COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR
THERAPY
Note taken from Key Reference Text :
Theory & Practice of Counseling & Psychotherapy,
Gerald Corey 9th Ed.
Note taking by ONG SING YEE (KB, PA)
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
• Key Concepts
• The Therapeutic Process
• Application: Therapeutic
Techniques and Procedures
SEMINAR OBJECTIVE – Key
Concepts
• VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
• VIEW OF EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCE
• ABC FRAMEWORK
✓Understand and able to apply the key concepts on:
❖3 assumptions on human nature from REBT
perspective
❖4 emotional disturbances
❖ABC Framework
❖Philosophical restructuring
KEY CONCEPTS
VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
• Human beings are born with a potential for both rational, or
straight thinking and irrational or crooked thinking.
• People have predispositions for self preservation, happiness,
thinking and verbalizing, loving, communcation with others
and growth and self actualization.
• They also have propensities for self destruction, avoidance of
thought, procrastination, endless repetition of mistakes,
superstition, intolerance, perfectionism and self blame and
avoidance of actualizing growth potentials.
• Encourage to accept themselves even though they will make
mistakes.
KEY CONCEPTS
View of Emotional Disturbance
• Learn irrational beliefs from significant others during childhood and then re create these irrational
beliefs throughout our life time.
• People do not need to be accepted and loved, even though this may be highly desirable.
• Therapists teach clients how to feel sad.
• A major goal of the REBT therapist is to encourage clients to be less emotionally reactive.
• Insists blame is the core of most emotional disturbances.
• We had better stop blaming ourselves and others and learn to fully and unconditionally accept
ourselves despite our imperfections.
• Dogmatic shoulds, musts, oughts, demands and commands.
• 3 basic musts (irrational beliefs)
- I must do well and win the approval of others for my performances or else I am no good.
- Other people must treat me considerately, fairly, kindly, and in exactly the way I want them to
treat me. If they don’t, they are no good and they deserve to be condemned and punished.
- I must get what I want, when I want it, and I must not get what I don’t want. If I don’t get what I
want, it is terrible, I can’t stand it, and life is no good for depriving me of what I must have.
KEY CONCEPTS
A B C Framework (pg 269)
• Cognitive restructuring is a central technique of cognitive therapy that teaches people
how to improve themselves by replacing irrational beliefs with rational beliefs.
• Philosophical restructuring to change our dysfunctional personality
▪ Fully acknowledging that we are largely responsible for creating our own emotional
problems
▪ Accepting the notion that we have the ability to change these disturbances
significantly
▪ Recognizing that our emotional problems largely sterm from irrational beliefs
▪ Clearly perceiving these beliefs
▪ Seeing the value of disputing such self defeating beliefs
▪ Accepting the fact that if we expect to change we had better work hard in emotive and
behavioral ways to counteract our beliefs and the dysfunctional feelings and actions
that follow
▪ Understanding what the rational alternative to these irrational beliefs are
▪ Practicing REBT methods
SEMINAR OBJECTIVE – The
Therapeutic Process
• THERAPEUTIC GOALS
• THERAPIST’S FUNCTION AND ROLE
• CLIENT’S EXPERIENCE IN THERAPY
• RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THERAPIST AND CLIENT
✓Understand and able to apply the key concepts on:
❖2 main therapeutic goals
❖4 therapists’ function and role
❖2 main client’s experience
❖Relationship between therapist and client
THE THERAPEUTIC PROCESS
Therapeutic Goals
• General goal of teaching clients how to separate the
evaluation of their behaviors from the evaluation from
themselves – their essence and their totality – and how to
accept themselves in spite of their imperfections.
• Help clients differentiate between realistic and unrealistic
goals and also self defeating and self enhancing goals.
• A basic goal is to teach clients how to change their
dysfunctional emotions and behaviors into healthy ones.
• The main goals of REBT to assist clients in the process of
achieving unconditional self acceptance and unconditional
other acceptance.
THE THERAPEUTIC PROCESS
Therapist’s Function and Role
• 1st step, to show clients how they have incorporated
many irrational absolute. The therapist dispute.
• 2nd step, to demonstrate how clients are keeping their
emotional disturbances active by continuing to think
illogically and unrealistically
• Helping clients modify their thinking and minimize their
irrational ideas.
• The therapeutic process is to challenge clients to develop
a rational philosophy of life.
THE THERAPEUTIC PROCESS
Client’s Experience in Therapy
• Psychotherapy is viewed as a re-educative process, clients learn
how to apply logical thought, participate in experiential exercises
and carry out behavioral homework as a way to bring about
change.
• Focuses on clients’ experiences in the present.
• Emphasized here and now experiences and clients’ present ability
to change the patterns of thinking and emoting that they
constructed earlier.
• Clients are expected to actively work outside the therapy sessions.
• Homework is carefully designed and agreed upon and is aimed at
getting clients to carry out positive actions that induce emotional
and attitudinal change.
THE THERAPEUTIC PROCESS
Relationship between Therapist and Client
• A warm relationship between therapist and client is not
required
SEMINAR OBJECTIVE – Application
: Therapeutic Techniques and
Procedures
• THE PRACTICE OF RATIONAL EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR
THERAPY
✓Understand and able to apply the key concepts on:
❖5 cognitive methods
❖4 emotive techniques
❖5 behavioral techniques
APPLICATION : THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUES AND PROCEDURES
The Practical of REBT
• Multimodal and integrative
• Use a number of different modalities to dispel these self
defeating cognitions and to teach people how to acquire
a rational approach to living
APPLICATION : THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUES AND PROCEDURES
Cognitive Methods
• Incorporate a persuasive cognitive methodology
• REB relies heavily on thinking, disputing, debating, challenging,
interpreting, explaining and teaching
• Disputing irrational beliefs- therapist actively disputing clients’ irrational
beliefs and teaching them how to do this challenging on their own.
• Doing cognitive workshop – REBT self help form
• Bibliotherapy – advantages : cost effectiveness, widespread availability,
and the potential of reaching a broad spectrum of populations.
• Changing one’s language
• Psycho educational methods
APPLICATION : THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUES AND PROCEDURES
Emotive Techniques
• Unconditional acceptance, rational emotive role playing, modeling, rational
emotive imagery, and shame attacking exercises.
• Clients are taught of unconditional self acceptance.
• Main purpose is to dispute clients’ irrational beliefs.
• Rational emotive imagery : a form of intense mental practice designed to establish
new emotional patterns. Rational emotive Imagery (REI)
• Using humor
• Role playing. Has emotive, cognitive, and behavioral components and the
therapist often interrupts to show clients what they are telling themselves to
create their disturbances and what they can do to change their unhealthy feelings
to healthy ones.
• Shame attacking exercise. Rationale underlying is that emotional disturbance
related to the self is often characterized by feelings of shame, guilt, anxiety and
depression. Aim at increasing self acceptance and mature responsibility.
APPLICATION : THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUES AND PROCEDURES
Behavioral Techniques
• Standard behavior therapy procedures, especially
operant conditioning, self management principles,
systematic desensitization, relaxation techniques and
modeling
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