HSE: Rekha Mistryrekhanmistry@gmail.

com MAY 2011

Focus:
RATIONAL –EMOTIVE THERAPY (RET) AND PROBLEM SOLVING

Concept Note:
We all human beings get emotional upsets often, some are forgotten with
the passage of time, and some are settled in corner of our brain and heart
where as some are continuously impacting our present behaviour. Human
beings put lots of efforts to come out of that disturbances and improve
performance in day today life.

In the mid-1950’s Dr. Albert Ellis, a clinical psychologist trained in

psychoanalysis, became disillusioned with the slow progress of his clients.
He observed that they tended to get better when they changed their ways of
thinking about themselves, their problems, and the world. Ellis reasoned that
therapy would progress faster if the focus was directly on the client’s beliefs,
and thus was born the method now known as Rational Emotive Behaviour
Therapy.

REBT was originally called ‘Rational Therapy’, soon changed to ‘Rational-

Emotive Therapy (RET) and again in the early 1990’s to REBT. RET is a
widely practiced system for helping people to feel better, be more effective,
achieve more, and express themselves more fully. It is a psycho-educational
approach, primarily a problem –focused and problem- solving approach to
therapy

REBT is based on the concept that emotions and behaviours result from
cognitive processes; and that it is possible for human beings to modify such
processes to achieve different ways of feeling and behaving. According to
Theory emotional upsets occurs when people attempt to fulfill their goals
and encounter an activating event that blocks the goal. Almost all human
emotions and behaviours are the result of what people think, assume or
believe(about themselves, other people, and the world in general). It is what
people believe about situations they face – not the situations themselves –
that determines how they feel and behave. REBT, however, also argues that
a person’s biology also affects their feelings and behaviours. In turn, people
have beliefs about this activating event influence how they feel and act.
Thus, the activating event does not create the feeling, but beliefs about the
event contribute to the emotional consequence. These beliefs may be rational
HSE: Rekha Mistryrekhanmistry@gmail.com MAY 2011
Focus: RET AND PROBLEM SOLVING

ones that result in moderate, healthy emotions, or irrational beliefs that lead
to disturbed emotions and inhibit goal attainment and satisfaction.

Irrational beliefs drive from a basic “must”. They represent demanding and
unrealistic perception of how things should be, statements of blame directed
at self and others, “awful zing” statements that reflect an exaggeration of the
event, and the inability to tolerate frustration (Vernon, 1983). To eliminate
these thinking patterns, a process known as “disputing” is initiated.
Disputing involves challenging the irrational beliefs through rigorous
questioning, with the goal being to achieve a more flexible, no absolutistic
viewpoint. For example, if a person felt angry because someone had treated
her/him unfairly, disputes such as “why must people treat you fairly, why
should people do what you want them to do all the time and how does it help
you to be angry over someone else’ behaviour which you can’t control?
Help challenges the irrational thinking and enable the person to deal more
effectively with her/his upset. In addition to verbal disputes, behavioural
assignments and use of imagery are also ways of elimination irrational
beliefs.

RET is designed as a self-help, educative therapy. Teaching people how to

get better rather than simply feel better is a primary goal. Because of its
educative nature, RET readily lends itself to a preventive emotional health
model: rational-emotive education. REE is based on the assumption that it is
possible and desirable to teach children how to help themselves cope with
life more effectively. The goal is to “help youngsters understand, at an early
age, the general principles of emotional health and to teach them to
consistently apply these principles to and with self and others”.

In classroom use, rational-emotive education is typically implemented

through a series of structural emotional education lesson that are
experientially based, allowing for student involvement and group
interaction. On a daily basis, teacher and other school personnel are called
upon to help children cope not only with normal developmental concerns,
but also with more serious problems that can result in behavioural or
emotional maladjustment. In recent years, it has become more apparent that
HSE: Rekha Mistryrekhanmistry@gmail.com MAY 2011
Focus: RET AND PROBLEM SOLVING

preventive emotional health programs should be implanted in schools as a

means of ensuring that all children will learn skills which foster socio-
emotional development and minimize or prevent disturbance (Vernon,
1983). One of the emotional education program which has proved effective
with children is rational-emotive education (REE).

Can send articles on the following topics:

• Research based –implications of RET and emotional development

• Impact of irrational beliefs on behaviour
• Role of counselor in developing emotional development
• Required skills in using RET
• Impact of REE on teachers’ behaviour in class room
• Significance of RET in the field of Social Work.
• Use of REBT in changing behaviour.