An elevator pitch is a brief description of a concept in a way such that the listener grasps the presented information in a relatively short period of time. Because I tend to be a bit verbose when explaining things, herein I’ll attempt a Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) elevator pitch to practice a shorter explanation of my preferred psychotherapeutic modality.
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, or REBT, is a form of psychotherapy developed by the late psychologist Albert Ellis. Once having practiced psychoanalysis, Ellis realized his clients weren’t getting better.
Therefore, he drew upon a number of philosophical and theoretical concepts to establish REBT. For instance, to create the ABC Model, Ellis used Stoic philosopher Epictetus’ notion, “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
To illustrate this, think about the last time someone cut you off in traffic. What happened? Did you get upset when some inconsiderate driver put your life in danger? Maybe you were afraid. Perhaps you were angry.
Many people think in action-consequence terms of this sort. You’re cutoff in traffic; that’s the action. And as a result, you experience an emotion, body sensation, or behave in a particular way; that’s the consequence.
However, keep in mind the Epictetian notion—it’s not being cut off in traffic that causes the consequence, it’s how you react to the event that matters. In particular, Ellis noted that a belief-consequence connection underlies how we respond.
Someone cuts you off—that’s the activating event. You assume some variety of demandingness along the lines of, “This shouldn’t happen”—that’s the belief. And as a result of your rigid assumption, you experience an unpleasant feeling (emotion or sensation) or behave in an unproductive fashion—that’s the consequence.
Ellis maintained that our irrational beliefs are what cause our outcomes. Aside from demandingness, we awfulize about matters, use low frustration tolerance—think, “I can’t stand it,” and misapply global evaluations of ourselves, others, and life.
Rather than self-disturbing over our unhelpful beliefs, the ABC Model teaches people to dispute these assumptions so that we may achieve effective new beliefs. You know, this isn’t a comfortable process that helps you feel better.
REBT practitioners are more concerned with helping people get better. Personally, I prefer what I call the “short cut” to reducing suffering—unconditional acceptance.
While I could go through a fairly elaborate process of challenging my unfavorable beliefs, I could instead admit truth—that I’m a fallible human being, so are others, and so is life. You with me on this?
Since I’m imperfect, I practice unconditional self-acceptance. Because the motorist who cut me off in traffic is fallible, I practice unconditional other-acceptance. And since life itself isn’t a flawless experience, I practice unconditional life-acceptance.
You may ask, “Unconditional? Is that even possible?” Yes and yes. You see, when we place inflexible conditions on ourselves, others, and life, these rigid requirements will inevitably be violated.
For instance, you may say, “I’ll accept this blabbering therapist only if he hurries up and gets to the flippin’ point!” And if I say, “But wait…there’s more,” your breached condition would create an activating event about which you may use some unhealthy belief like, “I’m gonna punch him, because I can’t stand hearing about REBT!”
You see? For me, unconditional acceptance is the short cut to reducing suffering, because you could unconditionally accept that while you’d rather I wasn’t as passionate about REBT as I clearly am, and as annoying as I may be, it isn’t as though you haven’t annoyed others at some point in your past.
Boom! That’s REBT. The ABC Model, unconditional acceptance, and Stoic practice of tolerance. Oh, look! We’ve arrived at the first floor.
If you’re looking for a provider who works to help you 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 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 helping you to feel better, I want to help you get better!
Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW
References:
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