What Is Emotional Rational Therapy: Understanding the Science Behind Emotional Balance

An Introduction to Emotive Rational Therapy

Developed by psychologist Albert Ellis in the 1950s as an alternative to psychotherapy, rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) is a psychotherapy approach that focuses on managing irrational beliefs, and unhealthy emotions and behaviors. It is a type of action-based cognitive behavior therapy that helps people to manage emotional distress, irrational beliefs, and self destructive behaviors in a healthy and realistic way.

Importance of Emotional Balance in Mental Health

A key component of rational emotive behavior therapy is that achieving emotional balance is crucial for overall mental health and well-being. Holding to irrational beliefs and negative emotions can lead to maladaptive behaviors and mental health conditions such as depression or anxiety.

Rational emotive behavior therapy was developed to help identify irrational and rational beliefs, and replace irrational beliefs and irrational thoughts with positive beliefs and unconditional self acceptance to achieve emotional balance and manage maladaptive behaviors.

The three main beliefs in the rational emotive behavioral therapy model include:

• There is no need for shame or guilt, because you are worthy of self-acceptance even when you make mistakes
• Others are worthy of this type of acceptance, as well. Even if their behaviors are not acceptable to you
• Sometimes negative things happen in life, whether you like it or not. Rationally, there is no reason to expect life to be positive all of the time, and it is healthy to accept this fact

Understanding Irrational Beliefs

What Are Irrational Beliefs and Their Impact on Mental Health

Irrational beliefs are rigid, extreme, and unrealistic thoughts that can lead to negative emotions and maladaptive behaviors. Core irrational beliefs may have been implanted in the mind at a young age, and reaffirmed over and over until they have taken hold and created negative emotions and behaviors. These irrational beliefs can make it almost impossible to respond to situations in a healthy way.

Rigid attitudes are often a driver for unhealthy thoughts and feelings of anxiety. Replacing irrational belief with rational thought can be a catalyst for change and help stem self destructive behaviors.

The Science Behind Emotional Rational Therapy

The ABCDE model of emotional rational therapy is a framework for understanding the connection between events and beliefs and responses.

• A stands for the activating event
• B stands for the belief
• C stands for the consequences
• D stands for the disturbance
• E stands for the effective new philosophy

A Brooklyn therapist will work with a client to touch on each of these pieces in turn, identifying each factor, and then helping to create a new response based on rational beliefs. Reducing irrational beliefs that negatively affect your mental health and implementing new rational beliefs can have a big impact on emotional health.

How Emotional Rational Therapy Works: Cognitive Restructuring and Coping Techniques

Similar to cognitive behavioral therapy, emotional rational therapy helps individuals identify and challenge their irrational beliefs and replace them with rational ones over time. This is done through something called cognitive restructuring, where therapists help their client examine evidence for and against certain irrational beliefs and thoughts.

Therapists also teach coping techniques such as problem-solving strategies, self-acceptance, and disputing irrational beliefs to manage mental health issues.

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)

Core Principles of REBT: Addressing Irrational and Rational Beliefs

Rational emotive behavior therapy is a type of cognitive-behavioral approach that focuses on the relationship between thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. According to this model of clinical psychology, irrational thoughts or irrational beliefs lead to negative consequences in a persons life, including negative thoughts, self defeating behaviors, emotional and behavioral consequences like addictive behaviors and dysfunctional emotional responses.

A rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) therapist believes that irrational beliefs lead to negative feelings, mental illness, and poor behavioral responses, while rational beliefs lead to healthy negative emotions and adaptive behaviors.

Techniques Used in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy: Problem-Solving, Acceptance, and Disputing Irrational Beliefs

To replace irrational beliefs, a rational emotive therapy practitioner uses various techniques such as problem-solving, acceptance, and disputing irrational beliefs to help people develop healthier coping skills. Rational and irrational beliefs are present in most people, but when rational beliefs are promoted and cultivated, irrational beliefs will have less power over mental health.

An important first step in the process is recognizing the underlying irrational beliefs that lead to psychological distress. Once these are identified, then the therapist can work with the individual to shift their irrational beliefs and emotional responses to an activating event, and help to decrease negative consequences through the empowerment offered by new rational beliefs.

Achieving Emotional Balance Through Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)

The Role of Rational Beliefs in Emotional Balance

For rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT), the bottom line is that rational beliefs are essential for achieving emotional balance and overall mental health. Achieving balance through addressing underlying beliefs that prompt negative reaction is essential to robust mental health. Four core irrational beliefs that rational emotive behavior therapy addresses include:

• Blame external events for the problems in your life
• Believing that to be valuable and worthwhile that you must be competent and successful in all things, and that you are a complete failure if you don't succeed
• Believing happiness is achievable if you you avoid challenges or difficulties in life
• Believing you have no control over your own happiness, that it all depends upon external forces

Research suggests that holding these core beliefs can lead to low frustration tolerance, inappropriate emotional response to adverse events, and self defeating behaviors. Psychologist Albert Ellis believed that mental exercises that change these underlying beliefs into more rational thoughts and ideas can improve emotional and behavioral responses and have a positive impact on mental health.

Emotional rational emotive behavior therapy helps an individual achieve emotional balance by developing more rational beliefs and coping skills. You can become empowered by learning more rational ways to interpret events, rather than thinking that you are a constant victim of circumstance.

Getting Help with Emotional Rational Therapy

As with any therapy, emotive behavior therapy (REBT) can hinge on a strong therapeutic relationship for success. It is a more confrontational style of therapy, and to challenge irrational belief while also facilitating unconditional self acceptance, there needs to be a high level of trust and rapport between client and therapist.

REBT focuses on unhealthy thoughts and the psychological distress that negatively affect a person's life. It is a type of clinical psychology that can be helpful for creating a realistic view of the world and learning how to manage negative emotions and emotional distress through the elimination of irrational beliefs.

Mental health support through rational emotive behaviour therapy can help with a number of challenges, including self esteem issues, job related stress, self defeating behaviors, reducing symptoms of anxiety or depression, and decreasing negative thoughts.

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy in Brooklyn

If you find that irrational beliefs about how life should be lead to negative consequences in your life such as disappointment or other negative emotions, emotional distress, and self destructive behaviors, rational emotive behavior therapy can help.

At Williamsburg Therapy Group, our team of doctoral-level psychotherapists offers evidence-based therapeutic approaches, including rational emotive behavior therapy, to challenge irrational beliefs and replace it with rational beliefs that can have a positive emotional and behavioral impact in your life.

Give us a call today and our patient coordinator will help you find the right therapist to offer emotional support as well as tools and strategies to promote rational beliefs, foster unconditional self-acceptance, and improve mental health overall.