Debbie Joffe Ellis, wife of the late Albert Ellis, founder of REBT, is a licensed Australian psychologist and is licensed in NY as mental health counselor. She has a doctorate in alternative medicine from the Indian Board of Alternative Medicines in affiliation with the World Health Organization, from which she has also received a gold medal (1993) in recognition of her service in the field of alternative medicine. She is coauthor, with her late husband, of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and also his autobiography, All Out! She is an adjunct professor at Columbia University Teachers College.

Here she describes the sequence of processes in rational emotive behavior therapy, using the acronym ABCDE. Activating events, mediated by our belief systems, lead to consequences. Irrational beliefs are then disputed vigorously and replaced by more effective, rational beliefs. She notes the hostility Albert Ellis first encountered when he initially presented his theories of psychotherapy, pointing out that he used his own techniques to cope with the challenges he faced. She also points out that Ellis used in vivo desensitization techniques to deal with his own early life anxieties regarding talking to women and also public speaking. She mentions the influence that REBT has had on cognitive behavior therapy, positive psychology, coaching, and other psychological trends.

(Recorded on January 20, 2016)

Published on January 22, 2016