Albert Ellis and the World of Children

Despite Albert Ellis’ extensive contributions to the cognitive-behavioural treatment of childhood disorders, he always expressed the view that his more important contributions to the mental health of children could be found in the applications of rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) in schools in the form of teaching children how to deal with difficult circumstances and people and to manage their own emotions through the use of rational beliefs and thinking. This paper reviews Ellis’ theory of mental health as applied to childhood. It will also review Ellis contribution to the world of children in three distinct areas: (a) essential REBT with children and adolescents, (b) in schools in the form of Rational Emotive Education and (c) in parent education. Discussion of common misconceptions about REBT applied to childhood and the legacy of Albert Ellis will conclude the paper. It is interesting to note that while many cognitively-oriented behavior therapists date the beginnings of cognitive-behavioural movement around the late 1960s and early 1970s (e.g., Mahoney, 1974), the application of cognitive methods in the form of REBT to parenting and to the psychological treatment of young people was pioneered by Albert Ellis in the mid-1950s. Soon after he started to use REBT with adults, at the beginning of 1955, he saw that it could be employed with children either directly by a therapist or indirectly by a practitioner working with the parents of children. He therefore included some cognitive parenting techniques in his first book on REBT, “How to Live with a Neurotic,” (Ellis, 1957). When he began making tape recording sessions, he recorded a series of sessions with an eight year old female bed wetter (Ellis, 1959) which were widely circulated and encouraged many other therapists to use REBT methods with children.