Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy

These action-oriented therapies deal with the cognitive and moral state of individuals. Therapists believe that people have the ability to understand and change their behaviours. Because therapists believe that people are capable of rational thought, they use directed therapy to guide clients in making good decisions. In the view of the therapist, maladaptive behaviour is the result of illogical and irrational thinking. All problems that individuals have are the result of irrational (faulty) belief systems formed in childhood. Therapists work with clients to help them change these irrational belief systems and self-defeating outlooks. In general, the therapist is the teacher and the client is the student.