HEALTHY FUNCTIONING AS APPLIES WITHIN REBT

Healthy functioning as Applies within REBT

Healthy functioning as Applies within REBT

Introduction

Although rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) has been tested with many disorders and has fared well in psychotherapy and counselling outcome studies, critics throughout the years have maintained that REBT places too little emphasis on the therapeutic relationship (David, & Belloiu, 2002, 93-131), and that rational is equated with being "cold, calculating, and certainly manipulative".

Consequently, according to Irish study for these as well as other reasons, REBT has often been described as an anti-humanistic theory. People who listen to the critics not only fail to distinguish between therapeutic conditions and therapeutic style, but they also practice a form of irrational thinking by over generalizing and assuming that all REBT practitioners are insensitive, display poor interpersonal skills, and must be as linguistically colourful as its founder Albert Ellis (Ellis, & Dryden, 2007, 11-13) . In reality, REBT does subscribe to many of the same premises that characterize a humanistic perspective. These premises are described in this article as they apply to working with children and adolescents.

Discussion

In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s in Britain, educational reformers began to apply principles of humanistic psychology to education. These reformers claimed that learning is facilitated when the student participates responsibly in the learning process, when learning is relevant, and that learning which involves feelings as well as intellect is the most lasting and pervasive. Increasing personal efficacy, developing more satisfying relationships with others, fostering self-reliance, increasing self-understanding and personal strength, and developing other aspects of ideal functioning characterized this approach to learning.

As studies carried out in Ireland reveal parallels which can be drawn between humanistic education and REBT. According to Ellis (2005), REBT therapists teach their clients how to overcome their emotional and behavioural problems to help them "actively seek and arrange for a fuller, happier, and more self-actualizing existence". Self-actualization is also an important goal of the humanistic approach to education. Humanistic education, like REBT, is concerned with the development of good attitudes and feelings or, as (DiLorenzo & Montgomery, 2007, 765-776) stated "it is the education of the emotions, the fostering of adequate emotional development as a legitimate and desirable goal of education". In addition, REBT emphasizes cognitive and behavioural development, which also is consistent with the holistic philosophy of humanism. As (Ellis, 2000, 97-106) stated, significant learning "makes a difference in the behaviour, the attitudes, and perhaps even the personality of the learner."

In a British setting Rational-emotive education (REE) incorporates the principles of REBT into a classroom or small group setting to facilitate emotional, behavioural, and cognitive change. Specifically, REE "involves teaching children to develop perspective, build healthier self-concepts, increase frustration tolerance, and establish a realistic locus of control".

A variety of British approaches, including role playing, didactic instruction, simulations, storytelling, games, and modelling, are used to convey the REBT concepts. The content of these programs emphasizes the following (Ellis, 2001, 21-23):

Feelings: Understanding the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviours is a critical ...