Growth Through Reason: Verbatim Cases in Rational-Emotive Therapy

Rational-emotive psychotherapy (or rational-emotive therapy - RET, for short), has many unique features that differentiate it from most other forms of psychotherapy. One of these in particular will be emphasized by the cases that are included in this book: namely, that it is not only a relatively short-term procedure (taking from one to thirty sessions in most instances, where the conventional forms of therapy take considerably longer), but it usually fosters gains within gains. RET not only quickly reveals to the individual many important things of which he is, at best, only dimly aware; but it almost immediately begins to undercut and disembowel the conscious and unconscious irrational assumptions that make him and keep him emotionally disturbed. In the distinct majority of instances, RET begins to work promptly and to produce some beneficial results. Most of the cases in this book demonstrate this effect - that rational-emotive psychotherapy tends not only to work, but to have fairly immediate as well as long-range effects. WHY it works this well is, of course, open to various interpretations, many of which are addressed in this book. RET is a rigorously scientific discipline - meaning that it is based on and consistently uses the principles of empirical validation and logical analysis rather than the principles of magic, mysticism, arbitrary definition, religiosity, and circular thinking. Here, then, in this casebook are accounts fairly typical of RET procedures that are included to show what the rational-emotive therapist does to help his clients think more clearly and sanely about themselves, about others, and about the universe, and to indicate how they can thereby help themselves "emotionally." These cases by no means display all the many techniques that are frequently employed in RET; but they do highlight some of its main or most unique aspects.