Skip to main content

Posts

Have a Go Spaghettio! and Our 'Upsetness'

The goal of REBT, Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, is to help the person identify the beliefs they have constructed and how they are connected to the way they feel and behave in response to adverse happenings. The emphasis is on the views one holds, personal philosophies that underpin and drive how we feel and behave, as it is they, not solely the adverse event, that ‘makes’ them as upset as they become. In essence we upset ourselves, and Albert Ellis calls this self-disturbance, we are causing what he calls our own ‘upsetness.’ This presentation is titled ‘our – upsetness’ as Ellis’ invites us all to learn to be less ‘self-disturbable.’ In the school context we call this endeavour Rational Emotive Behaviour Education. Dr. Albert Ellis The Have a Go Spaghettio! Success Helper approach to social, emotional, and behavioural wellbeing provides a pedagogy for teachers to use in the early childhood context. It is underpinned by Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy and General Semantics t...
Post a Comment
Read more
Recent posts

Have a Go Spaghettio! The Map and The Territory

If the 'map' (our belief constructions) isn’t the 'territory' (reality) and people believe it is, then there’s a lot of unwarranted emotional and behavioural upset endured by many who believe what they think is reality. This kind of thinking sees life’s twists and turns as major inconveniences that shouldn’t happen. So, if, for example someone doesn’t say thanks when you open the door for them, and you feel the indignation rise within, and you say ‘you’re welcome’ after them, who or what is causing your angst? The answer is that you are! But how? Rational Emotive behaviour Therapy, (REBT), the Stoics, General Semantics and the Buddha say that how we interpret what’s happening has a connection to our emotional and behavioural response. How we interpret what’s happening is related to philosophical belief rules we’ve constructed over time, of which we may not be aware. Consider the scenario above, how might the aggrieved person be thinking at the time, about the inci...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Rational Emotive Behaviour 'Have a Go Spaghettio!' Educator

  Teachers who employ the Have a Go Spaghettio! pedagogy in their early childhood teaching practice are Rational Emotive Behaviour Educators . The Have a Go Spaghettio! approach to early childhood personal development is based on Albert Ellis' Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy theory (REBT) and his counselling paradigm, the ABC Theory of Emotional Disturbance. REBT is influenced by the Stoic Philosophers such as Epictetus, who said that happenings plus our interpretations of those events cause our emotional and behavioural 'upsetness' as Albert Ellis said. But REBT would not have come to be had it not been the work of Alfred Korzybski who created General Semantics theory. He alerted us to the idea of the 'map is not the territory' where our belief constructions (the map), our conceptions about life, are but a virtual representation of reality (the territory). Teachers who teach early childhood student constructivists the Have a Go Spaghettio! pedagogy are Ratio...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dr. Evil and Ms. Prudence Putty-Nose

Daddy Wasn't There!  is a song featured in the film Gold Member. Mike Myers plays the role of Austin Powers, the James Bond type, man of the moment who has issues about the absentee father who was ‘never there’ at those crucial milestone moments of his formal development. Hence the song Daddy Wasn’t There! Austin had a twin brother, called Douglas Power, aka Dr. Evil who was thought to have died in a car explosion, and was subsequently adopted by a Belgian family who taught him to be evil. How this was done is of course conjecture, but I would suggest that Douglas may have been programmed to believe he was an exceptional type and people, all people, should, must defer to him and his specialness. Dr. Evil is self-absorbed, needs to be admired, and scorns those who do not revere him as he must be. He has a fragile ego and demands that others validate his status as an exceptional human being. So fragile is his ego he must destroy those perceived to be his competitors or enemi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ms. Prudence Putty - Nose Sees a Counsellor

  Ms Prudence Putty – Nose went to a counsellor because she was flying off the handle a bit when she didn’t get what she wanted and she lasted one session. The counsellor said that her sense of her own exceptionalism, that she was a better breed of person and that others should see this and act accordingly was the cause of her high anxiety and need of approval. Ms Putty   Nose was affronted by this and could not see how she was responsible for how she felt and behaved and not the furniture, the weather, or the popularity of a teacher peer she despised and she decided that counselling wasn’t for her. She was even resentful of a teacher colleague who had cancer, as her condition was taking away precious attention from her. ‘I wish she didn’t get cancer. It’s not fair,’ she thought. "Cancer envy" is a recognized, complex, and often shame-inducing emotion where individuals may envy the attention, support, or care others receive during a cancer diagnosis.” She went back to her ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Have a Go Spaghettio! and the Catastrophe Scale

  This presentation introduces or revisits the catastrophe scale or CS for short. The CS is a partner tool to the ET, the Emotional Thermometer, a tool that the young constructivist can learn to use to manage behaviour and emotion especially in difficult circumstances. It develops EQ capacity. Helping the early childhood constructivist to put problems into some kind of perspective will ease emotional disquiet and behavioural upset. So how is it taught? Here are some ideas. Here we visit again the story of Arthur. This story employs   Albert Ellis’ ABC Theory of Emotional Disturbance as a critical literacy tool, which we use here to analyse a text that introduces the notion that ‘it isn’t what happens to us that makes us feel and act as we do, but it's how we view, interpret the situation, our response to it.’ Epictetus 100AD In the story Arthur feels out of sorts, extremely anxious and full of self-doubt. He seeks the approval of others and tries to change the essence ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Have a Go Spaghettio! and Walkiing the REBT Talk

  Walking the REBT talk is a challenge as I find myself acting and emoting in ways that suggest an absolute should or must expectation is lurking somewhere deep in my mind. At least I am aware of it and can 'cherche le should' as Dr. Ellis would say. Assume that most times when you feel anxious, depressed, or angry you are not only strongly desiring but also commanding that something go well and that you get what you want. Cherchez le should, cherchez le must! Look for your should, look for your must! Don’t give up until you find it. If you have trouble finding it, seek the help of a friend, relative, or REBT therapist who will help you find it. Persist! Albert Ellis Latterly, the idea that certain things shouldn't happen or people should act in ways I think they should give rise to uncomfortable feelings that linger and impact my quality of life. Marcus Aurelius said the quality of our thinking effects the quality of our life and this too is the REBT message, and of course...
Post a Comment
Read more