Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT)

REBT is a form of cognitive behavioural therapy. It was created between 1953 and 1955 by Albert Ellis (1913-2007), an American clinical psychologist. The name of the therapy has changed over the years to reflect the display of techniques used to provoke change. It went from "Rational Therapy" (RT) to "Rational Emotive Therapy" (RET) in 1961 and to "Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy" (REBT) in 1993 and finally to Rational Emotive Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (RECBT) in later years.

The theoretical foundations of REBT are based on the assumption that thinking, emotion, and behaviour are interrelated. If one aspect is changed (cognition, emotion, or behaviour), it will very likely impact the other aspects. If you change the way you think, you should see changes in the way you feel and behave.

According to REBT, the key issue in people's problems is that human beings have natural preferences, but they turn these into absolutistic demands, which lead them to convince themselves that what they want must happen, but they forget that the world has no obligation to provide it.

Examples of absolutistic musts and demands:

« I must be perfect.
I just made a mistake. How horrible !
That proves I'm imperfect and therefore worthless ».
(DiGiuseppe, Doyle, Dryden & Backk, 2014)

«Because I greatly like success and approval, I absolutely must have them almost all the time, under nearly all conditions ». (Ellis and Harper, 1975)

«Because I want something, I must get it».

In REBT, these rigid beliefs using "musts", "shoulds ", and "oughts " are called « irrational beliefs » or
« unhelpful beliefs ». REBT teaches us to distinguish between desires and what is. To adjust emotionally, the integration of this distinction is crucial. The goal of the therapist and the client will first be to find out what the client's irrational beliefs are, and then use different techniques to switch to a more helpful rational belief.

Changing is not an easy process since unhelpful beliefs have been rehearsed for years, if not decades. Since change can be a slow process and since REBT is a psychoeducational approach, the client is strongly encouraged to do homework assignments between sessions to incorporate the ideas and concepts discussed during therapy. Homework is a key aspect of REBT to maximise the benefits of therapy. Also, some homework assignments can only take place outside of therapy.

In REBT, the therapist has an active and leading role, meaning this type of therapy is quite structured, unlike some other forms of psychotherapy (e.g., psychoanalysis). However, therapist and client work together toward agreed-upon goals.

One of the roles of the REBT therapist will be to teach the REBT principles and model to the client and empower him to become his own therapist. Once the client has understood how changing his beliefs can impact his emotions and behaviours, the remaining goal will be to generalise the newly acquired set of skills to other actual or upcoming problems.

Who can benefit from REBT ?

People who can pinpoint after some talking what their problems are.
People who are ready to work on their problems between sessions.
People who are willing to be open to new ways of thinking.