What is Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)?
REBT is an evidence-based therapeutic approach designed by Dr. Albert Ellis and it is most similar to Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT).
REBT is a direct and challenging therapy that can help you discover your unhealthy beliefs and transform them into healthy beliefs so that you can experience healthier behaviors and emotions. It uses an A-B-C-D approach to help you stay focused on your therapeutic goals.
A = Activating Event
B = Belief
C = Consequence (feeling or behavior)
D = Dispute
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy is more structured than some forms of therapy and your therapist will be more interactive in your sessions. It focuses on challenging your irrational beliefs and creating new healthier beliefs to build into your thought process so you can feel better.
REBT is a great choice for you if you are:
motivated and committed to therapy
interested in receiving a more structured therapy with your therapist interacting throughout each session
open to completing homework in between sessions
REBT can improve your life in the short-term and long-term.
Short term goals include relief from strong disturbing thoughts and feelings by creating coping mechanisms to help relieve the pain. Long term goals include the ability to use coping mechanisms to help oneself regulate one’s emotions without the need for a therapist.
What are REBT sessions like? What should be expected?
At the beginning of every session we will discuss your homework and what you would like to work toward accomplishing in the session. You might want to explore a feeling you’re currently having or that you had the prior week. Or you might start by talking about a recent incident.
If we’re talking about a recent incident, I might ask you to tell me how you would rather feel or behave in that situation. Then I’ll ask you to identify the belief you are holding that makes you feel or behave in a way you don’t like. We’ll work on disputing that belief, then we’ll work toward developing a healthier belief. At the end of the session we will discuss your homework for the following week. Sessions occur weekly.