Albert Ellis, the ‘grandfather’ of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy suggests that the world is divided into 5% psychotics, 10% personality disorders and the rest of us are part of the 6 billion nice neurotics !

Cognitive psychology is the youngest of the psychology’s and started in the 50’s. Out of it came cognitive therapy, recognized today as one of the most effective therapeutic interventions. 

Albert Ellis’s work in formulating and developing REBT for clinical use, was the forerunner of all subsequent developments in cognitive therapy.

If you wish to learn more about REBT click here                    Otherwise please read on.

Of vital importance in all therapies is that the therapist is  well trained, motivated, professional, confidential, governed by a code of ethics, answerable to a complaints procedure, has time for you and your problems and is supervised and properly accredited.

David Baker is all of these things.  He is quickly able to use his experience to establish a therapeutic alliance, focus on the clients problems and bring the psycho-educational methodology in REBT, to help them deal with problems and reach their own goals.  Whilst you will find David empathetic and enthusiastic, this therapy is not about ‘tea and sympathy’ – its about giving you the ‘tools’ to better deal with your own life. 

Having developed a formidable range of skills, including hypnotherapy, over years of clinical work, David has helped clients with a broad range of psychological difficulties including :-

Depression,
Anxiety.
Phobias
Psychosomatic problems
IBS
Psychosexual problems
Relationship difficulties.
Anger
Guilt
Compulsions and Obsessions.
Addictions
Procrastination.
Lack of assertiveness.
Music Performance Anxiety

Or just help those who, as Szaz says,  ‘have become stuck in their lives’.

David has consultation rooms in his homes in Kent  which offer confidential and comfortable surroundings in which to work. Waiting times are normally short.

Sessions, lasting at least one hour are charged at £60 per session, which includes any session tapes and educational material.

If you wish to find out more about therapy with David Baker then why not telephone or send an email.

If you are part of a private health care plan with PPP or BUPA then your therapy with David Baker may well be funded by the health care plan.  Certain criteria have to be fulfilled in order for you to receive funding.  You can find out more information when you contact Stirling Therapy Consultants.

For almost half a century Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy [REBT] has been shown to be an extremely effective clinical intervention for a wide range of emotional, behavioural and cognitive dysfunctions.

REBT is a theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy originated and developed by Albert Ellis, a clinical psychologist, now recognised as one of the foremost psychological thinkers and clinicians of his age in America.

“The skillful therapist is able to construct each session so that what ever background the client is from, the client will be informed, will understand, be encouraged, and will never feel lost in the process”

REBT is a very ‘focused’ and efficient form of therapy.  Not only is it philosophical and scientific in orientation, but it takes a specific humanistic existential approach to human problems and their solutions.  This view, conceptualises all humans as holistic and goal directed, who have strengths and weaknesses and are not to be judged ‘globally’ because of their mistakes and errors.  When people make a mistake, it is observed, that they tend to judge themselves as failures because of the mistake, rather than being a person who has made a mistake.   It is also observed that many people judge others as total failures if they commit mistakes.  This is one example of the use of the word ‘globally’

“Whilst REBT recognises each individual has a distinct biological tendency to act in a specific way, and is therefore, in this respect unique, it also acknowledges that we are conditioned by social events.  However at the centre of its philosophy is that we can change our beliefs and in so doing become less dysfunctional and more goal directed”.

Client’s goals and problems are quickly assessed and because REBT is very active directive and the therapist a teacher, clients are taught to work towards learning new skills so that they can understand that they are responsible for their emotional, behavioural and thinking reactions to events in their lives.   Clients are taught to detect and challenge their beliefs, and the therapist encourages a therapeutic alliance where the client is encouraged to grow by thinking for themselves.

“What ever has happened in the past, you remain disturbed, not because of what happened, but because you keep re-indoctrinating yourself with the old bad messages”

Because REBT postulates that all human beings disturb themselves by the demands they make about themselves and life events, therapy can, and has been, applied to the widest range of social, personal and organisational problems.

Whilst REBT recognizes that it is natural for humans to have negative emotions in reaction to negative life events, therapy is directed at helping clients learn and put into practice the idea that holding dogmatic views about these things will lead to unhealthy or unhelpful negative emotions.  For example a person who demands that his partner must love him is likely to make himself anxious, depressed, jealous or very angry if she does not, or he considers, she does not love him.  These emotions are likely to make him behave and think in a way which is counter productive to his goal – namely keeping his partner. Furthermore the unhealthy negative emotions are likely to affect his health adversely.  If on the other hand, his belief is that he would strongly prefer his partner loves him then experience shows he is likely to make himself concerned, sad or annoyed, if he considers she does not love him.  This means that he will be able, constructively, to find out what the problem is between him and his loved one and try to correct the situation.

REBT hypothesizes that all humans have a biological tendency to think in both a dogmatic and a preferential way.  Accordingly,  whilst we are predisposed to try to preserve our lives, seek pleasure, avoid pain, be creative, try to grow by experimentation in our lifestyles and social structures, we are also predisposed to be self destructive, hating, gratification seekers, commit mistakes over and over again and be dogmatic, grandiose, intolerant and superstitious.

Since REBT contends that, to a great extent, each person is responsible for his or her own emotional outcome, in the hands of the skilled therapist, REBT can be adapted to deal with the widest range of human disturbance.   At a personal level this includes the whole category of emotional thinking and behavioural problems.  The problems encountered in specific areas of human endeavour such as performing in public can be addressed, and the emotional and behavioural difficulties encountered in organizational change can be reduced to, and be dealt with, at a personal level.

Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapists will encourage their clients to work hard to change their dogmatic thinking.  A variety of interventions are used.  This includes the use of teaching, educational material, behavioural exercises, rational emotive imagery and between session assignments, all of which help clients focus on their specific problem,  working with enthusiasm to really come to believe in their new, more flexible/preferential way of thinking.  In this way it is hoped that clients will come to accept the notion that they are like the rest of the human race:- fallible; with a unique combination of strengths and weaknesses, about which it would be a good idea to retain a sense of humour, whilst at the same time working to correct the least productive of their attributes. 

The explanation above is not meant as a definitive explanation of REBT, nor has it done the subject justice.   From time to time I will ‘post’ bulletins about REBT, however all good book stores are likely to retain books on REBT.  Indeed Amazon.com has a good stock of REBT publications on its web site.

I hope that you have enjoyed this rather brief but intense explanation of REBT.  If you wish to learn more then take my advice and read one of the excellent books on the subject, or return to my web site from time to time.
Stirling Therapy Consultants offer help and support for both individuals and organisations.
Through our programmes based on the work of cognitive therapy our therapists work with powerful no-nonsense and proven forms of psychological intervention.