Psychologist Albert Ellis created the first cognitive-behavioral therapy when he concluded that our thoughts and beliefs are decisive in our interpretation of reality.
This therapy has been expanded and complemented over the years and is currently used with great results. In addition, it is considered a brief and effective therapy that achieves deep and lasting changes. For all this, at Psychology-Online, we want to explain to you what it consists of and in what cases it is usually applied. We’ll see now what is rational emotive behavioral therapythat characteristics have and what techniques use with examples.
Albert Ellis’s rational emotive behavioral therapy is a therapy that works with thoughts, emotions and behaviors. It’s a type of. It proposes evaluating our belief system to identify those irrational beliefs that we adopt as true and that lead us to make an unrealistic interpretation of events, causing unnecessary discomfort. Once these beliefs have been identified and using the techniques that we will see later, we can replace them with more realistic ones, thus managing to change our emotions. Let’s look at it in more detail:
The first thing we must know is what causes our emotions. The TREC explains that:
- a event (A)
- activates the thoughts or beliefs (B)
- that cause our emotions (C).
That is, it is not events that cause emotions directly, but rather the interpretation we make of them. That is why the same event can affect two people very differently. Therefore, by changing our beliefs or thoughts, we change emotions and that is the goal of rational emotive behavioral therapy.
The most common irrational beliefs are:
- I need to be loved by certain people.
- I need to be perfectly competent.
- Certain people must be punished.
- It’s terrible that certain things don’t go the way I need them to.
- I don’t have the ability to control my disturbances.
- Only by continually worrying can I solve my problems.
- It is easier to avoid than to face difficulties.
- I need the others.
- The past determines me and will always affect me.
- One must care a lot about others.
- There is a perfect solution to problems.
REBT is characterized by the following:
- REBT work the present. Therefore, in most cases, it is unnecessary to investigate the past or childhood to apply it.
- REBT focuses on solving specific problemswhich is why it is effective and very useful for everyday use.
- In REBT, patient and therapist collaborate and work on the process actively.
- The changes are profound significant and long-term.
- The patient’s work is essential to progress. The more involved you are in therapy and in the work between sessions, the shorter the duration of therapy will be and the sooner you will begin to notice improvement. We can consider REBT as a brief therapy.
- At the end of the therapy the patient will have learned to rationalize thoughts and therefore it will help him to manage relapses or resolve similar problems itself.
- Gets great results in problems of anxiety, depression, phobias, emotion management, shyness, social isolationetc.
In rational emotive behavioral therapy, a variety of cognitive, emotional and behavioral techniques. Next, we are going to see some of those techniques with examples.
- Cognitive techniques: ABC and ABCDE method, downward arrow and cost-benefit analysis.
- Emotional techniques: experiencing shame, affirmations and humor.
- Behavioral techniques: reinforcement, social skills training and live desensitization.
ABC method
It is the technique par excellence of REBT. This is training to identify the erroneous beliefs that lead to experiencing the emotions that we want to avoid. Event (A), thought or belief (B) and emotion (C).
Example. While painting at home, you accidentally knock over the paint can when you turn around (A). You think that you are useless and that you always do similar things (B). You feel anger, rage, frustration (C). In this example the irrational belief is “I need to be perfectly competent.”
ABCDE Expansion
We add the debate about belief (D) and a new rational belief (E).
Example. Why do I have to do everything perfect? Can I never be wrong? Do I know anyone who doesn’t make mistakes? Did I intend to spill the paint or was it a small oversight? (D). Now we look for a rational belief: we all make mistakes and it doesn’t matter, it can happen to anyone, I am not perfect nor do I have to be (E).
Down arrow
It is about asking questions that allow us to get to the true meaning of our thoughts.
Example. Your daughter has forgotten her jacket at home.
- What’s the worst that could happen?
- You could get sick from being cold.
- What if she got sick?
- I would feel very bad.
- Because?
- Because I would feel like I haven’t taken good care of her.
- What would that mean?
- That I am a bad mother (irrational belief and disproportionate to the situation).
Cost-benefit analysis
It is about analyzing the pros and cons of maintaining a maladaptive belief.
Example. Belief “I should care a lot about others”
- Benefit: Others will see me as a good and dedicated person.
- Costs: it involves a large investment of time and energy, it will take away my time to worry about my own problems, the problems of others do not depend on me so worrying will not help, it will not allow me to live in peace, it will cause me distress , anxiety, frustration and sadness.
experience shame
It serves to work on absolute beliefs related to the fact that you should not do things in which you could make mistakes, turn out to be ridiculous, or look stupid.
Example. Walking down the street with a shirt on inside out and experiencing the emotions that appear.
Affirmations
Prepare statements about new rational and adaptive beliefs to internalize them and include them in your belief system.
Example. “Certain people should be punished” (irrational belief).
- I do not have to judge the behavior of others because it does not depend on me nor can I change it (rational belief).
- Affirmations: people have the right to make mistakes, making mistakes is something that can happen, I will live better if I stop worrying about the behavior of others.
Humor
It is about analyzing the circumstances from humor to downplay their importance.
Example. “I have to be very careful to avoid tripping because I would die of embarrassment.” We use humor: It would be funny if that happened, if I saw it in a comedy movie I would probably find it very funny.
Reinforcement
Use positive reinforcement after completing assigned tasks.
Example. I have identified and changed 2 irrational beliefs on my own, I have done very well.
Social skills training
This training will make you face problems with appropriate tools and will give you confidence.
Example. to communicate correctly and get what you want without hurting the feelings of others.
Live desensitization
It’s about exposing yourself to situations that make you uncomfortable. At first it is uncomfortable, but as time goes by, habituation occurs and they stop bothering you.
The different techniques can have cognitive, emotional or behavioral components. In addition to these, there are other techniques that are used in REBT and that offer good results.