Updating the Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy Approach to Overcoming Resistance

This chapter briefly mentions some of the significant changes that have taken place in psychotherapy. It shows how psychotherapists can endorse a good deal of postmodernism, can still stick largely to the scientific method, and can do effective therapy. Narrative techniques have always been used in psychotherapy, including Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). REBT and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) aim to be more efficient and more effective than other therapies that are primarily oriented toward changing people’s dysfunctional thoughts, emotions, or actions. The chapter also shows how these can be added to and integrated with other therapeutic practices, such as person-centered, Gestalt, and psychoanalytic therapy. Recent findings in experimental psychology are important to development in psychotherapy and seem to at least partially confirm some of the main theories and practices of REBT.