Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy: Albert Ellis

Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), is a cognitive behavioural therapy and one of the first therapies that deal with thinking and behaviour, not only does it deal with thinking and behaviour, it also deals with; decision making, judging and analysing (Corey, 2014). According to Corey (2014), the grandfather of REBT is psychologist, Albert Ellis. REBT is all about helping the client realize their psychological problems they have created for themselves and assisting the client in realizing their psychological problems by making irrational beliefs into rational beliefs in other words the counsellor is there to help the client create coping mechanisms (Corey, 2014). The essay will discuss REBT, how the therapeutic approaches can assist me

Ellis was the oldest child amongst his three younger siblings; he lived with his parents and siblings, his father was always away on business trips and his mother was hardly present which made Ellis develop self-responsibility (Sharf, 1996). Ellis spent a part of his childhood in a hospital due to; nephritis, renal glycosuria and kidney illness. When he was in his 40’s, he also developed diabetes. Although Ellis was not physically well, he lived an active life and had an energetic personality (Corey, 2014). Albert Ellis took himself to school and made his own lunches which was a sign that Ellis valued education and self-sufficiency and when Ellis was older he made it his profession through REBT, Ellis had a fear of speaking to girls and he overcame his fear by going to the Bronx Botanical Gardens and spoke to 100 girls and through overcoming his fear he started going to public speaking. Ellis’s approach to overcoming his fear was a technique that was part of REBT (Sharf, 1996). According to Sharf (1996), Ellis had received his PhD in 1947 and worked at the mental hygiene clinic and was analysed by a psychiatrist named Richard Hulbeck who also supervised Ellis when he was working on his psychoanalytic work. According to Corey (2014), Ellis had a natural talent in counselling and made the decision to become a clinical psychologist and he went into psychotherapy but felt

The cognitive techniques used in REBT manage the self-statements the client has, develop problem solving skills and educate the client to also teach others, the emotive techniques used are imagery, in other words using role play to combat the anxieties, anger or other emotions the client has (Wilde, 2008). The behavioural technique used in REBT is homework which is done outside the therapy session because the client has to interact with the world to over-come the irrational beliefs (Corey, 2014). I think REBT is a great therapy because it has no strict conventions and the client is responsible for their own