Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy: A Case Study

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Combating Addiction The dreadful uphill battle against addiction fosters a volatile environment of personal anguish, uncontrollable carvings, compulsive behavior, and destructive socialization. Certainly, addiction is a grapping aliment which gradually erodes its victims mentally, physically and socially. Currently, this epidemic has cast its dark shadow on approximately over 32 million Americans (excluding tobacco addition) (Capuzzi, & Stauffer, 2015). Regardless, despite current empirically sound and objective based physical evidence correlating irreparable neurological damage with addictive behavior, society still imposes a negatively stigmatized perception towards those affected by addiction accompanied (Capuzzi, & Stauffer, 2015). …show more content…
Albert Ellis sought to shatter the traditional practice of psychotherapy with a fresh approach that prioritized the client’s events rather than focusing solely on their history (Overholser, 2003). As this concept germinated, Ellis noticed that his clients seemed to make improvement during their session, however, upon their return they appeared to have no progress and resorted to their baseline (Overholser, 2003). Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). After Ellis was able to attribute the client’s stagnate progression was due to a lack of guidance outside of the their session, he developed a new treatment modality to alleviate the issue called, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) (Weinrach, 1988). The mission of REBT was to educate clients how to address their disorder outside of therapy and to absolve irrational behavior (Weinrach, 1988). Additionally, Ellis defined irrational thoughts as a core concept of maladaptive behavior which splinter into the following three basic must: I must do well or I am worthless, people must respect me or they are bad people, and I must get what I desire or I will be devastated (Overholser, …show more content…
Furthermore, the plethora of empirical evidence incorporated into CBT bolstered a firm understanding of cognitive behavior, thus creating a versatile platform which catapulted its utility far beyond a sole treatment for depression (Taylor, 2015). Today, CBT is the golden standard of psychotherapy and is often used in an individual or group setting to treat the following conditions: addiction, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, schizophrenia and phobias (Addiction Blog,