What is Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy?
REBT is a humanistic, practical, action-oriented therapy originated by Albert Ellis in the early 1950s.
It was the first of the cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBTs).
All of these therapies say that how we think and what we believe—our attitudes—are crucial to how we feel and how we act. REBT emphasizes our:
In contrast with the other CBTs, REBT:
- emphasizes developing a workable philosophy of life
- focuses more on the here and now and where you’d like to go instead of where you’ve been
- emphasizes acceptance of reality as a method for coping and as a method for readying oneself to change the things one can change
REBT gives us reason for optimism in coping with problems and enhancing personal growth.
One reason for this is REBT’s approach to the past. We cannot change the past -- it is gone forever.
However, we can change how we let the past influence the way we think, act, and feel today and the way we want to think, act, and feel tomorrow.
The more we see the past as all important, the more we limit our growth. According to REBT, we keep the past alive in our present
Beliefs and habits. Whether they arose long ago or recently, REBT zeroes in on beliefs and habits harmful to us now. It then teaches us
how to interrupt them and build useful alternatives.
A second reason for optimism in REBT is that it promotes personal growth and actualization through self-reliance. REBT teaches us to become less
conditionable and suggestible, to consider what others think and feel, but to think largely for ourselves and to minimize our dire needs for
approval and success that may cause constrictive conformity.
A third reason for optimism in REBT is its philosophy of
Unconditional Self-Acceptance (USA). REBT considers that when we esteem ourselves
(that is, pat ourselves on the back), we do so only when certain conditions are met, usually achievement or approval. When we esteem ourselves,
we may unknowingly feed fears about growing, defensiveness, the tendency to be stuck blaming others and the past, and feelings of anxiety,
hostility, and depression.
How so? Because if we "have" worth when certain conditions are met, we will have lack of worth when conditions change or when we slip or
encounter people who do better than we do. REBT, therefore, aims to help us rid ourselves of self-rating and to replace it with
Unconditional
Self-Acceptance (USA). It shows us how to rate our actions according to how they help or hinder us in reaching our goals and realizing our
values, but not to rate our worth as human beings.
