An Approach to Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy

[Juan and Yenan]

By Apostle Dr. Yenan Y. Perez

While reading the book, A Guide to Rational Living, I was able to observe Ellis relativistic religious view, and that he is selling his belief on how people ought to be if they “choose to.” In addition, his psychological point of view is being influenced by the biological point of view, where he says that sometimes people do not change because of genetic, or maybe I think, this can be because of the lack of results with his relativistic belief techniques. I do not deny the influence of genetics and/or neuron dysfunction, but I do not buy the “no cure for this” explanation. If people are suffering because of their faulty beliefs, why clinicians are so afraid of following absolute beliefs? Like as the one exposed in the Bible. The answer for me is, because of their irrational beliefs.
It was belief in the Word what healed me from my neurobiological and genetic dysfunction, belief that God’s power, interest and love for the sick and hurt is real. If I was healed from the sentenced of “forever sick,” healed from a neuron-chemical imbalance, healed from a hurting heart, and transform in my beliefs, no one can tell me that there is no cure from a biological imbalance/genetic. Doctors like Ellis are the ones that said that my problem was genetic and biological, and declared me as a Bipolar I, they were the ones that said: "once bipolar forever bipolar." What a big lie sustain by their unbelief. It is my prayer that more testimonies like mine, can be allow to be heard to God’s people.

However, the basics of REBT are a good way to help a person to discover his thought process and change their belief system, but without a clear road to follow (new belief); it is hard to achieve the change. What use can do to confront irrational beliefs with what I think it may be the correct belief? May I tell my clients Ellis believe it, or the Bible says it! Christian Counselors have a responsibility to educate themselves and carry out the truth that set people free.

REBT ABC
The A, B, and C in REBT stands for: A action or past event; B belief system, and C consequences or behavior; or thoughts, emotions and/or feelings, and behavior. These thoughts, emotions and feelings come from our belief and value system ingrained in our subconscious mind; it is what the Bible calls the heart and in Christian psychology, affectus. Our subconscious mind and/or heart are filled with beliefs and values that create schemas. Schemas are beliefs about oneself and the world with an emotional tone and/or expression attached.
When we think our thoughts are influenced by the information that we receive internally, these are memories and/or beliefs of past events, and externally by new events, provoking emotions and feelings that are expressed in our behavior. We process information in our thought process based in our belief system; these thoughts can be rational or irrational. The more you engage in irrational thought processes, the more you generate stronger negative emotional responses in your behavior.
Behavior is an expression of our choices of thinking and feeling patterns; these are rational or irrational thoughts with an emotional tone. In other words, behavior is a manifestation of our belief system, a result of an evaluation, interpretation and/or assumption in our thoughts process, based on a situation, person or thing, that involve feelings and/or emotions.
Irrational belief comes from distorted evaluations from past events, interpretation, assumptions and/or expectations about a present situation, person or thing. People that engage in cultivating irrational thought processes developed maladaptive patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. REBT tries to correct these distortions of thinking, feeling, and behaving by working with the belief system and the emotions generated by these believes.

Freud establishes that when our ego is threatened it developed defensive mechanisms to protect the ego from the anxiety that produces the threat. Anxiety is an expression of the emotion fear. Fear is a product of the stimulus of the unknown. Irrational fear comes out of our distorted evaluations and assumptions in our beliefs. However, it is Carl Jung who later will establish that the ego develop these defense mechanism to protect the “Self” from the treats that the ego perceives to his boundaries, in both cases repression is a major factor for these mechanism to appear.

The ego invests lots of energy to protect the self and deal with the anxiety and/ or fear. Trough repression and defense mechanism such as: projection, displacement, reaction formation among others, the ego tries to discards everything that can damage his control/will. When the ego feels threatened, the defense mechanisms activate and reflect in thoughts, emotions and behaviors that are irrational.

The ego is that part of the psyche responsible for self-preservation and for dealing with the demands of reality whose primary job, according to Freud, is to satisfy the id in an efficient and dependable manner. The ego controls the id primarily through repression and anxiety. In circumstances involving repression, the ego simply drives id impulses out of awareness and then concentrates on thoughts that are incompatible with the repressed impulse. Although repression is closely related to anxiety, it is the second that prompts the ego to control the id. (Hogan & Smither, 55-57)

The Irrational Thought Process
Your memories are a recollection of past images that reached to a conclusion of yourself, the world, and who is God. These recollections of image are the impressions of your belief.

Sustained feelings usually stem from your conscious and unconscious thinking, you rarely feel glad or sad just because of outside events. Rather, you make yourself happy or miserable by your perceptions, attitudes, and thoughts about these outside events. (Ellis 39)

Ellis says on page 38 of the book, A Guide to Rational Living that you have a choice, you can choose to think what you want to think and feel. Later on, page 127 he says that you can choose, but there is not such thing as having freewill.

The idea that we can label others as bad people springs from the doctrine of freewill. Although we cannot say that humans have no free choice whatsoever, and although REBT says that, they can often choose to upset or not upset themselves, they still have relatively little free will. As many studies have show, humans have genetics or inborn tendencies to behave in certain ways. (Ellis 127)

Based in Ellis statements, people have choices, and they can choose, but they have ‘relatively little freewill.’ For me he is trying to define the deceptive mind in a politically correct manner. What happens with the irrational mind, addictive mind and/or deceptive mind, select the title that you like, is exactly what Ellis is not able to express clearly because of his faulty beliefs, lack of freewill. The deceptive mind has the faculty to choose, can choose but lack of freewill, the ability and/or control to choose what is good. If a client’s lack of freewill, how can you tell him/her, you need to choose. If the client lacks of freewill, who will chose for him or her. You need to contemplate with the client the possibility that his/her thinking is incorrect. This is what Ellis calls insight.
Lack of insight is a mind that is in denial and dominated by defensive mechanism, with no ego-observational skills, a deceptive mind that have a poor use of freewill. Through contemplation, counselor and client need to explore the client-thinking pattern and identifying the lies with the Bible as a guide of real beliefs. Helping the client to develop insight #2: the possibility that I am wrong and in need to explore new realities. Later insight #3 the revelation that will lead to discover the lie, accepting that there is a different way, thus, preparation to change, and surrendering my will to God’s will.

The irrational thinking process focus in distorted absolutes of how people, situations or things ought to be, must be or should be, in other words distorted expectations, unrealistic concerned, criticisms, blaming, distorted emotions and defense mechanisms (Ellis 48).

[Bogdan Wrzesinski]

Thank You,... I found this informative and helpful... Much appreciated, and timely,...

1 John 2:20 ¶But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.