Professionally speaking, I’m a provider of care for mental, emotional, and behavioral health (collectively “mental health”). To be specific, I’m a Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) practitioner.
This psychotherapeutic modality falls under the umbrella of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). In general, CBT focuses on patterns of thinking and believing which influence how people further think or believe, feel (emotions or bodily sensations), and behave.
Specifically, REBT theory uses the ABC model to illustrate how when Activating events (“Actions”) occur and people maintain irrational Beliefs about the events, these unhelpful assumptions – and not the actual occurrences – are what create unpleasant cognitive, emotive, bodily sensation, and behavioral Consequences.
In particular, there are four predominate irrational beliefs which people use: demandingness, awfulizing, low frustration tolerance, and global evaluations. Addressing these, the ABC model incorporates Disputation of unhelpful assumptions in order to explore Effective new beliefs.
From a psychological standpoint, people disturb themselves using a Belief-Consequence (B-C) connection. Of course, this isn’t to suggest that in the context of the naturalistic or physical world there is no Action-Consequence (A-C) connection.
As an example, if you fail to completely stop at a posted stop sign (Action), you may receive a traffic citation (Consequence). Still, if you unhelpfully Believe, “That shouldn’t have happened to me,” then you’ll likely disturb yourself into an angry disposition (Consequence).
Thus, I help people to stop upsetting themselves through use of B-C connections, though I can’t fully resolve their A-C connections. If there were a mathematical formula for the ABC model, it would be something like: Action + Belief = Consequence ÷ Disputation = Effective new belief.
Furthermore, this helpful psychotherapeutic modality uses the technique of unconditional acceptance (UA) to relieve suffering. This is accomplished through use of unconditional self-acceptance (USA), unconditional other-acceptance (UOA), and unconditional life-acceptance (ULA).
Additionally, a foundational component incorporated into REBT relates to Stoicism—a philosophical practice valuing four virtues (wisdom, courage, temperance or moderation, and justice) as a means of achieving eudemonia—a life well-lived. All of these techniques require frequent practice.
Unlike other forms of CBT, REBT places emphasis on qualities of humanism which one source describes as “a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.”
In a blogpost entitled Completing the Puzzle, I stated, “Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of solving human problems.” In essence, people have it within themselves to heal themselves and lead a good or healthy life.
It’s worth noting that some people who are more religiously, spiritually, or metaphysically inclined attribute morality—consideration of what is good, bad, right, wrong, etc.—to ethereal sources (e.g., a deity). Therefore, some individuals reject that humans are capable of establishing personal moral codes.
Having come from a religious background, though no longer subscribing to dogmatic faith-based practice, I can appreciate the notion of objective morality attributed to divinity, nature, and otherwise. Nevertheless, I propose that practice of humanism can be incorporated with one’s religious or spiritual faith. As an example, one source states:
Several therapists, secular and religious, have used scripture in conjunction with REBT to dispute irrational beliefs. For example, Hank Robb’s small booklet, How to Stop Driving Yourself Crazy with Help from the Bible, lists common irrational beliefs and then identifies scriptural passages that seemingly refute or dispute the irrational beliefs. This is probably the most common religious method employed in a religiously oriented use of REBT.
This approach may be a very effective technique when working with conservative or fundamentalist Christians who see scripture as the sole source of religious authority for their faith. The process is simple. Each of the client’s irrational beliefs is paired with a scripture expressing a relevant rational belief. For example, if the person is awfulizing, then the therapist chooses the antiawfulizing scriptural passage closest to the client’s circumstance.
Depending on one’s religion or spiritual practice, a humanist perspective can graft onto faith-based principles. In simplest terms, a humanist perspective in REBT maintains that a person has the ability to impact change in one’s own life.
Regarding a humanistic and existentialist approach to mental health, the late psychologist who developed REBT, Albert Ellis, stated, “[I]t is clearly a person’s philosophy of life, and not just the things that happen to him in the course of his life, which importantly affect his personality development.”
Suppose I view religious or spiritual faith as supportive of the notion that humans are fallible and remain subject to a higher power other than oneself. The REBT concept of USA supports the imperfect proposal while one remains free to choose whatever power to which one submits.
Now suppose I maintain that an existentialist perspective considers death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness as basic givens in life. Who would dispute truth concerning how each of us will surely die? The concept of ULA thus helps people to fully accept the inevitable in this regard.
Likewise, while I suspect there may be some people who don’t value freedom, I ask, are you one of these individuals? Even if not in a sociopolitical sense, do you value freedom from self-disturbance? This is what the practice of UA overall promotes.
Additionally, who among us hasn’t experienced isolation? No matter how close we are to people in our lives, there remains some level of cognitive, emotive, physical, or spiritual distance. Thus, the concept of UOA affords one an opportunity to tolerate and accept isolation of this sort.
As well, meaninglessness is a matter with which many religious, spiritual, and secular individuals grapple at some point in life. This is where both existentialism and humanism allow each person to create, discover, or reestablish value of life in the absence of unfalsifiable objective meaning.
Who would argue against the incorporation of these REBT techniques, regardless of whether or not one serves a higher power? Addressing criticisms of this psychotherapeutic modality, Ellis clarified:
[REBT] persistently propounds the view that humans exist merely as human. They have no superhuman characteristics; nor do they ever degenerate into subhumans. If you fully—and we mean fully—accept your humanity and your fallibility, and if you give up all aspirations to holier-than-thouness, to sit on some God’s right hand while the rest of us poor slobs sit on His left hand (or eternally burn in hell), you will have one heck of a time making yourself emotionally disturbed about anything. Only your pigheaded insistence on grandiosity, on demanding that you develop into a better (or more godly) person than the rest of us, makes you have to succeed at various tasks. And with that have to you remain emotionally cooked!
Although I’m aware of some religious, spiritual, and metaphysical practices which apparently support the notion of deified humans, I don’t subscribe to such beliefs. Clearly, Ellis didn’t either.
Therefore, I suspect that those who worship according to Judeo-Christian, Islamic, and other similar faith-based practices can (at minimal) appreciate that in the aforementioned quote Ellis advocated agreement regarding human fallibility. Furthermore, he proposed UA to reduce disturbance.
This humanistic UA concept merely maintains that I exist, I deserve to exist, I’m fallible, and I can accept myself without condition – to include all of my flaws or shortcomings – or unhelpfully disturb myself with beliefs about my imperfection. Who would dare disagree with this proposal?
Of course, sometimes people challenge this assumption by inquiring about the utility of improving oneself while using UA. My response isn’t as complex as one may think.
I acknowledge truth – that I’m imperfect. That’s the default assumption which is helpful. From there, I may succeed or fail in pursuit of interests or goals. After all, improving on imperfection isn’t disallowed.
Suppose I succeed in my pursuits, wonderful! Imagine I fail, fine. I’m no worse off than the flawed default setting I’ve already established. Therefore, I can shift my aims and start anew.
This is a humanist approach to mental health care. It’s a pragmatic method of reducing self-disturbance while attempting to improve upon imperfection – without irrationally seeking to attain a perfect existence. Thus, humanism is a method of rational living.
Irrespective of one’s religious, spiritual, or secular views, I promote frequent use of REBT with the clients I serve. This modality, which is influenced by humanism, is set apart from other forms of CBT and may be precisely what you’ve been missing in your life. Would you like to know more?
If you’re looking for a provider who works to help you understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.
As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.
At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply helping you to feel better, I want to help you get better!
Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW
References:
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Ellis, A. and Harper, R. A. (1975). A new guide to rational living. Wilshire Book Co. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/newguidetoration00elli
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