On Feelings... Again
When providing psychoeducational lessons on Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), my preferred psychotherapeutic modality of personal and professional care for mental, emotional, and behavioral health (collectively “mental health”), I frequently address the topic of feelings.
REBT uses the ABC model to illustrate that when an undesirable Action occurs and you Believe an unhelpful narrative about the event, it’s your unfavorable assumption, not the occurrence itself, that causes an unpleasant Consequence. This is known as distress or disturbance.
Noteworthy, with virtually any undesirable Action that occurs, it’s your unfavorable Beliefs which cause unpleasant distress or disturbance (Consequence). Given this framing of self-distress and self-disturbance, it’s worth noting that one REBT source states (page 71):
REBT conceptualizes [distress] as healthy even though it is intense. Other approaches to therapy have as their goal the reduction of the intensity of negative emotions. They take this position because they do not keenly differentiate between healthy negative emotions (distress) and unhealthy negative emotions (disturbance).
Now, REBT keenly distinguishes between healthy distress and unhealthy disturbance. Healthy distress stems from your rational beliefs about a negative activating event [Action], whilst disturbance stems from your irrational beliefs about the same event.
Complete elimination of distress is highly unlikely in an impermanent and uncertain world, wherein people conceptually suffer, struggle, and battle with, or merely experience hardship. Still, individuals often make matters worse for themselves by disturbing about such instances.
In particular, there are four predominate irrational beliefs which people often use to distress or disturb themselves: global evaluations, low frustration tolerance, awfulizing, and demandingness. When contemplating these unproductive scripts, think of the acronym GLAD.
It’s worth noting that, as expressed herein, GLAD narratives cause feelings. Now, I often find it worthwhile to clarify what feelings represent in REBT, rather than in common parlance. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), a feeling is thusly defined:
1. a self-contained phenomenal experience. Feelings are subjective, evaluative, and independent of the sensations, thoughts, or images evoking them. They are inevitably evaluated as pleasant or unpleasant, but they can have more specific intrapsychic qualities, so that, for example, the affective tone of fear is experienced as different from that of anger.
The core characteristic that differentiates feelings from cognitive, sensory, or perceptual intrapsychic experiences is the link of affect to appraisal. Feelings differ from emotions in being purely mental, whereas emotions are designed to engage with the world.
2. any experienced sensation, particularly a tactile or temperature sensation (e.g., pain, coldness).
I part with the APA’s primary definition of feeling as a mental – yet, not emotional or sensory – experience, as it actually aligns more with a hunch, thought, suspicion, intuition, belief, or so on. Also, when receiving formal REBT training, I was taught that feelings regard one of two results.
A feeling relates to either 1. emotion (i.e., joy, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, surprise, etc.) or 2. sensation (e.g., stiffened jaw). Thus, if the word “feel” (or any derivative thereof) can be replaced with “hunch,” “thought,” or “belief” (or any derivative thereof), it’s not a feeling.
Ergo, it’s improper to say something such as “It feels like this is pedantry,” because what one typically intends on communicating is “It seems [gives the impression of being] like this is pedantry.” Noteworthy, there’s a foundation for quibbling with this sort of linguistic misuse.
In REBT, unfavorable Beliefs which cause unpleasant Consequences are rigorously Disputed. However, feelings (i.e., emotions and sensations) aren’t challenged. Thus, proper use of feelings-based language affords a person the opportunity to examine the Beliefs which one uses.
Additionally, from a psychological standpoint, people distress or disturb themselves using a Belief-Consequence (B-C) connection. Of course, this isn’t to suggest that in the context of the naturalistic or physical world there is no Action-Consequence (A-C) connection.
Addressing how people upset themselves with unhelpful attitudes, the ABC model incorporates Disputation of unproductive philosophies of life in order to explore Effective new beliefs. Whereas rigid beliefs cause self-disturbance, flexible beliefs result in an un-disturbed condition.
Frequently, when providing professional care for mental health, I hear clients misusing the terms “feel,” “feeling,” and “feelings.” Notably, the APA’s primary definition of feeling unhelpfully contributes to the misuse of these terms. Herein, I’ve sought to remedy this matter.
Using the ABC model framework, feelings are merely the consequences of beliefs. However, feelings don’t cause consequences. They are the actual consequences! Now, I invite you to consider the argument I’ve outlined herein. How you “feel” about it depends on your beliefs.
If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.
As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.
At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!
Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW
Photo credit, Designed by Magnific, fair use
References:
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