Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy - Essay Example

An Overview of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy Cognitive Behaviour Therapy views human nature as full of innate potentials and flaws. Clients suffering from psychological problems are assumed to focus more on their flaws that pull them down than on their potentials that may spur them up to success. The basic premise of Cognitive Behavior Therapy is the clients’ erratic or exaggerated beliefs that it is their fault why they came to such a dreadful state. The goal of therapy is to help the client realize that reorganizing the way they view situations will call for a corresponding reorganization in behavior – sort of marrying the concepts of “mind over matter” and “self-fulfilling prophecy”. As an example, a recovering alcoholic will think that he has mustered enough discipline over alcohol, (mind over matter), hence, he strives to be strong and sober enough to resist a drink offered to him at a party (self-fulfilling prophecy). The focus of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is more on thinking and acting more than just expressing feelings, which was more of the concentration of other kinds of therapies (Corey, 2005) . It deals with the client’s present and not his past, although it acknowledges that his irrational thinking might have come from past negative experiences. The duration of the therapy process is usually short, as it immediately cuts to the core and does away with useless preliminaries. Ellis’ Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) is considered to be the forerunner of Cognitive Behavior therapies. Its basic hypothesis is that our emotions stem mainly from our beliefs, evaluations, interpretations and reactions to life situations (Corey, 2005). Ellis believes that we have an inborn tendency towards growth and actualization but we often sabotage our movement toward growth due to self-defeating patterns we have learned. Through therapeutic processes, the client learns skills to isolate and dispute their irrational views which were mostly self-constructed and maintained by self-indoctrination. REBT helps clients replace such irrational views with rational and constructive ones, thus resulting in more productive change in behaviour and reactions to situations (Corey, 2005). Ellis and Dryden define Rational Emotive and Behavioural Therapy as “an active-directive form of psychotherapy in that therapists are active in directing their clients to identify the philosophical source of their psychological problems and in showing them they can challenge and change their irrational, musturbatory evaluations” (Ellis and Dryden, 1987, p. 28). According to Dryden (1999), REBT’s theory of therapeutic change states that if clients are to overcome their emotional and behavioural problems, they need to undergo the following process: First, they need to be aware and accept that they do have a problem. It is the main reason why they come to therapy. Then they need to identify and overcome the causes of this problem and isolate their irrational belief that underpins the original problem. Holding such irrational belief must be realized and why a rational alternative to this irrational belief is logical, consistent to reality and will yield better results. Then, this irrational belief should be challenged so that they begin to strengthen their belief in the rational alternative. The therapist uses a variety of therapeutic strategies depending on what he decides will work on his particular client. He also delegates responsibility to his client by expecting him to do homework outside the therapy sessions. Homework is aimed at positive behaviour that brings about emotional and attitudinal change and of course to continue to weaken their claim to the irrational belief and strengthen their belief in the rational alternative. The client is also empowered to identify and overcome obstacles to therapeutic change while accepting their own tendencies to construct such obstacles. The last step is the ongoing effort to keep working against their tendency to think and act irrationally (Dryden, 1999). The following is an overview of the three main stages of the REBT process. For clarity’s sake, the counselor shall be referred to with feminine pronouns and the client, with masculine pronouns. Beginning Stage It is typical in most counseling or therapy approaches that the initial stage is spent on rapport-building. The counselor or therapist welcomes the client and establishes a productive therapeutic alliance with him by discussing his reasons for seeking counseling help and ensuring the client of unconditional acceptance of him as a person. It is at this time when the counselor establishes her credibility as an effective counselor. Client expectations of the sessions are likewise raised and if there are erratic perceptions, these are immediately explained to straighten out the misconception. Cards are laid on the table in terms of which of the client’s problems will be worked on first, the duration of the sessions, fees and the rationale for adopting a problem-focused approach. The beginning stage allows the counselor to gauge how she will deal with her clients and customize her counseling style to suit him. The counselor-client relationship stays within the counseling room and is not advised to be carried on outside sessions for social purposes. The initial stage orients the client on Rational Emotive Behaviour model of emotional disturbance. The counselor takes an active part in explaining it in detail. First, the client must understand that most of his emotional troubles are determined by the irrational beliefs he holds rather than by the seemingly problematic events in his life. Next, the client should be made to understand that in order to make progress, he should question those irrational beliefs that he holds in the present and not dwell on historical determinants of such beliefs. Lastly, if he is bent on gaining lasting benefits from the counseling sessions, then he is to commit to practice all the things that he will learn during the sessions. This includes constantly questioning and challenging his irrational beliefs and embracing the newly acquired rational alternatives that are expected to take its place. The client must accept all three components of the model and dispel all his doubts about the counseling approach before the counseling sessions continue. If not, it is most likely to be a waste of time for both client and counselor. Middle Stage By the middle stage, the client has already gained experience in identifying his irrational beliefs and figuring out his rational alternatives. He has been accustomed to the idea of homework being an essential part of REBT, and may even have switched to believing the rational alternatives as his prevailing belief system. The goal of the counselor now in the middle stage is to keep the client on track and to encourage him to strengthen his conviction in his rational beliefs (Dryden, 1999). However, by this time other issues may come to play like his other core irrational beliefs that would come to surface, and maybe sabotage his progress. Such would hamper his complete treatment if not dealt with productively. Hence, a variety of cognitive, emotive, imagery and behavioural techniques are introduced and used to help him internalize his new rational philosophy. The counselor’s role is to help the client understand tasks necessary to be done to help him reach his therapeutic goals. She also needs to help him identify and overcome his doubts about his ability to execute his tasks. She is in a position to choose appropriate tasks for him to undertake, and should choose wisely, first, manageable ones he can carry out in the sessions and progress on to more challenging ones he can practice in his real life. A phase of resistance to change may spring up within the client during the middle stage. This may be due to client’s Low Frustration Tolerance (LFT), or the fear of failing after having experienced little successes so far in the counseling sessions. Maultsby (1984) argues that change itself can be uncomfortable and refers to a state called ‘cognitive-emotional dissonance’ when clients feel ‘strange’ as they work at strengthening their convictions in their newly held rational beliefs. Counselor must step in to help client question this feeling of dissonance and encourage him to accept the strange feeling as a natural part of change. The idea that one must feel natural and comfortable all the time must be disputed. From a more active-directive role at the beginning stage of counseling, the counselor allows more control to be transferred to the client as he progresses in letting go of his irrational beliefs in the middle stage. The counselor urges him on to become his own counselor. “An important goal of therapy should be to ensure that clients can apply cognitive and behavioral techniques on their own, with less reliance on the therapist over time, thus facilitating relapse prevention efforts” (Roth, Eng and Heimberg, 2002, p. 453). Ending Stage Over the counseling sessions, when the client has shown much progress and has claimed more control over his irrational beliefs and the counselor has stepped back to take on a less active role, termination of the sessions may be discussed. This may be done either by lessening the meetings until it eventually stops when they are not necessary anymore, or both client and counselor agree on a certain date to end the sessions. Ending the sessions may be difficult for some clients, as they may have mixed emotions about being on their own. The counselor should remind him how far he’s gone and empower him with the belief that he can make it on his own, as he has exhibited his potentials for success in the sessions and in the tasks or homework assignments. He just needs to be reminded to make use of all his learning, and all the strategies he was equipped with when irrational beliefs begin to seep in again. Although Ellis believes that counselors maintain unconditional regard for the client, he also warns against giving too much warmth to the logical point of coddling, as it encourages clients’ dependence for approval from counselors. Maturity is expected of the client as great faith is placed on him that he can change his irrational ways of thinking. It is true that counselors have been instrumental in reaching the therapeutic goals of the counseling sessions, however, it is the client himself who has effected the change from holding on to irrational beliefs to their more rational alternatives. This is the one that needs to be highlighted in the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. References Corey, G. (2005) Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy, 7th ed. Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning Inc. Dryden, W. (1999) Rational Emotive Behavioural Counselling in Action, 2nd Ed., Sage Publications. Ellis, A. & Dryden, W. (1987) The Practice of Rational Emotive Therapy., New York: Springer Publishing Co., Maultsby, M.C., Jr. (1984) Rational Behaviour Therapy, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice- Hall. Roth, D.A., Eng, W. & Heimberg, R.G., (2002) Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Encyclopedia of Psychotherapy Vol. 1 Elsevier Science (USA). Read More