"There is virtually nothing in which I delight more," says Albert Ellis, "than throwing myself into a good and difficult problem." Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy is a direct and efficient problem-solving method. The success of his clinical practice, his training institute, and his books testify that his methods work for many and that he is one of America's most influential therapists.
Almost everyone believes that emotional tensions are the direct result of stressful events and there is nothing we can do about it except to change the situation. Up to a point this is a fairly common sense view. Nevertheless, it fails to explain why an unfortunate event which may trigger off an anxiety attack in you one day, may leave you relatively unaffected on another day.
Over the past few years a considerable amount of research by psychologists has thrown light on how emotional turmoil is created and how it can be tackled and eliminated. Known as the A-B-C model of emotional disturbance it forms the core of a system of psychotherapy called Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy.
According to the A-B-C theory, mental suffering does not come directly from the problems that beset us but from the irrational and false notions we have about them. Thus to overcome your upsetting feelings and regain your emotional equilibrium you need to identify the false ideas which generate the disturbed feelings and then to uproot them by rigorous application of logic and reason until you convince yourself of the irrationality of the previously held ideas.
Imagine two work collegues are made redundant at the same time, one sees it as an opportunity to do something they have wanted to try for years. The other sees it as a disaster and feels ill with some of these emotions, Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Shame & Embarrassment, Hurt or Jealousy. If these upset feelings are prolonged they can lead to upsetting behaviours and stop you achieving your life goals.
Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy helps you challenge your ideas about events in life and helps you to live more peacefully allowing you to achieve life goals.
Time scale. This therapy is usually time limited between eight to twelve sessions.