The Rational Practitioner: The Sport and Performance Psychologist’s Guide To Practicing Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy

307 Pages·2022·7.209 MB·English

by  Martin Turner

The Rational Practitioner
Sport and exercise psychology has grown exponentially as an academic discipline and
profession in the past decade. The dominant approach to sport and exercise psychology
practice is the cognitive-behavioural approach that stems from cognitive behavioural
therapies (CBTs). CBTs are the most widely used counselling approaches in the world.
Through this approach developed rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT), a
cognitive-based theory and therapy that incorporates many of the techniques that defnes
CBTs to this day (e.g., cognitive restructuring, rehearsal, imagery, self-talk).
The Rational Practitioner: The Sport and Performance Psychologist’s Guide to Practicing Rational Emotive
Behaviour Therapy develops innovative concepts that are particular to the performance milieu,
whilst sticking rigorously to core theory. This book is fundamental to applied practice and
offers practitioners, scholars, and researchers of sport psychology and REBT, theoretical and
detailed practical information from an experienced and qualifed sport and exercise
psychologist.
This book provides a comprehensive portrayal of REBT applied within sport and
performance and is key reading for current and trainee sport and exercise psychologists, but
also to psychologists from other disciplines who wish to work with athletes and other
performers.
Martin Turner, PhD is a Reader in Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University.
He is a BPS Chartered and HCPC Registered Sport and Exercise Psychologist, and an
Associate Fellow of the BPS. He holds an Advanced Practicum Certifcate in REBT from the
Albert Ellis Institute, who also awarded him the Albert Ellis Award for research in 2018 and
2020. He also received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the U.K. Association for
REBT. As a practitioner, he has worked within professional football and cricket, as well as
within a vast range of sports both at team and individual levels. He also works with
non-sporting organisations applying performance psychology to enhance wellbeing and
performance. He is currently lead psychologist for Scarlets Rugby.

The Rational
Practitioner
The Sport and Performance
Psychologist’s Guide to Practicing
Rational Emotive Behaviour
Therapy
Martin Turner
Cover image: Mr. Casper Essam
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Martin Turner
The right of Martin Turner to be identifed as authors of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identifcation and explanation without intent to
infringe.
ISBN: 978-1-032-06044-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-06040-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-20043-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003200437
Typeset in Baskerville
by codeMantra
This book is dedicated to my friend Dr. Andrew Wood.

Contents
List of Figures ix
Foreword xi
Illustrations Credit xiii
Acknowledgements xv
Praise xvii
Introduction 1
1 Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy 12
2 The GABCDE framework 22
3 The interdependent GABC(DE) framework 52
4 The practitioner and the client 74
5 Consequences (C) 91
6 Adversity or activating event (A) 103
7 A–C connection vs. B–C connection 113
8 Goals (G) 122
9 The nature of beliefs (B) 137
10 The rational and irrational beliefs (B) 166
11 Assessing beliefs (B) 187
12 Disputation (D) 198
13 Effective new beliefs (E) 218
14 Closing remarks 241
Afterword 245
References 247
Index 279

List of Figures
1.1 The GABCDE framework of REBT 16
2.1 D iagrammatic representation of the GABCDE framework. The dotted line between
GAB and C refects pre-REBT and the move to D and E from B refects the REBT process 23
2.2 Diagrammatic representation of irrational GABC 26
2.3 Diagrammatic representation of rational GABC 26
2.4 An example of REBT and CAT integration 32
2.5 Process model of emotion regulation (adapted from Gross & Thompson, 2007) 33
2.6 The alignment between the REBT GABCDE framework and Gross’ process model
of emotion regulation (Gross’ process model of emotion regulation is adapted from
Gross & Thompson, 2007) 34
2.7 Specifc REBT vs. general REBT 46
2.8 (a) Rational/irrational frequency dials. (b) High rationality and low irrationality on the
rational/irrational frequency dials 49
3.1 A diagrammatic representation of the interdependent GABC(DE) framework. The
dotted line between G and C refects the more distal relationship between these two
elements, because it is the relevance and incongruence elicited by A in relation to G
that gives rise to negative emotion, not G itself 55
3.2 Simplifed interdependent GABC(DE) framework 67
4.1 (a) Lower self-integration with rationality. (b) Greater self-integration with rationality 81
4.2 Example GABCDE assessment sheet from working with a skeet shooter 83
4.3 An example of a client-facing REBT-based psychology programme 89
5.1 The articulated GABC framework incorporating Ellisian and Lazarusian concepts (in
part adapted from David et al., 2002, 2005; Dryden, 2012a, 2018; Dryden & Branch,
2008; Smith & Lazarus, 1993) 97
6.1 The performance content areas (A themes) and their descriptions 105
6.2 The performance content areas (A themes) and four core irrational beliefs 106
6.3 A brief analysis of Emily 111
7.1 Stress level caused by stimulus vs. stimulus plus cognitive appraisals and irrational
beliefs (adapted from Monroe & Kelley, 1997) 117