Emotional Rational Therapy (Albert Ellis) How Does It Work?

The Rational emotional therapy (TRE) was one of the first cognitive therapies implanted in the field of psychotherapy.

In fact, this treatment designed by the famous American psychotherapist Albert Ellis , Began to be used already in the year 1955.

At that time, the work of psychology that was performed in a habitual way corresponded to two therapeutic approaches very different from those used by ERT.

Psychotherapy is born with the psychoanalysis And dynamic interventions very focused on the concept of the unconscious and relational life of people.

Later, due to the small structuring of these therapies and the need to apply psychology in the field of science, behavioral currents arise.

This current was based solely on human behavior, interpreting the human mind as a"black box"that did not arouse enough interest to be studied in the field of mental health.

In this way, the behaviorists focused only on the environmental elements to which the person is exposed and on the behavioral response that he / she made to these elements, and obviated the importance of the thoughts that may appear in those moments.

Given this situation, Albert Ellis proposes a different style of psychotherapy, indicating the importance of thoughts and cognitive styles in the face of psychological problems.

This fact is considered as one of the major influences within the psychological therapy, since from the theories of Ellis and Beck Cognitive therapy was born first, and Cognitive behavioral therapy Later, which is the most used psychotherapy and with more evidence of efficacy today.

However, like all changes, the implementation of rational emotional therapy was not easy.

In fact, Ellis was practically 10 years (from 1955 to 1963) being the only psychotherapist who used this therapy in his psychological interventions.

Subsequently, psychologists began to form in rational emotional therapy and its use became more widespread and consolidated as one of the main cognitive therapies.

The Bases of Emotional Rational Therapy

As we have said, rational emotional therapy is based on working cognitive concepts when psychological alterations arise.

In this way, the Mental Wellness Stop being limited to"what people do"and focus basically on"what people think".

In this line, one begins to understand the psychological functioning from a three-dimensional point of view, where the behavior, the thought and the emotions play important papers that feed each other.

Thus, a person who feels anxious experiences a series of anxiety emotions, which produce a series of thoughts of nervousness that produce certain behaviors that increase both anxiety emotions and anxiety. Thoughts of nervousness .

Given these considerations, Ellis interpreted that the fundamental point of the alteration is the thought, since if a person with anxiety manages to eliminate his thoughts of nervousness he will stop experiencing anxious emotions and will avoid to realize behaviors that can increase the anxiety.

Now, how do people's thoughts work? How can one intervene in the cognitive style?

Well, Ellis not only designed a cognitive therapy like ERT but also conducted a comprehensive study of people's thoughts.

In this way, rational emotional therapy is based on 2 main cognitive theories.

1. Theory ABC

This theory, which is based on the personality And in the change of personality, defends the importance of emotions and behavior, but puts a special emphasis on the role of thoughts and mental images.

Thus, the theory is based on feedback between A, B and C, where A refers to activating events, B to beliefs and thoughts about such events, and C to emotional and behavioral consequences.

As we see, unlike the behavioral theories we discussed above, where only A and C were studied, this theory includes B in the middle of both factors, showing the relevance of thoughts in human functioning.

This means that the interest ceases to be in the behavioral response that people have to different situations, and it rests on the thinking that arises in the minds of people in such situations and the consequences that these thoughts produce.

Thus, it is argued that thoughts are important mediators between events and emotional and behavioral responses, because depending on what is thought will be interpreted situations in one way or another.

So far we see that this basic theory of rational emotional therapy emphasizes the role of thought in explaining the behavior and emotional state of people.

However, let us briefly give an example to understand more precisely how this theory works.

A person arrives at a late family meal and upon entering the dining room all his relatives are watching him.

This situation to which a person is involved acts as an activating event (A), which can provoke a determined emotional and behavioral response (C).

However, the C that provokes this situation will differ markedly depending on what the person thinks at that moment, that is, according to the content of B.

Thus, if the person in this situation (A) thinks that everyone is looking at him because he is late and angry with her, the emotional and behavioral response (C) is most likely to be one of sadness, anger or discomfort.

However, if the person thinks that they all look at him because they wanted him to come, they have not seen him for some time and are happy that he has finally been able to come, the emotional and behavioral response will be quite different.

In this case, probably the emotions you feel are positive, you feel happiness, joy and satisfaction, and your subsequent behavior is much more positive.

Thus, we see that in the same situation, the response of a person may be quite different depending on the thoughts that appear at that moment.

2. Irrational beliefs

Following the ABC theory, Ellis focused on studying the main thoughts that are provoking psychological distress and mental disturbances.

Thus, the American psychotherapist managed to connote a group of 11 basic irrational ideas that usually have people with mental disorders and largely explain their psychological discomfort. These are:

1. Extreme need to be loved and approved by significant people.
2. Need to be very competent, sufficient, effective and achieve anything that I propose to self-consider myself as a valid person.
3. People who do not act as"should"are evil, infamous and should be punished for their evil.
4. It is terrible and catastrophic that things do not work as one would like.
5. Disgrace and human discomfort are caused by external circumstances and people have no ability to control their emotions.
6. If something is, or can be dangerous, I must feel terribly uneasy about it and I must constantly think about the possibility of it happening.
7. It is easier to avoid the responsibilities and difficulties of life than to confront them.
8. I must learn from others and need someone stronger to trust.
9. What happened to me in the past will always affect me
10. I must be very concerned about the problems and disturbances of others
11. There is a perfect solution to every problem and if I did not find it would be catastrophic.

Later, Ellis grouped these 11 irrational ideas into three more basic ones: the absolutist demands. These are

1. Self-centered
2. Focus on other people.
3. Focused on life or the world in general.

Course of the TRE

Ellis comments that ERT is a type of active-directive psychotherapy in which the therapist leads the patient to identify the physiological origin of their psychological problems.

Likewise, the psychotherapist is based on helping the patient to face their thoughts and to show that their disturbing irrational attitudes can be modified.

Therapy can be divided into 3 main stages.

Step 1: Psychodiagnostic

The first stage focuses on evaluating the patient and discovering the beliefs or irrational ideas that can produce counterproductive emotions or behaviors.

Also, during this first stage the patient is taught how their problems contribute and explain the principles that we have exposed in the previous section.

Thus, in this first stage the following tasks are performed:

1. The patient's problems are classified as external, internal or mixed.
2. Through the patient's story, they detect their irrational beliefs.
3. "Problems about problems"are detected, that is, the irrational ideas that appear on the main problems.
4. Establish flexible goals such as working counterproductive C or modifying the A, which the patient exposes and which cause discomfort.
5. Explain the basis of the ERT by setting the patient's own problems as an example.
6. Start selfregisters like the following.

Step 2: Intellectual Insight

In the second stage, the following aspects are clarified to the patient:

1. Current irrational beliefs are the main determinant of emotional and behavioral problems
2. Although they were acquired in childhood, they are maintained because they continue to be reindoctrinated in them.
3. Understand what irrational beliefs cause problems
4. Become aware that there is no evidence to support irrational ideas.
5. Self-acceptance even if they have created and continue to maintain their problems
6. Understand that if you want to get rid of your learned irrational beliefs you have to work hard and hard.

These aspects are exposed by the therapist in such a way that the patient himself / herself can identify their functioning through these principles and increase their motivation for change and their involvement in therapy.

Stage 3: Changing attitudes

Once the aspects of stage 3 are well consolidated, cognitive restructuring and Change of attitudes , Beliefs, emotions and behaviors.

The effectiveness of this therapy is based on the strong belief that irrational belief is harmful and should be modified by an alternative, since this increases motivation and ensures that the patient will strive to do it.

In this way, therapist and patient work together to undermine the patient's irrational attitudes and strengthen rational ones.

At this stage the self-registers are of great value, since they provide ample material on the characteristics of the patient's irrational ideas.

Also, in this phase the therapist acts in a very didactic way, teaching to reason to the patient and using the Socratic dialogues with the objective that the patient can achieve:

1. Consider your ideas as hypotheses to check.
2. Value new beneficial and rational ideas.
3. Work hard to give up old irrational beliefs.

References

1. Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive Therapy and Emotional Disorders. New York: International Universities.
2. Burgess, P. M. (1990). Towards resolution of conceptual issues in the assessment of belief systems in Rational Emotive
3. Caballo, Vicente et al. (Comp..)"Manual of techniques of therapy and behavior modification". Editorial Siglo XXI, Spain. 1998.
4. Ellis, A. (1957). Outcome of employing three techniques of psychotherapy. Journal of Clinical Psychology 13, 344-350.
5. Lega, L., Caballo, V. E. and Ellis, A. (2002). Theory and practice of rational emotional-behavioral therapy. (2nd ed.). Madrid: 21st century.
6. Sutton-Simon, K. (1981). Assessing belief systems: Conceptions and strategies. In P. C. Kendall and S. D. Hollon (Dir.), Assessment Strategies for Cognitive Behavioral Interventions. New York: Academic.
7. Image source.