REBT - Evidence Based and Modern Therapy

REBT stands for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. And in this course, I will show you what these four elements mean and how they apply.  REBT has also been referred to as “rational therapy” or “rational emotive therapy” emphasizing the rational aspect of therapy. The focus then, is to help clients live in a more rational way. Ellis believed that the thoughts and beliefs that led to unhelpful or maladaptive behaviors and consequences, were the result of irrational or self-defeating beliefs.

Before we begin, it would be a good idea to get some background information of REBT and how it came about.  Dr. Albert Ellis, was a clinical psychologist that was trained in psychoanalysis in the 1950s. He found that, using current and existing therapies of his time, resulted in slow progress of his clients. This is when REBT was born.

What REBT proposes, and is effective at, is actually getting better. Not just addressing the symptoms from changing neurochemistry though execise, medication, diet, or avoiding the situation, or telling yourself that it will be okay next time. REBT focuses on a lasting change. It involves altering the underlying core belief that creates these challenges. 

Using the REBT approach, individuals are asked to actively take part in replacing their irrational beliefs to more efficient and helpful rational beliefs that are adaptive and have a positive impact on the consequences that follow an event or challenging situation. But it is important to better define the terms and put it into context. In this video we will discuss these terms so that we can understand what Ellis meant.

REBT as mentioned, addresses both the underlying reasons of emotional problems and the cognitive distortions described by Aaron Beck who was the founder of CBT. Cognitive distortions are a concept that people who have irrational thinking patterns have a distorted reality. It is where our minds convince us of something that really isn’t true. 

But in REBT, we address the underlying reasons, why we have cognitive distortions, such as overgeneralization as an example, and allows them to become corrected by replacing it with a completely different belief. 

In REBT, we use techniques that differentiate between appropriate negative emotions and inappropriate negative emotions. When we experience inappropriate negative emotions, we experience anxiety, anger, or depression. When we experience appropriate negative emotions, we experience sadness, concern, or sorrow. You see, the appropriate negative emotions are less severe and less in magnitude.

REBT allows us to have a great tool for anyone who struggles with self-esteem issues. What it does, is teaches us how to have Unconditional Self-Acceptance, sometimes abbreviated as USA, rather than a rating of ourselves. Many therapies that are cognitive behavioral, focus on trying to increase self-esteem by teaching clients to gain awareness of their positive attributes and characteristics, and highlight positive attributes.

This can have some drawbacks, because there is really no safeguard to prevent one from experiencing low self-esteem such as when one fails to reach his or her expectations. This includes failing an exam at school, or when comparing oneself to others on social media. 

In this video, I will be covering Unconditional Self-Acceptance. Now, the basis of effectively using REBT is that clients need to first have Unconditional Self-Acceptance. Unconditional Self-Acceptance, is really an alternative to self-esteem. And more appropriate for REBT. The reason being, again, is that self-esteem isn't gained through looking at the plus side of your attributes, your qualities and characteristics. 

When you try to bolster your self-esteem by looking at your positive attributes, it doesn’t help you when you do fall short or fail when you don’t reach your expectations.

Science has shown that when we are experiencing strong emotions, the limbic system - the part of the brain that is primitive and developed before rational thought, starts to override our thinking. When we are in the heat of emotion, we often do not think clearly. One thing you will learn in counseling, is that when emotions are high, rational thinking is low. Neuroscientists has called this process as “hijacking”. In this video, I will discuss how this leads to irrational beliefs.

When talking to clients, this is why we use the terms “self-defeating”. It is caused by us. We wouldn’t want to use the term “irrational” because of the stigma attached, but instead, when meeting with clients, to focus instead on how their beliefs negatively affect their lives by limiting their progression, distorting their reality and their perception of themselves. 

Core beliefs are what underlies what we think about ourselves in specific situations. They explain the way we react to the situations or events in our lives. They have also been called our “subconscious rules” that we live by.

The 4 types of evaluative beliefs are Demandingness, Awefulizing, Discomfort Intolerance and People Rating. In this video, I will describe them in detail with examples and why demandingness is the most popular in REBT. When we have demands about ourself, it leads to ego disturbance. Ego disturbance creates anxiety when we hold expectations about ourselves and affects our self-image. 

In REBT It is important to know how we think and understand our underlying core beliefs. We all have rules, and usually subconscious rules, that really determine how we behave and act in life. In this video, we will discuss how the way we think contributes to our beliefs about ourselves and about events in our life.

Albert Ellis believed that rational beliefs are Flexible and Not extreme. On the other side, with Irrational Beliefs, he found them to be Rigid or Extreme. In this video, we will look at the differences with an example to help you identify if the belief is flexible and not extreme or flexible and extreme.

We now know that a rational belief is true, while an irrational belief is false. Another way to find out if a belief is true or false, is to look at the sensibility of it. Is it sensible or insensible? Sensible means, “does it make sense?” With irrational beliefs, the evidence for such a statement does not exist.

Having rational beliefs will usually result in constructive consequences. When we are rationally thinking, we are more realistic and the consequences are usually more positive.If we look at the belief, “I want my roommate to like me, but if he doesn’t, life goes on”. How is that constructive? 

 It is constructive because accepting the truth, the sensibility of this statement, allows you to move on if your roommate doesn’t like you. For example, if your roommate ends up not liking you and loses their temper at you for no justifiable reason, you will not become anxious about it, which is the emotional consequence. 

When we follow this pattern of identifying the unhealthy negative belief and change it to it’s rational equivalent, instead of Anxiety, we will feel concern. Instead of depression, we may feel sadness. Instead of guilt, we may feel remorse. 

Albert Ellis, has distinguished two types of understanding. They are Intellectual understanding and emotive understanding. This comes into play when a person is trying to change the irrational belief to it’s rational equivalent.

We may not initially be aware of our thoughts and beliefs, but they do have a very strong impact on us and how we behave. This is what brings us to the ABC model. The ABC model is helpful when understanding in more detail the process of how thoughts, behaviors and attitudes become problematic.