REBTOZ

Albert Ellis Dr Debbie Joffe Ellis agreed to answer a few questions about her mission to keep the work and legacy of her late husband Dr Albert Ellis, creator of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, alive and thriving. She took time out from her busy schedule to answer some questions. Giulio:  Thanks for the chat, Debbie. Could you give us a snapshot of Dr Ellis’ childhood? Debbie:  His childhood contained a number of challenges. He suffered from various serious and painful conditions, including nephritis and migraines, from infancy onward. Al made a conscious decision that he didn’t want to feel so very sad, hence he found ways to distract himself from the deep sadness such as reading books in the hospital’s children’s library, making up games to play with children in the ward, talking with their visitors, and daydreaming about his baseball heroes and about what he wanted to do when he grew up. Al was 3 years of age when he taught himself to read with the help of his 5-year-ol...

Aaron Beck talks about Ellis' life and work on the occasion of Ellis' passing in 2007. Rational Emotive Behaviour Educators in Whyalla, South Australia continue his work to promote student mental health. On the Contributions of Dr. Albert Ellis Aaron T. Beck A eulogy is a highly subjective matter. It often reflects as much of the personal narrative of the speaker as it does of the subject. As Ellis pointed out numerous times, we see the world through our own filters or lenses. That said, I will try to tell what Albert Ellis meant to me personally as well as to the world. We all know Ellis as an explorer, revolutionary, therapist, theorist, and teacher. But how did these various roles play out in his actual interactions with his colleagues and friends? To describe my personal narrative of Al Ellis, I have to go back many decades to my beginnings in the field of therapy and research. Like Ellis, I was trained as a psychoanalyst. Although I always had some misgiv...

Albert Ellis PhD. This appears in the current Jan/Feb 2013 edition of the  National Psychologist : Vol 22, No. 1. Dr Debbie Joffe Ellis talks about her late husband and his work: Dr Albert Ellis, Master Therapist. Albert Ellis, legendary pioneer in the field of cognitive psychology, was a genius. He created his approach of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), describing its methods and techniques in clear style - through his writings, presentations, trainings and therapy sessions. REBT was understood and embraced by people within the world of psychology and those from every walk of life. His whole-hearted and earnest goal was to help as many people as possible to suffer less emotional misery and to experience more happiness in their lives. His tireless work over more than six decades helped millions of people change their lives for the better. Yes, Albert Ellis was a genius. He was my mentor, my model. He also happened t...

2013 is the Centennial Anniversary of the birth of Dr Albert Ellis Ph.D. Below is a press release written by his wife Dr Debbie Joffe Ellis.  Contact: Dr Debbie Joffe Ellis: debbiejoffeellis@gmail.com Dr Albert Ellis ignited, and powerfully fuelled, the cognitive revolution in psychology, counseling and therapy, with his pioneering approach of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) in the 1950’s. In addition, he helped transform limiting and uncivil social mores and attitudes of the time, with his vigorous actions supporting equality for women, gay rights, inter-racial marriage, ending of censorship and many more. He has often been referred to as “The greatest humanitarian since Gandhi”. He wrote over 85 published books and over 800 published articles, presented tirelessly around the USA and across the globe, and helped millions of people through his REBT approach to suffer less emotional misery and to experience more happiness in their lives. During ...

Dr Ellis’ latest work is a book called Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy . Co authored by his wife Dr Debbie Joffe Ellis, it is part of the Theories of Psychotherapy Series , edited by Jon Carlson and Matt Englar-Carlson and published by the American Psychological Association. This gem comes hot on the heels of Dr Ellis' autobiography All Out! which was published in 2010, with contributions by Dr. Debbie Joffe Ellis. Ellis created REBT and developed it, promoted it and practiced it until his death in 2007. REBT is often said to be an offshoot or subsidiary of CBT but as this publication reminds us, REBT is the original cognitive therapy. Indeed Ellis is regarded as the father of REBT and the grandfather of CBT by those in the know. Dr. Ellis’ motivation was to provide useful information to the general public on issues relating to mental health, offer a model (ABC Theory of Emotional Disturbance) that could explain why people feel and behave as they do and suggest strategies...

Thanks to Dr. Albert Ellis’ ABC Theory of Emotional Disturbance we have helped Sofia understand the relationship between thinking, feeling and behaving. She understands that beliefs like, ‘someone I like should like me,’ ‘I need her approval to be worthwhile,’ ‘I am worthless,’ are self defeating because they cause undue sadness, anger and depression, which get in the way of her achieving her goals. These beliefs can be challenged and disproved with evidence. Dr. Ellis invites us to ‘cherchez le should, cherchez le must’ as we did with Sofia. We determined that Sofia’s sadness and anxiety was caused by her ‘shoulding’ i.e. ‘she should like me. I should get what I want.’ We challenged these self-defeating shoulds and replaced them with self – helpful ‘preferences’ i.e. ‘I would prefer to get what I want but I accept this will not always be so.’ Let’s look at the components of Sofia’s journey so far according to Ellis’ ABC Theory of Emotional Disturbance. A= Activating event (the issue,...

Another workshop is scheduled for September due to the very positive response of participants to the April workshop held at the Education Development Centre in Hindmarsh. People from various organisations attended and reported a strong satisfaction in the balance of theory and practical application of REBT. The group responded very positively to Dr. Debbie Joffe Ellis' demonstration of REBT using volunteers from the audience. People witnessed the very skillful way that Dr. Debbie listened reflectfully to her client, identified the core issues of concern and quickly honed in on the self defeating philosophical beliefs that were causing her clients emotional and behavioural problems. Her demonstration clearly illustrated the efficiency of Dr Albert Ellis' ABC Theory of Emotional Disturbance when applied skillfully and firmly. Participants witnessed how the client volunteer was encouraged to identify and confront the underlying irrational beliefs that caused and maintained their ...