific example of the problem and assess the activating event (Step 3),
the consequences (Step 4),
and any secondary disturbances (Step 5).
At Step 6,
counselors teach the client to see the connection between beliefs, feelings, and behaviors
followed by an assessment of irrational beliefs (Step 7) with techniques such as offering hypotheses or inference chaining (a series of follow-up questions to what were you thinking) until the irrational belief is uncovered. When that happens, counselors would hear a "must," "awfulizing," "I can't stand it," or a global evalua tion
The next steps include linking the irrational belief to the disturbed emotion and behaviors and connecting healthy emotions and behaviors (Step 8)
and disputing the irrational belief (Step 9) by challenging its logic, its validity, or the purpose of the consequences that follow it. Vernon (2011) added that offering alternative rational ideas and direct teaching could also be parts of this step. Strategies for disputa- tion include logical, empirical, functional disputing, or rational alternative beliefs.
Counselors may use different styles in disputing: didactic, Socratic, metaphorical, or humorous (Seligman & Reichenberg, 2014).
Step 10 focuses on deepening the client's conviction in the rational belief by continued disputing and by asking how the person would behave differently with the rational belief (Step 11).
The client agrees to practice or rehearse new learning with REBT homework sheets that leadpeople through a disputing process or various behavioral activities. Following these steps throughout REBT sessions allows counselors to teach clients to do this for themselves REBT practitioners use cognitive, emotive, and behav- ior procedures to try to minimize clients' "musting," perfectionism, grandiosity, and frustration intolerance.
Practitioners teach clients to recognize their shoulds, oughts, and musts, how to be logical, and how to accept reality.
Counselors may use
roleplaying to demonstrate accepting new ideas,
humor to reduce disturbing ideas to absurdities,
and strong disputing to move people from irrational to more efficient ideas.
Some of the behavioral techniques used focus on taking risks such as asking someone for a date or applying for a job.
that REBT can be used with children as young as five, though techniques need to be different for children between 5 and 11 than for those who are older. DiGiuseppe and Kelter (2006)
stated that children who are at Piaget's concrete operations stage and beyond can benefit from disputing.
Children who have not reached that stage will have difficulty thinking about their thinking. The counselor should check to determine if the child can distinguish between thoughts and feelings
Counselors work through this sequence of logic to reach the goals and tasks of therapy. 