Table Of ContentUsing Rational-Emotive
Therapy Effectively
A Practitioner's Guide
APPLIED CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY
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USING RATIONAL-EMOTIVE THERAPY EFFECTIVELY
A Practitioner's Guide
Michael E. Bernard
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Using Rational-Em.otive
Therapy Effectively
A Practitioner's Guide
EOITEO BY
MICHAEL E. BERNARD
The University af Melbaume
Parkville, Victaria, Australia
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Using rational-emotive therapy effectively : a practitioner's guide /
edited by Michael E. Bernard.
p. cm. — (Applied clinical psychology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Rational-emotive psychotherapy. I. Bernard, Michael Edwin,
1950- . II. Series.
[DNLM: 1. Psychotherapy, Rational-Emotive—methods. WM 420 U85]
RC489.R3U85 1991
616.89' 14—dc20
DNLM/DLC
for Library of Congress 91-3749
CIP
ISBN 978-0-306-43755-7 ISBN 978-1-4899-0641-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-0641-0
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1991
Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1991
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1991
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
Contribut ors
MICHAEL E. BERNARD, School of Education, University of Melbourne, Park-
ville, Victoria, Australia 3052, and Australian Institute for Rational-
Emotive Therapy, P.O. Box 1160, Carlton, Victoria, Australia 3053
ROBERT W. DAWSON, Australian Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy,
P.O. Box 1160, Carlton, Victoria, Australia 3053, and Community
Training Systems, 459 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Australia 3000
RAYMOND DIGIUSEPPE, Department of Psychology, St. John's University,
Jamaica, New York 11432, and Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy,
45 East 65th Street, New York, New York 10021
DOMINIC J. DIMATTIA, Department of Counseling and Human Resources,
University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, Connecticut 06602, and Institute
for Rational-Emotive Therapy, 45 East 65th Street, New York, New
York 10021
WINDY DRYDEN, Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths' College, Univer-
sity of London, New Cross, London, England SE14 6NW
ALBERT ELLlS, Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy, 45 East 65th Street,
New York, New York 10021
RUSSELL M. GRIEGER, 818 East High Street, Charlottesville, Virginia 22901
PAUL A. HAucK, 1800 Third Avenue, Suite 302, Rock Island, Illinois 61201
MARIE R. JOYCE, Centre for Family Studies, Australian Catholic University,
Oakleigh, Victoria, Australia 3168
v
vi CONTRIBUTORS
HEDWIN NAIMARK, Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy, 45 East 65th
Street, New York, New York 10021
MARY W. RADER, The Kennedy Family Center, 1235 East Monument Street,
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
SUSAN R. WALEN, Department of Psychology, Towson State University, and
Baltimore Center for Cognitive Therapy, 6303 Greenspring Avenue,
Baltimore, Maryland 21209
JANET L. WOLFE, Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy, 45 East 65th
Street, New York, New York 10021
PAUL J. WOODS, Department of Psychology, Hollins College, Roanoke, Vir-
ginia 24020
Preface
The initial conceptualization of this book was much more narrow than the
final product that has emerged. I started out believing that it would be
enlightening to have a group of acknowledged rational-emotive therapy
(RET) expert practitioners with well-established literary credentials write
about how they approach the problem of modifying dient irrationality.
Many RET practitioners of all levels of experience are, on the one hand,
enamored of the economy, the precision, and the accuracy of psychological
insight that RET theory offers, but they are, on the other hand, equally
frustrated by their own inability to "persuade" or otherwise change some
of the dients they work with more quickly or even at all. Indeed, dients
themselves frequently express the view that RET is illuminating, yet they
find themselves at the same time puzzled and perplexed by their inability
to make the substantial changes that RET invites.
It became dearer as I discussed the project with many of the contrib-
utors that to practice RET effectively requires more than just innovative
and persistent assessment and intervention techniques. For example, Rus-
sell Grieger expressed the view that more prerequisite work needs to be
done on the value and philosophical systems of dients-induding person-
al responsibility and the philosophy of happiness-before many dients
can show significant shifts in their thinking. Susan Walen raised the gener-
al issues of how effective RET can be in the treatment of biologically driven
affective disorders. Windy Dryden spoke of the importance of the thera-
peutic relationship and taking into account dient expectations in determin-
ing how to bring out the best in RET and in the dient. It became obvious to
me before I even read the chapters that RET practitioners were doing as
much "outside" traditional RET as "inside" RET to help dients to use RET
to make changes in their lives.
The organization of the chapters flows from general considerations in
improving RET's effectiveness to using RET with specific populations and
problems. In Chapter 1, Albert Ellis summarizes why RET is an effective
and efficient form of therapy and indudes many do's and don'ts in using
RET effectively. The second half of the chapter contains the transcript of an
vii
viii PREFACE
interview I conducted with EIlis covering the dient, therapist, and therapy
characteristics that he takes into account when he practices RET.
In Chapter 2, Russell Grieger, weIl-known RET author and practitioner
(Rational-Emotive Therapy: A Skills-Based Approach, with John Boyd; Handbook
of Rational-Emotive Therapy, with EIlis) presents a guide he uses with his
dients to ensure that they will unde rstand and follow the basic RET steps
to change, beginning with Step 1, "Committing Oneself to Change," and
ending with Step 6, "Going Forward." He argues that educating dients in a
structured way about the theory and practice of RET tremendously en-
hances most dients' ability to use RET effectively. He also views as an
important therapeutic task the education of dients about the concept of
personal responsibility.
In my opinion, Paul Woods, coeditor (with Russell Grieger) of the
Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive Behavior Therapy, has made tremen-
dous advances in the teaching methods that he uses with his clients to
bring about RET-induced change. In Chapter 3, Woods presents the im-
pressive array of RET visual-graphic aids that he uses with his dients and
the introductory RET explanations that he uses with his dients.
Robert Dawson is one of Australia's foremost RET practitioners and
trainers. In Chapter 4, Dawson presents a model he calls "REGIME,"
which he designed to improve RET's effectiveness. Rejecting what he
terms the "mad-dog disputing" model, Dawson illustrates the importance
of using basic microcounseling skills (e.g., empathy) in the relationship-
building phase of RET. He goes on to discuss the importance of therapist-
dient goal setting as aprerequisite to disputation and of using Arnold
Lazarus's multimodal theory to ensure that the dinician will not overlook
important assessment information.
Windy Dryden continues to be a prolific generator not only of books
on RET and aIlied cognitive-behavioral approaches, but also of creative and
innovative ideas. In Chapter 5, using dinical ca se material, Dryden offers
advice on the importance of the therapeutic aIliance and of being prepared
to make compromises with dients in order to bring about change.
One of RET's most prodigious thinkers is Raymond DiGiuseppe, au-
thor of countIess thought-provoking pieces on aspects of the philosophy,
theory, and practice of RET. In Chapter 6, he presents for the first time his
view of RET's unique hypothesis-driven form of assessment as weIl as
different methods for assessing dient irrationality. In Chapter 7, Di-
Giuseppe discusses the nature of cognitive disputation and, again, offers
the practitioner new techniques for identifying, challenging, and changing
clients' irrational thinking.
Paul Hauck has been writing books on RET for three decades (e.g., The
Rational Management of Children, 1967; Overcoming Worry and Fear, 1975; Brief
Counseling with RET, 1980; The Three Faces of Love, 1984). Always thinking of
and offering the RET practitioner new perspectives, in Chapter 8 he ad-
PREFACE ix
dresses the issue of how RET can be used by a dient to solve interpersonal
as distinct from intra personal problems and, specificaIly, how RET can help
dients get what they want from others.
Susan Walen is regarded by her contemporaries as a leading RET prac-
titioner-theoretician who is stimulated by model building, likes to write on
sex and women's issues, and is most weIl known as the senior author of the
popular RET training text The Practitioner's Guide to Rational-Emotive Therapy
(coauthored by Richard Wessler and Raymond DiGiuseppe). Chapter 9,
cowritten with Mary Rader, is the most moving and powerful of all the
chapters in this collection. It is affectively moving and at the same time
therapeutically challenging. Walen and Rader write poignantly of their
own experiences of severe depression and offer illuminating insights into
the phenomenology of the "disease" and the care with which RET needs to
be offered to severely depressed dients.
Janet Wolfe has for many years been responsible for taiIoring RET to
the particular characteristics of women. As early as 1975, when she pre-
sent ed RET as an effective feminist therapy, she has been a driving force
behind the development of RET for women. In Chapter 10, coauthored
with Hedwin Naimark, the latest advances in the application of RET to the
understanding and amelioration of "women's problems" are presented.
The person most responsible for the current increase in interest in the
use of RET in organizational settings is Dominic DiMattia. In Chapter 11,
he outlines ways in which rational effectiveness training can be used to
boost the performance of individuals working in organizations and in sales
training. He points out ways in which RET can be made more "user friend-
ly" to big business.
Finally, in Chapter 12, Marie Joyce and I update our insights into how
to use RET with younger populations, which we presented in our 1984
book Rational-Emotive Therapy with Children and Adolescents: Theory, Treat-
ment, Preventative Methods.
Let me now try to summarize briefly some of the major condusions
about how to improve the way in which RET is practiced.
The generalizations that folIoware based on a simple observation:
Certain clients require prerequisite work before they can profit from cognitive dis-
putation and the allied RET change techniques. There are many reasons for this
phenomenon, most of which have to do largely with dient characteristics.
Perhaps the most relevant of these to the practice of RET has to do with
dients' entering level of preparedness to change. Prochaska and DiCle-
mente (1986) pointed out that, whereas some dients are "ready for action,"
others are in a "precontemplation" stage. RET may weIl be best suited to
dients in the contemplation and action stages:
1. RET is best practiced when the practitioner has an in-depth under-
standing of the current RET theory of mental health problems, for it is this
theory that drives RET assessment and intervention procedures (see Ber
