Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

In Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Debbie Joffe Ellis demonstrates this influential and impactful approach to psychotherapy.

Originated by Albert Ellis, rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) is based on the seemingly simple idea that it is not external events that make people happy or unhappy, but rather their internal thoughts about the events or themselves. In this approach, the therapist works to teach clients to identify and challenge their harmful irrational thinking and develop more beneficial and rational habits of thought. The shift toward more rational thinking in turn enables clients to behave more effectively and to create healthy emotions.

In this video, Dr. Joffe Ellis works with a woman in her 60s going through a divorce who is feeling stuck and hopeless. Dr. Joffe Ellis helps the client to recognize the difference between her thoughts and feelings and to begin to identify irrational thoughts and replace them with healthy and rational thoughts that will help her create new, positive, and realistic possibilities in her life.