Commonalities

Behavior Therapy and Cognitive Therapy share the

following attributes:
A collaborative relationship between client and therapist;
The premise that psychological distress is largely a function
of disturbances in cognitive processes;
Focus on changing cognitions to produce desired changes in
affect and behavior;
Time-limited and educational treatment focusing on a
specific goal.
 Key Contributors
Albert Ellis
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)

Aaron T. Beck
Cognitive Therapy (CT)

Donald Meichenbaum
Cognitive Behavior Modification (CBM)
 Rational Emotive Behavior
Therapy (REBT)
Interaction of cognitions, emotions, and behaviors

People contribute to their own psychological problems

and specific symptoms by the way they interpret events
and situations.

Therapy is an educational process

Therapist is seen as teacher

Provides clients tools to restructure their philosophical

and behavioral styles
Irrational thoughts: clients learn to replace ineffective ways
of thinking with effective cognitions
 REBT Key Concepts
View of Human Nature
People have the potential for rational and irrational thoughts

View of Emotional Disturbance

People create irrational beliefs from interactions with
significant others
Blame is at the core of most emotional disturbances
Three musts
I must do well
Other people must treat me well
I must get what I want and I must not get what I dont want
 A-B-C Framework
Central to REBT Theory
A = the existence of a fact, an activating event, or behavior or
attitude of an individual
B = Persons thoughts and beliefs
C = the emotional and behavioral consequences or reaction of
the individual (healthy or unhealthy)
Revised A-B-C
B = believing, emoting, and behaving
D = detect, debate, discriminate
the application of methods to help clients challenge (dispute) their
irrational beliefs
http://www.rebt.ws/text.htm
 Cognitive Restructuring
Central technique of cognitive therapy

Teaches people how to improve themselves by replacing

faulty cognitions with constructive beliefs

Helping clients learn to monitor their self-talk, identify

maladaptive self-talk, and substitute adaptive self-talk

Clients arrive at
E = effective philosophy, and
F = new set of feelings

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 Philosophical Restructuring
Fully acknowledging that we are responsible for creating own
emotional problems
Accepting the notion that we have the ability to change
disturbances
Recognizing that our emotional problems stem from irrational
beliefs
Clearly perceiving beliefs
Work hard in practicing emotive and behavioral ways to
counteract dysfunctional thoughts and feelings
Practicing REBT methods
 REBT
Goals
Assist clients in the process of achieving unconditional self-
acceptance and unconditional other acceptance
As clients begin to accept themselves they begin to accept
others

Therapist Function
Show clients their irrational beliefs (i.e. shoulds, musts)
Demonstrate how clients are keeping their disturbances
active
Help clients to modify their thinking
Challenge clients to develop a rational philosophy
Cognitive Methods
Most efficient way to bring about
lasting change is to change ones way of thinking

Disputing irrational beliefs:

Challenging musts (i.e. Chance People must treat
me fairly to Why must people treat me fairly?)
Doing cognitive homework:
Listing and tracking musts, shoulds, and oughts
 Cognitive Methods cont.
Changing ones language
Replacing musts, shoulds, and oughts with
preferences
(i.e. changing awful to inconvenient)
Psycoeducational methods
Educating clients about nature
of their problems
 Emotive Techniques
Learning the value of unconditional self-acceptance

Rational emotive imagery

Imagining new ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving

Using humor
Helps put life into perspective
Shows the absurdity of certain ideas
 Emotive Techniques cont.
Role playing
Rehearsing behaviors to bring out feelings

Shame-attacking exercises
Exercises aimed at helping clients see that much of what
they think of as shameful has to do with their definition of
reality.

Use of force and vigor

Use of force and energy as a way to help clients go from
intellectual to emotional insight
Powerfully disputing beliefs
 Application
Use of behavioral techniques
i.e. operant conditioning, systematic desensitization

Widely applied to anxiety, hostility, character disorders,

psychotic disorders, depressionetc.

Can be used in a wide range of settings and populations

Can be used as a brief therapy

Widely popular with group counseling

 Cognitive Therapy
Insight-focused therapy

Quality of therapist/client relationship is important

To change dysfunctional emotions and behaviors one

needs to modify inaccurate and dysfunctional thinking

Theoretical Assumptions
Peoples internal communication is accessible to
introspection
Clients beliefs have highly personal meanings
These meanings can be discovered by the client rather than
being taught or interpreted by the therapist
 Basic Principles
Automatic thoughts: personalized notions that are
triggered by particular stimuli that lead to emotional
responses

Cognitive distortions: systematic errors in reasoning that

lead to faulty assumptions and misconceptions
Arbitrary inferences
Making conclusions without supporting evidence
Catastrophizing
Selective abstraction
Forming conclusions based on an isolated detail of an event
 Basic Principles cont.
Overgeneralization
Holding extreme beliefs on the basis of a single incident and
applying them inappropriately to dissimilar events or
settings.

Magnification and minimizations

Perceiving a case or situation greater or lesser than it truly
deserves

Personalization
Tendency to relate external events to themselves
 Basic Principles cont.
Labeling and mislabeling
Portraying ones identity on the basis of imperfections and
mistakes made in the past

Dichotomous thinking
Categorizing experiences in either-or extreme
 Application
Research proves effectiveness

Used with a variety of populations in a variety of settings

Applying cognitive techniques

Used as overall strategy in CT
Use of behavior therapy techniques

Depression
Negative thinking and biased perceptions of ourselves

Family Therapy
Thoughts, emotions, behaviors have mutual influence
 Cognitive Behavior Modification
Focused on changing clients self-verbalizations

Self-statements affect a persons behavior

Constructivist Narrative Perspective (CNP)

Change occurs when the script is changed

Self-instructional training
Helping clients become aware of their self-talk

Cognitive restructuring
Cognitive structure is the organizing aspect of thinking that
monitors and directs choice of thoughts
 Three Phase Process of Behavior
Change
Self-observation
Clients learning how to observe their own behavior

Starting a new internal dialogue

Clients learn to notice their maladaptive behaviors and see
opportunities for behavioral alternatives
Change internal dialog

Learning new skills

Teaching clients more effective
coping skills
 Coping Skills Programs
Exposing clients to anxiety-provoking situations

Clients evaluate their anxiety level

Clients become aware of anxiety-provoking cognitions in

stressful situations

Helping clients examine thoughts by reevaluating self-

statements

Helping clients note level of anxiety following re-evaluation

SIT Stress inoculation training

 Multicultural Perspective
Strengths
Uses individual belief system, or worldview, as part of the
method of self-challenge
Peoples happiness depends largely of the quality of
functioning within the community

Shortcomings
Therapist must understand clients cultural background
before challenging beliefs
There is a hesitation of some cultures to question their own
values and beliefs
 References
Corey, G. (2005). Theory and practice of counseling &
psychotherapy (7th ed). Belmont, CA: Thompson
Brooks/Cole.

Day, S. X. (2004). Theory and design in counseling and

psychotherapy. Boston: Lahaska Press/Houghton Mifflin
Company.

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