1. ALBERT ELLIS
Rational Emotive
Behavior
Therapy
“The best years of your life are the ones
in which you decide your problems are
your own. You do not blame them on
your mother, the ecology, or the
president. You realize that you control
your own destiny.”

2. Meet Albert Ellis
(1913-2007)

3. Early Life of Albert Ellis
• Albert Ellis was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1913
and was raised in New York.
• He was the eldest of three children.
• He suffered numerous health related issues as a child,
which includes a devastating kidney disease, hospitalized
for tonsillitis; a severe streptococcal infection which
needed emergency surgery.
• He was hospitalized eight different times between the
ages of five and seven years, one of which lasted nearly a
year.

4. Early Life of Albert Ellis
• He suffered from health problems his entire life. Diagnosed of
insulin dependent diabetes at age 40.
• His health issues diverted his attention from sports to writing
books.
• His parents were unaffectionate and unsupportive.
• His father was never available, always away on business trips
during his early childhood.
• His father experienced minimal success in his business
ventures.
• He described his mother as a self absorbed woman with
bipolar disorder.

5. Early Life of Albert Ellis
• According to Ellis his mother was a “bustling chatter box
who never listened.”
• She expounded her opinions on subjects but rarely
provided a factual bases for her views.
• The strife in his family led to divorce between his parents
when he was 12 years old.
• Ellis took the burden to raise and care for his 2 younger
siblings.

6. Early Life of Albert Ellis
• The Great Depression mandated all three siblings to find
work.
• However, his rough upbringing did not stop his
determination for success.
• He made the best out of his childhood by using his head
and becoming, in his own words, “a stubborn and
pronounced problem-solver.”

7. Early Life of Albert Ellis
• Exaggerated fears of speaking
in public.
• He was extremely shy around
women during his adolescence.
• At 19, he was already thinking
like a cognitive behavioral
therapist.
• He encouraged himself to
speak to 100 women in the
Bronx Botanical Gardens and
this in turn helped him
overcome his fear of rejection
by women.

8. Education & Early Career
• He had the vision of becoming The Greatest American
Novelist.
• Planned to study accounting in high school and college,
make enough money to retire at age 30 and write without
the pressure of financial need.
• The Great Depression thwarted his plans, but he was able
to finish college.
• He earned a degree in business administration in 1934
from the City University of New York.

9. Education & Early Career
• His first business career was a pants-matching business
which he started with his brother.
• They scourged the New York garment circle-lines for
pants to match costumers still-usable coats.
• He became the personnel manager for a gift and novelty
firm in 1938.
• He devoted most of his spare time to writing short stories,
plays, novels, comic poetry, essays, and non-fiction
books.

10. Education & Early Career
• He wrote non-fiction books because he realized his future
did not lie on writing fiction, which helped him to
promote what he called the “Sex-family revolution.”
• He earned his master’s degree at the Teachers College,
Columbia University.
• Earned his Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology with a
focus on Psychoanalysis.
• Earned his Ph.D. and taught at New York University and
Rutgers University.
• He wrote several books.

11. Early Theoretical Contri-
bution to Psychotherapy
• He was married twice and
neither produced him
children.
• His numerous love interests
were short lived and
conflicted relationships.
• These conflicts in his love
affair helped him with the
background necessary to
write numerous books and
articles about human
sexuality.

12. Contribution to Psycho-
therapy, Cont’d
• Karen Horney, Alfred Adler, Eric Fromm, and Harry
Stack-Sullivan are his greatest influence, played a role in
shaping his psychological models.
• In 1953, he began advocating a more direct and active
type of psychotherapy, which he called Rational Therapy
and later renamed it the Rational Emotive Behavior
Therapy.

13. What situations lead to
the use REBT?
• Assist an individual by shedding light on dysfunctional
beliefs → configure them into more practical, useful
beliefs
• Help an individual to conquer defeatist thoughts in order
to allow for achievements
• Encourage one to assume adaptive thoughts in place of
irrationality
“Thought is action in rehearsal.”
Sigmund Freud

14. What are irrational
beliefs (iB)?
Rational Beliefs
• Logical: “It is not helpful and may
be harmful to become overly
distraught.” “Facing and solving
tough problems is rewarding.” “No
matter how evil an act, there are
reasons for it.”
• Practical: “No one can be perfect.”
“It is not possible for everyone to
love and approve of us.”
• Generate functional results:
“Perfection is not a goal.” “You
can’t change the past, but you can
learn from it.”
Irrational Beliefs
I. Demanding
II. Awfulizing
III. Low Frustration
Tolerance
IV. People Rating
“Be careful about what
you think. Your thoughts
run your life.”
Proverbs 4:23

15. 12 Irrational Beliefs: The
idea that…
1) It is a dire necessity for adults to be
loved/approved by every significant
other for everything you do
2) Certain acts are awful/wicked, and that
people who perform such acts should be
severely damned
3) It is horrible when things are not the way
we like them to be
4) Human misery is invariably externally
caused and is forced on us by outside
people and events
5) If something is or may be
dangerous/fearsome, we should be
terribly upset and endlessly obsess about
it
6) It is easier to avoid than to face life
difficulties and self-responsibilities
7) We absolutely need something other,
stronger or greater than ourselves on
which to rely
8) We should be thoroughly competent,
intelligent and achieving in all
possible respects
9) Because something once strongly
affected our life, it should indefinitely
affect it
10) We must have certain and perfect
control over things
11) Human happiness can be achieved by
inertia and inaction
12) We have virtually no control over our
emotions and that we cannot help
feeling disturbed about things
“For there is nothing either good or bad, but
thinking makes it so.”
Hamlet: Act II, Scene 2

16. Where do irrational
beliefs originate?
• Childhood: Parents provide the foundation of our belief
system; children are defenseless and subject to whatever
their parents say to them.
• Environment: We are always subject to the environment.
The events that occur in one’s life are situations that we
unknowingly allow ourselves to be affected by.
Unconsciously, we allow things to be negatively reinforced.
As we grow older, Ellis believed that we permit these
incidents to dictate our behavior. The nature of that
environment will lead a defeated person further into deficit
thinking.

17. ABC’s of REBT
• [A] Activating event/adversity: Situation that occurs
• [B] Beliefs: Rational (rB) or irrational (iB) regarding the
situation
• [C] Consequence: Emotional, physiological, or
behavioral response
“You are today where your thoughts
have brought you…

18. D & E of REBT
• [D] Disputation: Challenge negative or unhelpful
thoughts
• [E] Effective New Beliefs: Replacement of negativity
with more useful thoughts
…You will be tomorrow where your
thoughts take you.”
James Allen

19. Learn your ABCs

20. Methods of REBT
• Cognitive Techniques: Strategically changing negative
thoughts.
• Behavioral Techniques: Learning coping mechanisms to
combat stressful situations.
• Emotive Techniques: Exploration of feelings to modify
thoughts.

21. Who can be helped by
REBT?
o Depression & mood
disorders
o Aggressiveness, anger
o Anxiety
o Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder
o Perfectionism
Surprisingly,
• Eating Disorders
• Attention
Deficit/Hyperactivity
Disorder
• Relationship
difficulties,
couples/family therapy

22. More Contributions of
Albert Ellis
BOOKS:
• “How to Control Anger Before
it Controls You”
• “The Road to Tolerance:
Philosophy of Rational
Emotive Behavior Therapy”
• “The Secret to Overcoming
Verbal Abuse: Getting off the
Emotional Rollercoaster and
Regaining Control of Your
Life”
• Ellis wrote more than 80 books
and 1,200 articles!
ALSO:
The Albert Ellis Institute!