REBT and CBT are two really important and most well-known therapy methods. REBT is a branch off of CBT because it involves thoughts and behaviors. Both therapy methods have very similar styles and techniques. Both therapy methods involve very similar coping strategies like journaling and creating thought records. What if I told you that their main difference is what decides which is better? I’ll give you a hint on what the difference is. The difference is in their names.
REBT
REBT stands for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. This therapy method focuses on rational and irrational thought patterns. The main goal is to change your thoughts from irrational to rational. REBT is also based on Albert Ellis’ A-B-C model, which is a pretty good one. The ABC model has three parts that are connected. The A stands for activating event. B stands for Beliefs and C stands for consequence. When you look at it all together, the model describes the consequences you have for your preexisting beliefs that were activated or created from an event. The belief could be a positive belief or a negative belief. Whatever belief you had, determines the kind of thought that you had. Irrational thoughts usually come from negative beliefs, while Rational thoughts usually come from positive beliefs. Now, let’s take a deeper look at CBT.
CBT
CBT stands for Cognitive Behavior Therapy. This therapy method focuses on our cognitions or how we think. There are three parts to CBT. Can you think of what those three parts are? I’ll give you a hint again: it’s in its name. The therapy method focus on the aspect of how we think affects how we feel and how we feel affects what we do. What we do affects how we think. If that wasn’t clear enough, check out this article for more information. Think of it as a never-ending cycle because we’re always thinking, feeling, and doing things. CBT likes to focus on the here and now, so therapy sessions are mainly about the present. What happened in the past cannot be changed and what happens in the future is beyond our reach. With CBT, it’s all about changing negative thoughts into positive ones, which is a good thing.
Model of REBT and CBT
Now, let’s look at them both together. The ABC model is very similar to the model for CBT as they all focus on thoughts, behaviors, and actions. Both of these therapy methods focus on the here and now, even though CBT is more involved with the present. The only difference that REBT and CBT have is the way that they look at thought patterns.
Rational/Irrational vs. Positive/Negative Thought Patterns
With REBT, you’re looking at rational and irrational thought patterns. With CBT, you’re looking at positive and negative thought patterns. Which one do you think is better? I’ll give you about 2 minutes to think about it. Did you get your answer yet? If you said CBT with its positive and negative thought patterns, you are wrong. First of all, looking at positive and negative thought patterns is really broad and vague. Rational and irrational thought patterns far outshine positive and negative.
Here’s why. Negative thoughts can be perceived as rational while positive thoughts can be perceived as irrational. It makes no sense to change a negative thought if it’s rational thought. Just think about it for a minute. We all have negative thoughts that we know is true. That meeting we have to go to is not going to be a pleasant one. Seeing someone you don’t like is never fun. Those sound pretty rational to me. It’s very rare that you’re going to enjoy those things or change your perspective on them. So what’s the point of changing them? It’s the irrational thoughts that are negative that you have to focus on.
Why REBT is Better Than CBT
There are many reasons why focusing only on positive and negative thoughts are a bad idea. First of all, you are unsure of what is rational and irrational. Maybe someone believes a negative thought is rational because that’s the result that they’ve gotten every time they have tried a particular thing. For example, Connie has a hard time making friends. She believes that the thought of her making friends is rational because every time she tries, it doesn’t work out for her. That sounds like a valid point, which leads her to believe it’s rational.
A person using CBT would change that thought pattern even though it is an accurate thought because it is backed up by evidence. Another reason why focusing on positive and negative thoughts is a bad idea because of the exact opposite. What if someone has an irrational thought that’s positive? What happens there? Do you work on that with CBT or change your approach? An example of this would be someone believing that your dream of becoming a millionaire in the next two weeks will come true. Now, it is possible that the dream comes true, but it is highly unlikely which makes the thought irrational. Obviously, the thought is positive because you’re getting something in the dream. In this case, you would be a billionaire in two weeks. It sounds nice for that dream to come true to you, but you know deep down inside that it’s not happening.
Final Words
After looking at everything, we have a conclusion. REBT is better than CBT because of the way these therapy methods look at thought patterns. Positive and negative thought patterns are good to look at for a while but will cause some issues and confusion later on in therapy. Positive thoughts could be completely irrational which could make clients believe in things that are highly unlikely to happen or become true. On the other hand, there are negative thoughts that are completely rational, which makes clients not believe in things that are more probable
What did you think about this article? Did you agree with the information presented or did you have another perspective on this debate? Feel free to leave a comment down below and subscribe for more information regarding topics similar to this.
