REBTOZ

The Quality of Our Thoughts “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” Marcus Aurelius This message comes across loud and clear in Albert Ellis’ Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) theory. Ellis talked about the quality of our thoughts in terms of how helpful or unhelpful they are in getting what we want in our lives, our wants, goals, and aspirations. We can learn to think in ways that help us, rational thinking or we can construct beliefs that are more irrational and unhelpful. REBT provides the ABC Theory of Emotional Disturbance paradigm that counsellors and psychotherapists use in therapy to help their clients understand how it is that they experience what Albert Ellis calls emotional and behavioural ‘upsetness.’   The ABC Theory of Emotional Disturbance (see video) embraces the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius and others of the Stoic tradition and considers the relationship between belief constructions, and emotional and behavioural res...

Don Hoffman, cognitive scientist, would say that the labels or words one might ascribe me are not me. Similarly, my ideas about my self are but representations of who I think I am. I can do good but that doesn’t make me good, how one esteems me is not me either. If I unconditionally accept myself, I don’t need others to approve of me, though I might prefer that they did. The Have a Go Spaghettio! pedagogy is designed to teach young learners that the ideas and beliefs they construct about themselves are not them. Even Einstein, it is said, argued that he was not nor could he be a genius. He said he had exceptional aptitudes in some areas but was lacking in many others so how could he be perfect as the word genius might imply? It would be useful to convey the message to students at every opportunity that what they do and how others might esteem them, is not them. If teachers can feedback to the six Have a Go Spaghettio! Success Helper capabilities they are doing the following: · ...

A teacher colleague was out of sorts it seemed. They had been quiet and reclusive, electing to stay in their classroom because they felt unsafe. They found it hard to come to work and do their job. They were a teacher of high quality and competence, well respected and loved by their students. They were particularly strong in their understanding of children on the autism spectrum and provided highly effective, individualised programs accordingly. A fellow member of staff had taken umbrage at the teachers suggestion that their class move a little quieter around the school so they didn’t disturb others. This was not taken very well, the staff member, whose fragile sensibilities were breeched and who couldn’t handle an adults courteous request spat the proverbial chewy! How dare anyone speak to me like that!  thought the entitled individual and after their little meltdown they went to complain to the acting principal at the time. The acting principal didn’t like the miscreant tea...

I wrote a post call BAD,  Breaking Approval Dependence  about a teachers journey to unconditional self-acceptance, where their own self approval eventually held sway over the need for others to esteem them. They had identified their errant, irrational way of thinking about their  self , challenged its veracity and began to rebuild the kind of healthy, rational, self that would hold them in good stead, unconditional self-acceptance.  Our early childhood constructivists are making sense of the world they live in. Ideas about  self  are formulating in their young minds and what they believe about themselves or their  self  will impact their emotional and behavioural wellbeing now and into the future. Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) and General Semantics (GS) theories are used in counselling practice, where the individual is called upon to examine the personal philosophies that inform what they do and how they emote especially in ...

Alfred Korzybski of General Semantics theory said,   ‘ the map is not the territory’ and ‘ the word is not the thing.’ A word may label a thing but it isn’t the thing itself, and a word used to describe a person is not the person themselves. To believe so is unsane according to General Semantics theory i.e., it is not a fair representation of the real world and can cause emotional and behavioural angst! A persons map of me e.g., their opinion of me, is not the territory i.e., it is not, does not define me in a global sense. To agree I am what they call me, is to deny the fact that I am many things and to abstract one from the many and believe I am that, would be an irrational belief. How do young people develop the irrational idea that they can be dumb, smart, or cute? When a child receives the message that they are   e.g., smart how might that message be received? The child, as constructivist, may interpret such feedback to mean that they are the word smart . Ho...

The Have a Go Spaghettio! Rational Emotive Behaviour Educator works in the classrooms of schools. I consider all people working with students in our schools as educators but for me special kudos goes the classroom operators, the people at the chalk face, those on the front line. The role of the classroom educator is a complex and challenging one; teacher, counsellor, mentor, role model and the list goes on. For those lucky enough to have a had positive connection with teachers on their journey they are fortunate indeed. Behaviour management can suggest that students need to be managed or told how they should and shouldn’t behave and some children need close guidance in this regard but the end goal is to help them self-regulate and decide for themselves how they might behave according to the thinking rules they are formulating or have formulated. The six Have a Go colour coded Success Helper/Brain Friend competencies that are outlined in this video on the Have a Go Spaghettio! chart, co...