RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIOR THERAPY

CHALLENGING CLIENTS
From a REBT perspective, challenging clients should not be confused with heavy-duty
confrontation. Challenging occurs when therapists suggest to their clients that they
examine their current way of understanding their thinking, feeling, and behavioral
processes. Subsequently, if they believe that change would be helpful, clients can choose to
adopt more rational beliefs, as well as healthier behaviors and feelings: You are not going
to tell them what to feel, what to do or what to think. Rather, you are going to help them to
understand what their options are about what to believe and what the likely emotional,
behavioral, and thinking consequences are of each of these belief options. Once they have
understood this, your job is to help them to choose the belief option that best helps them to
achieve their healthy emotional, behavioral, and thinking goals. (Dryden & Neenan, 2003, p.
4)

(SHORT EXPLANATION)
Conversation within the REBT therapist and client should be goes in a calm or smooth
way, So that when the therapist made a challenge that suggesting to the client to observe
his/her current style of life, the process will not made conflict. After determining that if the
client believes that his/her current style of life is not appropriate towards on what is right
for him/her the therapist will be the guidance for him/her to go through the right pathway
of client’s style of life.

DEMONSTRATING THE ABCs OF FEELING AND BEHAVING

Early on in therapy, the REBT therapist will use the ''ABCs'' to demonstrate to clients
how their irrational beliefs, not their situations, are causing emotional distress. For
instance, look at the following situation to see how the REBT therapist applies the ASCs to
the problem being presented:

Client: I am having an ongoing problem with my mother. She turned seventy, my father (her
husband) recently died, and I would like her to live with me. She's insistent that she wants
to live on her own. She's healthy, but she can't live on her own forever. However, she never
listens to anything I say and refuses to move in with me. I know she is perfectly capable of
making her own decisions, but if she lived with me, she would be much better off. I just
think she is taking a risk with her life! If I don't do something soon, I know something bad
will happen. What if she falls and can't get to a phone? I am waking up in the middle of the
night having panic attacks about this. I haven't had a good night's sleep in months. Can you
get her to listen to me?

In the above case, the client is concerned about his mother. The rational response would be
to have some reasonable amount of worry about his mother's situation, and if his mother
so chooses, offer some options to his mother. However, in this case, the mother does not
want to do what her child wants, and she seems perfectly content with her situation. The
REBT therapist formulates the possible ABCs of this client's dilemma and explains it to the
client.
Hypothesis on the Scenario:

Activating event (A): Father recently died, and mom now lives alone.

Irrational belief (iB): This client is awfulizing the situation with his mother and placing
demands on himself.

The client believes that things must be the way he wants them to be (irrational belief #3),

that unhappiness is caused by conditions outside of his control (irrational belief #4),

and that he had better worry about these things; otherwise, they might happen (irrational
belief #5).

Consequences (C): The client is having panic attacks and sleeping poorly-all the result of the
irrational beliefs, not the activating event.

(SHORT EXPLANATION)

The ''ABCs'' are a tool that a REST therapist would utilize early on in treatment to help
clients understand that it is their irrational beliefs, and not their external circumstances,
that are the root of their emotional misery.

ENCOURAGING THE DISPUTING OF DYSFUNCTIONAL COGNITIONS, BEHAVIORS, AND

EMOTIONS

As clients learn the REBT philosophy, they realize that many of their cognitions, behaviors,
and emotions have not been healthy. Thus, they are encouraged by the therapist to dispute
the unhealthy ones and replace them with healthy ones. Disputations can occur
cognitively, behaviorally, or emotionally.

(SHORT EXPLANATION)

Clients notice problematic thoughts, behaviors, and emotions after studying REBT. The
therapist supports refuting negative beliefs and adding positive ones. Emotional,
behavioral, or cognitive disagreements.

COGNITIVE DISPUTATION
As clients begin to realize that it is not the event causing the feeling or behaviors, but
the belief about the event, they are called upon to dispute the irrational beliefs (DIBS) that
have been driving their emotional distress and dysfunctional behaviors. Cognitive
disputations involve helping clients challenge their existing irrational beliefs, and in this
process, DiGiuseppe et al. (2014) suggest not using ''Why'' questions and, instead, using
questions that draw out the reasons for the person behaving the way he or she does.
(SHORT EXPLANATION)
Dispute Irrational beliefs (DIBS) generate emotional suffering and dysfunctional
behaviors; thus, clients are advised to challenge them. Cognitive disputations help clients
dismiss irrational ideas.

BEHAVIORAL DISPUTATIONS
In addition to cognitive disputations, it is often beneficial to practice behavioral
changes that coincide with the cognitive ones. Thus, clients are often encouraged to
practice behavioral disputations that challenge the irrational beliefs that are responsible
for the behaviors (DiGiuseppe et al., 2014). Risk-taking behaviors are one kind of
homework assignment often given to clients that encourage new ways of acting. Using our
earlier example, instead of trying to convince his mother to move in with him, the client
might ask her what kind of help, if any, she would like, given her new situation. Or, taking
this technique to another level, why not have the son ask his mother if he can help her plan
a cruise or assist her in meeting new people? Such behavioral disputations would be
directly competing with the irrational fears he has been evoking. Performing a shame-
attacking exercise, which involves the purposeful acting out of a situation that might
normally cause embarrassment, is a behavioral technique that reinforces the fact that
approval from others is not necessary for self-acceptance (DiGiuseppe et al., 2014). For
instance, clients might be asked to walk down a street wearing outlandish clothes or go up
to strangers and tell them how nice they look. With our fictitious case, the client might go to
a senior citizens gathering and purposefully go up to a number of women about his
mother's age and ask them how they might feel if they were happy in their living situation
and had an insistent son constantly asking them to live with him.

(SHORT EXPLANATION)
Cognitive disputations and corresponding behavioral modifications are typically
useful. Clients are urged to practice behavioral disputations to confront the erroneous
ideas that cause the behaviors. Clients are regularly given risk-taking tasks to stimulate
new behavior. In the previous example, the client might ask his mother what type of aid she
needs given her new situation instead of trying to encourage her to move in with him. How
about having the son ask his mother if he can help her arrange a cruise or meet new
people? His erroneous concerns would compete with such behavioral disputes.

EMOTIVE DISPUTATIONS
One of the most commonly used emotive disputations in REBT is called rational-
emotive imagery (Ellis, 2015). In this process, clients are asked to close their eyes and focus
intensely on the situation that is causing them extreme emotional upset. When the client
experiences the emotional upset, he or she signals the therapist, often by lifting a
prearranged finger. The therapist then asks the client to change the self-defeating emotion
to an appropriate emotion, usually assigned by the therapist. After the client accomplishes
this, the therapist asks the client what he or she was able to do to change the feeling (Ellis,
1996b). Usually, the client responds by stating that he or she changed the way in which the
situation was viewed. Thus, in our previous example with the older mother, the client
would first experience the extreme worry and panic of imagining his mother's refusal to
listen to his suggestions about moving and perhaps even seeing her falling and being taken
to the hospital. Then, the therapist asks him to experience a different emotion-perhaps a
feeling of calm or maybe even happiness. As the client experiences one of these feelings, the
therapist asks him what he is imagining. In this case, the client might respond by saying
that he sees his mother sitting in her apartment, contentedly reading the newspaper
(which results in a calm feeling), or alternatively, he might visualize her enjoying a cruise
(which results in his feeling happy). Ultimately, rational-emotive imagery teaches a client
that one can have control over one's thoughts, and ultimately, over one's emotions and
behaviors.

(SHORT EXPLANATION)

In REBT, rational-emotive imagery is a common emotive dispute. In this method,

clients close their eyes and focus on the scenario bringing them significant emotional upset.
Clients alert the therapist by elevating a preset finger when they are unhappy. Then, the
therapist asks the client to switch the self-defeating emotion to an assigned one. The
therapist asks the client what they did to change the mood after this. The client usually says
he or she altered their perspective.

USING HUMOR

As one can see from the song at the very beginning of this chapter, Ellis loved to use
humor in making his point. It is not unusual to be walking down the halls of an esteemed
institution of higher education and hear a counseling theories class belting out one of Ellis's
songs. Ellis also liked to quote the sixteenth-century philosopher, Michel Montaigne, who
said: ''My life has been filled with terrible misfortunes-most of which never happened."

REST therapists see the humor that sometimes exists when individuals take on an
irrational belief system. Unfortunately, many clients seem to want to wallow in their
misfortune. Thus, REST therapists will sometimes use humor to help clients see the
ridiculousness of their plight (Ellis, 2015). Take the fearful son who is afraid of his mother's
future. It's ironic, and almost funny, that she is perfectly satisfied in life, and he is the one
with the pathology! Pointing out the humor of a situation can help clients see the
pointlessness and irony

(SHORT EXPLANATION)
REST therapists are trained to recognize the comedic potential that occasionally
presents itself when people adopt illogical belief systems. Regrettably, a significant number
of customers appear to take pleasure in drowning in their unhappiness. Therefore, REST
therapists will occasionally utilize humor to assist clients understand the meaninglessness
of their position in an effort to lighten the mood.
USING METAPHORS AND STORIES

Although a somewhat less direct method, metaphors and stories will sometimes be used in
an effort to illustrate and reinforce points that the REST therapist is trying to make (Di
Giuseppe et al., 2014). Thus, the son who is so concerned about his aging mother might be
told something like, ''You know, your mother reminds me of the Empire State Building.
Despite the fact that the building is aging, and from another era, it still stands erect and
strong in the middle of the city."

(SHORT EXPLANATION)
Metaphors and stories are sometimes used by REST therapists to help show and support
what they are trying to say, even though they are not as direct.

GIVING HOMEWORK

REST therapists will actively encourage their clients to practice many techniques at home
(DiGiuseppe, 2014). For instance, it would be common for REST therapists to ask clients to
practice, on their own, any of the disputation techniques mentioned or any of a number of
other techniques, such as behavioral conditioning, bibliotherapy aimed at reading
materials to reinforce new ways of being, expression of feelings, assertiveness training, or
role-playing new behaviors. All of these techniques are tried with the intent of maintaining
the new, more rational belief system.

(SHORT EXPLANATION)
REST therapists urge clients to practice several strategies at home. REST therapists often
encourage clients to engage in disputation techniques or other methods, such
as behavioral conditioning, literature therapy, assertiveness training, or role-playing
new behaviors. All of these methods are used to maintain the new, rational belief system.