Personal Theory Paper - FINAL COUN 835

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PERSONAL THEORY ESSAY: RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY 1 Personal Theory Essay: Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy Jennifer Marisol Tayler Fort Hayes State University, Masters in School Counseling Program COUN 835 Theories of Counseling Brian Weber, PhD, NCC 10 December 2023

PERSONAL THEORY ESSAY: RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY 2 Personal Theory Essay: Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy My Personal Theory of Counseling My personal theory of the nature of human existence is that all people come to understand their world in a specific context, and the powers of the world around them introduce them to values, perceptions, ideals, belief systems, ideological structures; these form the foundation which informs each person as they make their decisions and choices about life and how their understand and interpret life, and how they feel about their knowledge and experiences. These internalizations are the perceptions and beliefs are based on personal experience, knowledge and learning obtained by watching and learning from others. Such internalizations form something akin to a complex algorithm that guides each person’s decision-making process in terms of actions and behaviors. If someone witnesses theft and one believes that stealing is wrong and that person also feels a moral or ethical responsibility to uphold the societal norms and expectations within that society, one would engage in behavior to stop or report the theft. If, however, one believes stealing is wrong, but also feels fear at the proposition of imposing their will on others or at the possibility of interfering in the affairs of others, their behavior would not impede or report the theft. These complex systems of values, beliefs, and internal thinking are the programming for each individual’s actions. Neither of these two hypothetical persons– the one who stops the theft and the other who does nothing to stop the theft – are operating by an inherently “good” or “bad” system. Either system may eventually come to be problematic for an individual who has decided their current behavioral patterns need to change for any variety of reasons. In

PERSONAL THEORY ESSAY: RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY 3 order to change the behavior, one must consider the cause of the behavior, that complex internal algorithm based on experience, knowledge, beliefs, values, and emotions. As a teacher, when I work with students to change their behavior – trying to get them to complete an assignment, come to class more often, or be willing to participate in an activity. Before their behavior can change, I usually have to work with students to first understand what beliefs, knowledge, values, and emotions are instigating their behaviors. For example, one student who is ditching class may be doing so because they do not value education. If that student passively attends school, but then they experience some kind of academic or social adversity, they may decide to avoid the school setting altogether. My experience as a teacher has shown me that to alter the behavior, I must help the student find value in education and feel positive emotions about prospective academic experiences. Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy most closely aligns with what I have seen works for adolescents in an academic setting, and it is flexible and adaptative therapy may incorporate multiple treatment methods and a variety of therapeutic tools, therefore making it suitable for a variety of needs, which is critical to anyone working with students in public education, which I will be doing as a school counselor. My Personal Theory and REBT As a teacher, I am a kind and compassionate person, but I also have a direct personality, and I rely on hypothesis testing and evidence to inform my instructional practices when addressing the unique needs and abilities of my students. As a school counselor, I would use a parallel approach which is most compatible with REBT which “tries to combine a tough-minded scientific attitude with a down-to-earth humanistic approach to psychotherapy. To this end, [REBT] emphasizes phenomenalism, existential choice, self-

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PERSONAL THEORY ESSAY: RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY 4 fulfillment and long-range hedonism, unconditional acceptance, flexibility and alternative seeking, profound philosophic change, individualism and sociality, therapeutic encounters” (Ellis, 1992, p.357). I believe in a more active role of the clinician is necessary when working with adolescent students / clients in my future role as a high school counselor. I also believe in considering the whole-person and not individual elements when working with students, and believe the collaborative co-creation not only objectives but also the method of achieving those goals is the most efficacious method of working with teenagers. REBT matching my philosophical approach as it is holistic, calls for active-directive techniques and requires a supportive and empathic relationship (Wedding & Corsini, 2019). REBT matches my multidimensional and flexible approach to working with teenagers, which is necessary because adolescents are often skeptical about recommendations and advice from adults, but may often be more cooperative when they feel safe, and accepting if they can see and feel outcomes first-hand. Working with teenagers often calls for the clinician to be more directive in confronting and challenging the student / client, but with kindness and support. It is critical to build a supportive therapeutic relationship as the foundation for working with students in a school setting, but to be able to guide students / clients toward possible solutions that they will need to learn to implement independently. Which is why the multidimensionality of REBT as “collaborative and instructive, supportive and active-directive” (original emphasis retained, (Ellis, 1992, p.356). REBT aligns with my philosophy of utilizing directive and active therapy since adolescents need to dynamic guidance to teach them to understand and analyze their maladaptive behaviors and beliefs, and then learn correct the patterns that do not serve them well.

PERSONAL THEORY ESSAY: RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY 5 I agree with the REBT Theory that humans, especially teenagers in my experience, can be both self-constructive and as well as self-defeating, but peer pressure and familial influences may have undue impact play on their suggestible natures (Wedding & Corsini, 2019). Teaching student / client’s that therapy is not to define them as inherently “good” or “bad” but to recognize and correct the dysfunctional behaviors. As a school counselor, through REBT Theory I will work with students to cultivate their understanding that “some of their acts are ‘good’ because they aid [their] goals and some of their behaviors are ‘bad’ (because they sabotage these goals)” (Ellis, 1992, p.350). In this way students can recognize their negative actions without damaging their self-esteem, which is inherently fragile in adolescence. REBT Theory emphasizes the importance of “unconditional acceptance, self and social interest, compassion for oneself and others, and gratitude” (D. J. Ellis, 2015a, as cited by Wedding & Corsini, 2019, p. 158). Through the use of REBT therapy, I hope to be able to foster my student’s / client’s self-acceptance so they will feel safe and comfortable enough to engage in the difficult work of changing their beliefs in order to modify their behavior. Although unconditional support is important, it is not enough for the clinician to support the client; the client must learn to support and love themselves, which means being able to function independently. As an educator, I firmly believe in the importance of homework and the value of student’s / client’s independent practice and application of a skill learned under direction. Likewise, REBT Theory “insists on homework assignments, desensitizing and deconditioning actions, both within and without the therapeutic sessions, and on other forms of active work on the part of the patient” (Ellis, 1962, p. 188). One of the most important things I have learned after seventeen years in education is that in order for

PERSONAL THEORY ESSAY: RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY 6 any skill mastery to be attained, the student / client must exert effort and really work. It is that striving that will enable them to understand when and how to independently apply the skills learned in therapy successfully as needed in the real world. That should be the goal of everyone working in education, for the student to leave and be able to execute the lessons they’ve been taught inside academia in the world beyond the safe and comfortable confines of the school. Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy is compatible with all of my beliefs and feels like comfortable position from which to begin my theoretical approach to school counseling. Why We Are the Way We Are REBT Theory asserts that we are the way we are because of the current beliefs (function and dysfunctional) that impact our current state, emotional condition, and behavioral actions. Albert Ellis’s Rational-Emotive Behavioral Therapy has a clear ABCDE approach, which is an excellent and easy way to explain to adolescents the connection between what happens in the world and how they behave consequently. According to this explanation of emotional or behavioral disturbances, the A) adversity event, evokes B) a belief which could be rational or irrational, ultimately resulting in C) consequences. If the belief is irrational, the consequence is an unhealthy emotional consequence (Wedding & Corsini, 2019). Unhealthy emotional consequences are emotional and behavioral disturbances, but these unhealthy and dysfunctional patterns can be purposefully corrected to result in more healthy and beneficial ABC patterns. In this way, REBT is optimistic, as am I, generally. While a person’s past may influence their present beliefs, their past does not define their present. No one can change the past, but through REBT clinicians can teach their clients how to alter the way they are today and what they will become tomorrow.

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PERSONAL THEORY ESSAY: RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY 7 Why We Do What We Do We do what we do because of what we believe, not because what has happened to us or what we have experienced. “Unfortunate A’s influence us; but our B's (Beliefs) about these A’s largely bring about disturbed C’s (Consequences), such as anxiety and depression. Therefore, to undisturbed ourselves, we can proceed to D — to actively and forcefully Dispute our self-defeating, masturbatory B’s. The ABCD Theory of emotional disturbance and how to change it is unusually phenomenalistic” (Ellis, 1992, p.353). I agree with REBT, that irrational beliefs may be shaped by experience, but maladaptive behaviors are produced by internal beliefs and not the external circumstances. Structure and Function of the Personality REBT puts considerable weight to the biological aspects of an individual’s personality. “REBT holds (1) that people are born constructivists and have considerable resources for human growth, (2) that they are in many important ways able to change their social and personal destinies, and (3) that they have powerful innate tendencies to think irrationally and to defeat themselves” (Wedding & Corsini, 2019, p. 167). However, due to the social nature of humans – and especially of the adolescent population I will be working with as a school counselor – consideration of the social aspects of personality will be critical to my work as a school counselor. As students’ / clients’ self-perception is strongly influenced by social norms and systemic values, their peers’ judgments may easily encourage or discourage various behaviors. Students / clients who prioritize the social evaluation over their own evaluation often suffer from “the emotional disturbance [that is] frequently associated with caring too much about what others think” (Wedding & Corsini, 2019, p. 168). Each student / client

PERSONAL THEORY ESSAY: RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY 8 must understand their choices control their behavior, and emphasizing each individual’s ability to control their behavior and thereby influence others’ perception of themselves is the self-actualization that is at the core of REBT. Psychologically, the “basic tenet of REBT is that emotional upsets — as distinguished from feelings of sorrow, regret, annoyance, and frustration — largely stem from irrational beliefs. These beliefs are irrational because they magically insist that something in the universe should, ought, or must be different from the way it is” (Wedding & Corsini, 2019, p. 169). The essential personality theory of REBT is that each person is responsible for and has the ability to control their emotional responses and thus determine their own behavior. REBT Therapy teaches clients to correlating the behavior as consequence with the belief as impetus. REBT is a theory centered on self-actualization and personality change. How Biology and Environmental Influences on Development Biologically, each person is born with the innate capacity for irrational thought and naturally occurring dysfunctional beliefs, which create mental and emotional disturbances. While there are essential social and environmental factors which may work to redress irrationalities such as self-musterbation, awfulizing, and catastrophizing, these are naturally occurring thought patterns based on errors in judgement, misinterpretation, or a lack of perspective. Ellis created REBT around the conviction that insight into dysfunctional beliefs and emotions is the only way to dispute or change the ABC patterns that direct humans’ actions. REBT therapy works “to help people minimize their emotional and behavioral disturbances, but it also encourages them to make themselves happier than they normally are and to strive for more self-actualization and human growth” (Ellis, 1994, as cited by Wedding & Corsini, 2019, p.173). Despite the natural, biological irrational tendencies,

PERSONAL THEORY ESSAY: RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY 9 humans can learn constructive, self-actualizing abilities to take command by exercising the power of choice and working towards Disputation. Ellis believed that environmental disturbances early in life do not lead to ongoing and present disturbances, but that the individuals own dysfunctional beliefs, feelings, and actions are the root of any ongoing disturbance (Ellis, 1991). This means that environmental factors may be instigating events which create the original conditions for mental disturbance, but those conditions are sustained or perpetuated by the individual’s beliefs, emotional responses, and behavioral actions. How Mental Problems Originate and How to Address Them In REBT, defective thinking is the origin of mental problems. A “neurotic disturbance occurs when individuals demand that their wishes be satisfied, that they succeed and be approved, that others treat them fairly, and that the universe be more pleasant” (Wedding & Corsini, 2019, p.173). It is the incongruence between the individual’s expectations and the conditions of reality causes emotional conditions that cause the individual to try (ineffectively and unsuccessfully) to correct this disparity. The Nature of Mental Health Mental health can be restored or retained through rational thought because it allows for the congruence between beliefs, actions, and consequences in a healthy and purposeful way. “In REBT, the terms belief and belief system refer to that aspect of human cognition that is responsible for the mental health and the psychological well-being of the individual” (Bernard & Terjesen, 2021, p.16). REBT proposes a binary model of maladaptive vs adaptive behaviors. Irrational beliefs are at the core of dysfunctional emotions resulting in maladaptive behaviors; conversely, rational beliefs promote functional emotions resulting in

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PERSONAL THEORY ESSAY: RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY 10 adaptive behaviors and good mental health and enhanced happiness (Kara et. al., 2023). According to Turner, 2016, REBT Theory is about developing the ability recognize and strengthen rational beliefs and metacognitively create healthy ABC patterns to augment and sustain mental health, as well as correct irrational beliefs and maladaptive behaviors. The Origins of Mental Illness According to REBT, for children and adolescents, absolutes such as “should” and “musts” are psychological core of the irrational beliefs that are the root of the emotional and behavioral problems (Bernard, 2004). REBT emphasizes choice and the individual’s free- will. Each person may willingly or unwillingly choose “the dysfunctional core philosophies and life styles” and ultimately “train themselves to feel panicked, depressed, self-hating, and enraged” (Ellis, 1992, p.353). This means that mental disfunction is neither entirely biological nor entirely environmental. People are “biologically and socially predisposed to needlessly upset themselves, […] to create dysfunctional thoughts, feelings, and behaviors; and they […] and they therefore can almost always choose to think, feel, and behave in less disturbed and more fulfilling ways” (Ellis, 1992, p.354). The root of disorders and mental disturbances in children and adolescents is irrational beliefs and flawed cognitive processes (Bernard & Terjesen, 2021). How to Identify Problems Assessments and Techniques Bernard & Terjesen, 2021, suggest that REBT clinicians begin assessment by distinguishing emotional, internal problems (such anxiety, frustration, or sadness) from behavioral and practical, external problems (such as social isolation, procrastination, or bullying). In order for children and adolescents to begin to understand their emotions and

PERSONAL THEORY ESSAY: RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY 11 consequences, Bernard & Terjesen, 2021, suggest using assessments techniques such as an “anger thermometer” when working with young clients, which would allow them to visually identify the intensity of their emotion like a high fever, and to correlate that emotion with the manifesting, behavioral consequences. Identifying the dysfunctional behaviors as negative outcomes can visually represent to the young client the correlation between emotions and actions, and serve as motivation to learn different patterns and replace them with rational thoughts and behaviors. Recommended techniques used in REBT therapy to recognize problematic ABC patterns include identifying the client’s cognitions and behaviors through a cost / benefits analysis, problem solving, mental restricting, psychoeducation, and the use of coping strategies (Oltean et.al., 2019), and “incisive logical analysis, clear-cut techniques (including behavior modification procedures), and directiveness and teaching by the therapist” (Wedding & Corsini, 2019, p.163). There are a variety of flexible techniques available, but each of them focuses on ways of altering the ABC patterns so that they result in healthful behaviors instead of dysfunctional behaviors. With each technique in REBT therapy, the clinician teaches the client to identify “unconsciously held attitudes, beliefs, and values and […] how to bring her self-defeating, hidden ideas to consciousness and actively dispute them” (Wedding & Corsini, 2019, p.172). This can be done through a semantic reworking of “should” and “musts”, roleplaying, behavior therapy techniques, among others. Some “[e]xperiential exercises are used to help clients overcome denial of their feelings and then work at REBT’s ABCDEs (‘D’ refers to disputation, and ‘E’ refers to effective new beliefs) to change their self-defeating emotions” (p.174). Group and individual therapy would be appropriate for working with students / clients in my role as a school counselor, all with the

PERSONAL THEORY ESSAY: RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY 12 goal of reaching a new “E” or new, effective pattern of thinking to produce adaptive behavior and achieve the desired outcomes. I firmly believe that therapy is most effective when it is practiced outside of the clinician’s office, and REBT active and directive therapy “specializes in giving clients homework assignments, particularly activity assignments that will serve as forms of in vivo desensitization” (Ellis, 1978, p. 329). Many of the REBT techniques involve various forms of homework, including “minimizing musturbation, perfectionism, grandiosity, and low frustration tolerance […] by using cognitive, emotive, and behavioristic procedures” (Wedding & Corsini, 2019, p.174). Homework is really the student’s / client’s independent use of a skill, once learned in therapy, to a real-world application without the guidance of the clinician. Guidance in Treating Mental Health Needs of My Student / Clients In REBT treatment, a school counselor should focus on helping the student / client cultivate different ABC patterns that suit their needs and abilities. Since adolescents have such differing levels of cognitive skills and self-awareness abilities, the adaptability of REBT is beneficial to clinicians. According to Bernard & Terjesen (2021), the most important skills adolescents need to develop are 1) alternative-solution thinking which is the ability to consider and implement different solutions in order to solve a practical problem, and 2) consequential thinking in which adolescents are able to predict the consequences (including behavioral, emotional, social, punitive, etc.) of their actions. Research suggests that attempts to teach children interpersonal, cognitive problem-solving skills can lead to reduced emotional upset and more adaptive behavior (e.g., Hess, 2014; Urbain & Kendall, 1980, as cited by Bernard & Terjesen, 2021, p.23). Once the student / client is able to conceptualize

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PERSONAL THEORY ESSAY: RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY 13 the chain of events that results in behavior, they can predict the outcome. If they can anticipate an outcome and understand their instigating beliefs, they can develop methods of coping with an activating event and can plan solutions that involve more healthful thinking so that they are able to purposefully determine their behaviors so as to achieve desired functional actions resulting in the desired consequences. Through REBT Therapy, I will be able to encourages my students / clients develop techniques to Dispute irrational Beliefs using a variety of “cognitive methods, such as self- help reports, coping self-statements, and bibliotherapy [because REBT] is far from being an intellectual or rationalist therapy but is truly rational-emotive, also strongly behavioral, and in many ways one of the most integrative of modern therapies” (Ellis, 1992, p.356). Since REBT Therapy does not have the goal of challenging systematic values, it is multiculturally inclusive and is flexible and adaptable each student / client can focus on challenging and the disputation of dysfunctional beliefs without making them feel they need to “correct” their core morals or ethics individual’s beliefs. This is important to me as a person and is critical to anyone practicing counseling in a public school setting. Implement Plans for my Students / Clients Through REBT I plan to help students / clients to understand the important distinctions between positive and negative beliefs and actively participate in developing more effective beliefs, acceptance, and tolerance. This is important not just for the individual student / client and their immediate peer group, but contributes to an overall school climate of acceptance and tolerance of others even in difficult situations. Using the Stages of Change Model, as a school counselor I will need to first make sure that students are in an appropriate stage to be ready to make effective modifications to their beliefs and

PERSONAL THEORY ESSAY: RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY 14 behaviors. The various stages include “(1) pre-contemplative; (2) contemplative; (3) preparation; (4) action; and (5) maintenance; Students in the pre-contemplative stage have no intention of changing and usually do not recognize the issue at hand as problematic. […] Once the student reaches the contemplative stage, he or she is beginning to perceive a problem and may be seeking help” (Bernard & Terjesen, 2021, p.114). The application of REBT Theory as a school counselor will be all about getting my students / clients to feel comfortable with me through developing a therapeutic alliance based on trust, self-reflective and self-accepting enough to be in a contemplative state in which they can examine their own ABC patterns, and then teaching them to develop the skills to independently engage in Disputation and forming New Effects, and thus complete the adaptive and healthy ABCDE patterns needed to sustain their own mental health that will serve them in their adolescence and throughout their adult lives.

PERSONAL THEORY ESSAY: RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY 15 References Bernard, M. E. (2004). The REBT therapist’s pocket companion for working with children and adolescents . New York: Albert Ellis Institute. Bernard, M., & Terjesen, M. D. (Eds.). (2021). Rational-emotive and cognitive-behavioral approaches to child and adolescent mental health: Theory, practice, research, applications . Springer International Publishing AG. Ellis, A. (1962). Reason and emotion in psychotherapy . Lyle Stuart. Ellis, A. (1978). Personality characteristics of rational-emotive therapists and other kinds of therapists. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15 (4), 329–332. https://doi- org.ezproxy.fhsu.edu/10.1037/h0086023 Ellis, A. (1991). Achieving self-actualization: The rational-emotive approach. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 6 (5), 1. Ellis, A. (1992). Secular humanism and rational-emotive therapy. The Humanistic Psychologist, 20 (2–3), 349–358. https://doiorg.ezproxy.fhsu.edu/10.1080/08873267. 1992.9986801 Kara, E., Türküm, A. S., & Turner, M. J. (2023). The effects of rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) group counselling program on competitive anxiety of student- athletes. Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 41 (2), 362- 379. https://doi.org/10. 1007/s10942-023-00497-z Oltean, H., Hyland, P., Vallières, F., & David, D. O. (2019). Rational beliefs, happiness and optimism: An empirical assessment of REBT’s model of psychological health. International Journal of Psychology, 54 (4), 495–500. https://doiorg.ezproxy. fhsu.edu/10.1002/ijop.12492

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PERSONAL THEORY ESSAY: RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY 16 Turner M. J. (2016). Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), Irrational and Rational Beliefs, and the Mental Health of Athletes. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1423. https://doi.org /10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01423 Underwood, L. A., & Dailey, F. L. L. (2016). Counseling adolescents competently . SAGE Publications, Incorporated. Wedding, D., & Corsini, R. J. (2018). Current Psychotherapies (11th ed.). Cengage Learning US. https://bookshelf.textbooks.com/books/9781337670555

Personal Theory Paper - FINAL COUN 835

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