The therapeutic relationship in Rational-Emotive Therapy: Some preliminary data

This study assessed the therapeutic relationship between psychotherapy clients and Albert Ellis and other Rational-Emotive Therapists. Clients at the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy completed the relationship questionnaire (Truax, & Carkhuff, 1967). The results suggest that RET therapists do develop positive therapeutic relationships. Clients receiving RET endorsed significantly higher scores on most therapeutic relationship subscales compared to subjects in the initial articles introducing the therapeutic relationship scale. There were no differences in therapeutic relationship scores by gender of the therapist. Also, there was no correlation between the relationship scores and the number of sessions completed, which suggests the therapuetic relationship develops early. Both clients of senior and junior therapists received higher relationship scores than did clients of Dr. Ellis. This disconfirms the argument that RET practices cannot lead to a therapuetic relationship and Ellis' therapeutic relationship is a result of his fame and could not be duplicated by other therapists using RET.The authors wish to thank the Board of Trustees of Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy for their financial support of this study.     

Rational-Emotive Therapy and Youth: Some New Techniques for Counselors

Derived from experience with cognitively and emotionally impaired juvenile offenders, several techniques are presented for counselors to increase the effectiveness of RET interventions with youth.     

The Use of Syllogism in Rational-Emotive Therapy

The author indicates how the use of syllogistic logic in rational-emotive therapy can help therapists expose clients' irrational beliefs.     

Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy: An Interview with Albert Ellis

Over the past 50~years, Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) has been developed and refined by Albert Ellis. REBT provides a framework for therapy that appears useful for many therapists and most clients. This paper includes a recent interview with Dr. Ellis, examining issues related to the development, application, and ongoing refinement of REBT as a useful and effective approach to psychotherapy.     

First-Order and Second-Order Change in Rational-Emotive Therapy: A Reply to Lyddon

Lyddon (1990) claimed that rational-emotive therapy (RET) and other kinds of cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) are in “the rationalist camp,” are realistic rather than constructivist, and focus on the elimination of emotional responses to irrational cognitions. His allegations about CBT practices are questionable, and he ignores the fact that RET is not merely realistic and empirical in disputing clients' irrational beliefs but is in several respects one of the most constructivist of the psychotherapies.     

A Bridge Too Far: Incompatibilities of Rational-Emotive Therapy and Pastoral Counseling

The inappropriateness of pure rational-emotive therapy (RET) for pastoral counseling is discussed and a modified version (cognitive appraisal therapy) proposed to replace RET.     

Commentary on the Current Status of Assessment in Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy

This commentary focuses on the current status of assessment in rational-emotive and cognitive-behavior therapy, in the context of making comments about three assessment articles published in the same journal issue. The commentary describes important characteristics of rational-emotive and cognitive-behavior assessment measures, suggests several avenues of psychometric research on behavioral tests of distress tolerance as clinical measures, reviews psychometric and other important properties of existing irrational belief measures, and endorses assessment related to newly proposed anger disorder diagnoses.

Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy in the Treatment of Adult Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse

This study investigated the effectiveness of Rational-emotive behavior therapy in the treatment of adult victims of childhood sexual abuse. A sample of 42 women, seeking help for their psychological distress associated with childhood sexual abuse, was selected by means of an assessment interview and the Trauma Sympton Checklist, and randomly assigned to a treatment (n=28) and a delayed treatment control group (n=14). The treatment group participated in 10 weekly sessions of group Rational-emotive behavior therapy and was followed up 8 weeks after termination of treatment. Repeated measurements were obtained by means of the Beck Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Scale, State-Trait Anger Scale, Guilt Inventory, Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory and Golombok-Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction. Results indicated significant reductions in depression, State anxiety, State anger, State guilt and low self-esteem. These improvements were maintained at follow-up.     

Brief Christian and Non-Christian Rational-Emotive Therapy With Depressed Christian Clients: An Exploratory Study

The current outcome study operationalized a brief “Christian” form of rational-emotive therapy (CRET) and compared the therapeutic efficacy of this treatment with a standard version of brief rational-emotive therapy (RET) with depressed Christian clients. Results indicated that both treatments were effective in reducing depression and automatic negative thoughts, while only the CRET reduced clients' irrational beliefs. No between-group differences were obtained for clients' perceptions of the counselor. Findings are discussed in terms of applied integration issues and the long-standing antagonism of rational-emotive philosophy toward religious beliefs.     

Distress Tolerance and Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy: A New Role for Behavioral Analogue Tasks

Rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) is a widely utilized treatment approach for many mental disorders, but it has been “relatively neglected in the professional scientific literature” (Ellis 2003b). This neglect has been attributed in part to a lack of solid REBT outcome studies, which in turn stems from the difficulty of measuring constructs of interest in REBT, such as irrational beliefs, via self-report measures. In light of these concerns, the current paper aims to identify the potential utility of behavioral analogue laboratory tasks for advancing the understanding of mechanisms in REBT, as well as treatment outcome using this therapeutic approach. Specifically, we focus on the utilization of behavioral measures of distress tolerance and their application to the key REBT construct of frustration intolerance. In identifying the parallels across distress tolerance and frustration intolerance, we consider how the incorporation of distress tolerance tasks into REBT research can be useful in evaluating the role of frustration intolerance in the initiation, maintenance, and treatment of disordered behavior across a broad range of clinical disorders.

I Will Always Love You: Dispelling Marital Myths Through Applications of Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy

Couples often enter relationships with a certain amount of naivety, expecting that just because they are in love, all problems in the relationship will be solved. In fact, love is just a small percentage of what it takes to have a successful relationship. This article will address myths and misconceptions that are critical for couples to recognize and address. In addition, the author will describe numerous cognitive, emotive, and behavioral interventions that have proven to be successful in couple counseling.     

Nine Experts Describe the Essence of Rational-Emotive Therapy While Standing on One Foot

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of agreement among a panel of rational-emotive therapy (RET) experts about the essence of RET. The panel of experts consisted of the 9 members of The International Training Standards and Review Committee of the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy in New York. The question that the experts were asked was an adaptation of a Talmudic story known in Jewish lore as “While Standing on One Foot.” Responses were assigned to either of 2 categories: general cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) or RET-specific. There seems to be a range of responses that capture the essence of RET. A strong case can be made for subsuming many aspects of CBT under RET because much of what is associated with CBT has its origins in RET. The confusion about where RET ends and general CBT begins goes to the very heart of RET's status today.     

A Synopsis of Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT); Fundamental and Applied Research

The article presents a synopsis on rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT), its fundamental theoretical framework, its applications, and future directions. The paper is organized according to the following structure: in part one, REBT fundamental/basic research is discussed; in the second part clinical/applied research in REBT is presented, including aspects of efficacy and effectiveness, discrimination of disorders for which REBT works most effectively, and its relations to other therapies. Uses and misuses of REBT and their impact on research and future developments are presented as well. While it is true that REBT research has many shortcomings, the overgeneralization and/or magnification of the negative, and the minimization of the positive are dysfunctional beliefs that maintain the false idea in the field that REBT has few empirical studies and that REBT research is in serious trouble. A balanced approach, analyzing both the strengths and weakness, suggest that REBT has hundreds of research articles and that high-quality studies tend to support REBT’s basic theory and efficacy. However, to strengthen this conclusion and to fully explore the potential of REBT, shortcomings of REBT research need to be corrected, and high-quality studies promoted. This is particularly important since, although effective, cognitive-behavioral psychotherapies have not yet reached “the desired standard” of efficacy and effectiveness, as about 30–40% of people are still nonresponsive to these interventions Thus, REBT could be a platform of reinvigorating empirical studies on the efficacy/effectiveness and theory of cognitive-behavioral models of psychopathology and human functioning. Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Biobehavioral and Integrative Medicine Programs, New York, USA.     

Post-Enlightenment and Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET): Comments on P.J. Watson's View

Comments on P. J. Watson's (1993) paper, on the post-Enlightenment and rationality, showing how he is correct in many respects but misinterprets the philosophy and practice of rational-emotive therapy.     

Effects of Cognitive Restructuring Intervention Program of Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy on Adverse Childhood Stress in Nigeria

This study examined the effects of cognitive restructuring intervention program of rational-emotive behavior therapy on irrational thoughts/behaviors arising from adverse childhood stress in Nigeria. The participants (n = 26) are the identified victims of adverse childhood stress who met the criteria for inclusion through self-report questionnaire. The treatment process is guided by the adverse childhood stress management manual. It consists of 12 weeks of full intervention and 2 weeks of follow-up meetings. The study used repeated measures ANOVA in order to see the improvement of each participant and across control and treatment groups’ thoughts/behaviors after the intervention program. The results show that sex differences do not determine experience of adverse childhood stress. Through cognitive restructuring intervention program of rational-emotive behavior therapy, irrational thoughts/behaviors arising from adverse childhood stress experience were significantly reduced in the treatment group when compared to the control group. Significant improvement was also observed at the end of the intervention of the treatment group. The implication for research and practice were discussed in line with these outcomes. Finally, the study stressed the importance of a follow-up study in Nigeria that would assess irrational beliefs and one or more measures of PTSD symptoms or emotional disturbance.     

Rational-Emotive Education: A review of the literature

This article will assess the current status of Rational-Emotive Education. Attention is given to the concepts of Rational-Emotive Education, as well as specific teaching strategies. Also explored are studies attempting to assess the efficacy of using Rational-Emotive Education in the classroom. It is concluded that more scientific and comparative studies are needed in this area.Dr. Daniel N. Watter is an assistant professor of Health Science at William Paterson College in Wayne, New Jersey. In addition, he is a sex and marital therapist in private practice.