Albert Ellis played a distinctive role in developing cognitive therapy for his clients. His original
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training was in traditional psychoanalysis but when he found that better overall progress was made when helping clients to change their thinking, his focus shifted. He developed a theory that turned into rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) based on the idea that "people contribute to their own psychological problems, as well as to specific symptoms, by the way they interpret events and situations" (Stone, 2010). He believed integrating therapy toward the interactions of cognitions, emotions, and behaviors was the most beneficial approach to psychological problems.
Principles and Assumptions …show more content…
Through this, the therapist helps clients develop a "rational philosophy of life" (Stone, 2010). Even after therapy has ceased the development of this philosophy helps to prevent them from returning to irrational thinking. Thus, BT has a wide range of disorders that it is used to treat such as: phobias, behavior-modification, relationships, depression, aggression, and addiction.
In behavioral therapy, the client-therapist relationship becomes central to the therapist's ability to correctly implement his/her techniques. Functioning as guides and teachers, they "tend to be active and directive and to function as consultants and problem solvers," taking the role of a friend or parental figure (Stone, 2010). The behavioral therapist continually assesses the client and strategizes to sets goals in agreement with them; once met, those goals are collaboratively evaluated between the therapist and client, giving a sense of “control” to the client.
In Beck's cognitive therapy (CT), the therapist uses a more collaborative relationship with the client than REBT. This lead to cognitive therapy being used for some of the same things like depression, and phobias, but usually used for more memory based issues such as