Rational emotive behaviour therapy

Domain II · Behavioural & cognitive · Albert Ellis · 1955 · New York

What it is

Source coverage: the naming history and dates; the ABC model, the four irrational-belief types and their rational alternatives; the three insights; elegant/preferential vs general REBT; the empirical, logical and pragmatic disputing arguments and the disputing styles; the list of healthy and…

Format

• REBT is not divided into fixed, numbered phases with session quotas. The texts describe (a) a broad beginning–middle–end arc and (b) a repeating treatment sequence applied to each target problem.] The overall order of work is: first the client's disturbance about their dissatisfactions, then the…
• Format. Individual (most common), group, couples and family, large-group workshops and public demonstrations, and rational emotive education in schools. Ellis ran his Friday Night Workshops in Manhattan for more than four decades, giving live demonstrations with audience volunteers. Ellis often ran…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• 3rd-edition additions (2010): the contents list adds as separate steps: setting goals for the target problem once A and C are assessed (see A1); "questioning" (rather than "disputing") the irrational beliefs; strengthening the rational beliefs; checking the validity of A after the belief work (see B3); and negotiating and reviewing homework. Dryden & Branch's training handbook likewise treats goal-setting, eliciting…
• Source coverage: the naming history and dates; the ABC model, the four irrational-belief types and their rational alternatives; the three insights; elegant/preferential vs general REBT; the empirical, logical and pragmatic disputing arguments and the disputing styles; the list of healthy and unhealthy negative emotions; the "challenging, but not overwhelming" homework principle; rational emotive imagery (origin,…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• reading as a substitute for practice.
• clients feeling judged. Model acceptance.
• dropping safety behaviours that the client privately keeps.
• vague tasks ("try to be less anxious"). Make them concrete.
• self-consciousness. Normalise it, and do it with them first.

Problems the guide addresses

• "I understand it in my head but don't feel it" (intellectual vs emotional insight)
• Stuck: disputing produces no change
• Resistance and reluctance
• Ruptures and feeling invalidated by the directive style
• Overwhelm and high arousal in session
• Non-adherence to homework
• Clients who mistake REBT for "positive thinking" or "don't care"
• Genuinely terrible As: grief, trauma, abuse, illness, discrimination
• Moral and religious "shoulds" and cultural conflict
• Unhealthy anger at others (other-downing)

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.