ebook img

Dealing with Emotional Problems Using Rational-Emotive Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: A Practitioner's Guide PDF

313 Pages·2011·1.72 MB·English
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview Dealing with Emotional Problems Using Rational-Emotive Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: A Practitioner's Guide

Dealing with In this practical companion to the Client’s Guide, Windy Dryden draws on rational- Emotional emotive cognitive behaviour therapy (RECBT) –aformofCBTthatfocusesonchallengingand changing the irrational beliefs that largely Problems Using determine emotional and behavioural issues – toencouragepeopletodealwiththeiremotional Rational- problems. This Practitioner’s Guide includes all of the Emotive information presented in the Client’s Guide with the addition of helpful hints and tips for Cognitive thetherapist,makingitstraightforwardtousein the consulting room with no need for further references. Behaviour Dealing with Emotional Problems using Rational- Therapy: A Emotive Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: A Practi- tioner’s Guide will allow the therapist to work Practitioner’s through and help the client learn to deal with their problems from an RECBT perspective, covering: Guide anxiety depression Alsoavailable,Dealingwith guilt EmotionalProblemsUsing shame Rational-EmotiveCognitive hurt BehaviourTherapy:A unhealthyanger Client’sGuide. unhealthyjealousy unhealthyenvy. This practical workbook presents each emotion inasimilarway,allowingthereadertocompare andcontrastcommonanddistinctivefeaturesof eachproblem.Itwillbeessentialreadingforany professionalusingRECBTwiththeirclient. Windy Dryden is Professor of Psychothera- peutic Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. Dealing with Emotional Problems Using Rational- Emotive Cognitive Behaviour Therapy A Practitioner’s Guide WINDY DRYDEN Firstpublished2012byRoutledge 27ChurchRoad,Hove,EastSussexBN32FA SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada byRoutledge 711ThirdAvenue,NewYorkNY10017 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,anInformabusiness (cid:216)2012WindyDryden Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproduced orutilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans, nowknownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingand recording, orinanyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,without permissioninwritingfromthepublishers. Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksor registeredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationand explanationwithoutintenttoinfringe. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dryden, Windy. Dealingwithemotionalproblemsusingrational-emotivecognitive- behaviourtherapy:apractitioner’sguide/WindyDryden. p.;cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-415-67764-6(pbk.) 1.Rationalemotivebehaviortherapy.2.Cognitivetherapy.I. Title. [DNLM:1.CognitiveTherapy.2.Emotions.3.Psychotherapy, Rational-Emotive. WM425.5.C6] RC489.R3D786322012 616.89'1425–dc23 2011013056 ISBN:978-0-415-67764-6(pbk) ISBN:978-0-203-15763-3(ebk) TypesetinStoneSerifbyGarfieldMorgan,Swansea,WestGlamorgan PaperbackcoverdesignbyAndrewWard PrintedbyTJInternationalLtd,Padstow,Cornwall Contents Preface vi 1 Emotional problems: foundations and healthy alternatives 1 2 Dealing with anxiety 22 3 Dealing with depression 56 4 Dealing with guilt 87 5 Dealing with shame 117 6 Dealing with hurt 148 7 Dealing with unhealthy anger 176 8 Dealing with unhealthy jealousy 207 9 Dealing with unhealthy envy 237 References 267 Appendix 1 268 Appendix 2 273 Appendix 3 275 Appendix 4 277 Appendix 5 279 Appendix 6 281 Appendix 7 289 Index 299 Preface I have written this book as a practitioner’s companion to Dealing with Emotional Problems with RECBT: A Client’s Guide. In that book, I deal with the eight emotional problems that clients routinely seek help for and show them how they can deal with them. TherearethreewaysIcouldhavewrittenthisPractitioner’sGuide.First,I could have written totally separate Client and Practitioner Guides. In taking this approach I would have to make frequent page references to the Client’s Guide in the Practitioner’s Guide. This means that you would have to have both guides open when working with a client and go backwards and forwards from book to book. While there would be little repetition within each book, you would waste much valuable therapy time con- sulting both texts at the same time. The second approach I could have taken is to write totally separate Clientand PractitionerGuides butto includetheminone volume.Againin takingthisapproachIwouldhavetomakefrequentpagereferencestothe Client’s Guide in the Practitioner’s Guide. This means that you would have togobackwardsandforwardsfromguidetoguidewithinasinglevolume. While again there would be little repetition within each part of the book, youwouldagainwastemuchvaluabletherapytimemovingfromonepart to another. The third approach I could have taken and which, in fact, I decided to take involves having a separate Client’s Guide and reproducing this guide inthePractitioner’sGuide.Intakingthistack,Ipresentthematerialsothat you have access to it when and where you need it. You do not, therefore, have to go from book to book or from one part of a single book to the other part. While this necessitates repetition of salient material, I believe that this is a price worth paying to facilitate use by practitioners. In the present book, then, I reproduce the Client’s Guide and at salient points, I discuss issues that may come up in therapy when you use the Client’s Guide with your clients and show how best you can address these issues. The material that I have written for practitioners in this book is in a different typeface to the Client’s Guide so you can easily find it. In the Client’s Guide (which is reproduced in this book), I begin with outlining the foundations of emotional problems from an RECBT Preface vii perspective. I then devote one chapter to each of the eight emotional problems and use a similar structure in each chapter. I start by helping clients to understand the emotional problem in question, discuss what they disturb themselves about when they experience the emotion, and outline what largely determines the emotion and how they tend to act and think when they experience it. I show clients how to deal with the emotional problem in question. I help them to identify the themes in the emotion, detail their behaviour and thinking when they experience it before encouraging them to set appropriate emotional, behavioural and thinking goals. Then, I help them to identify, challenge and change the rigid and extreme beliefs that account for their emotional problems and to develop the flexible and non-extreme beliefs that will enable them to achieve their goals. Next, I show clients what they need to do to strengthen their conviction in their rational beliefs so that they become less prone to the emotional problem. I then deal with a number of additional issues relevant to the emotional problem in question before finally outlining a number of world views that underpin each emotional problem and its healthy alternative. The common chapter structure that I employ in Chapters 2–9 of the Client’s Guide is to ensure that all relevant issues are discussed for each emotional problem. It is unlikely that clients will be prone to all eight emotional problems, but they may be prone to two or three. The viewof emotionalproblemsthatIamtakinginthisbookstatesthatwhile there are common features among the eight emotions, there are also features that are distinctive to each emotion. This is reflected in Chapters 2–9 of the Client’s Guide and they will need to bear this point in mind when they read these chapters or a selection of them. The same is the case in this Practitioner’s Guide. There are common and distinctive features that are relevant when helping clients deal with the eight emotional problems. To help you use this Practitioner’s Guide, I produce common features in each of the eight chapters and the distinc- tive features where relevant. I have decided to organise this book in this way to help you get the most out of the relevant chapter when working with a client’s chosen emotional problem. While this means that certain issues are repeated throughout the book, as I mentioned above, it also means that the relevant material is there when and where you need to consult it. Windy Dryden London and Eastbourne 1 Emotional problems: foundations and healthy alternatives In this book, I am going to discuss some common emotional problems and show you how to deal with them. The book is structured as a workbook so that you can implement the skills that I teach you in a step-by-step manner. It is worthwhile stressing to your clients that the order of these steps is indicative and not set in stone. Over time and with increased experience, different clients will use the steps in different orders. Inthisopeningchapter,Iamgoingto coversomeimportantmaterialthat I regard as foundations to your understanding of the eight emotional problems that I discuss in this book and their healthy alternatives. WHAT ARE THE EIGHT EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS? I have been practising in the field of counselling and psychotherapy since 1975 and have worked in a variety of different settings. In that time, I have seen many people suffering from one or more of the eight emotional problems that I cover in this book. They are: anxiety depression guilt shame hurt unhealthy anger unhealthy jealousy unhealthy envy. You will note that I have put the adjective ‘unhealthy’ in front of anger, jealousy and envy. I have done this to distinguish the unhealthy version of 2 Dealing with emotional problems: a practitioner’s guide the emotion with its healthy version. I will discuss healthy alternatives to the eight emotional problems in the next section. Unfortunately, we don’t have agreed language for emotional prob- lems. It is better to use the terms with which your clients resonate than to impose on them terms such as those above that are used in the RECBT literature. When you have agreed a term for an emotional problem with a client, make a clear note of it in the client’s file. HEALTHY ALTERNATIVES TO THE EIGHT EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS Adversity is unfortunately a fact of life.1 None of us can say that we have lived a life untouched by adversity. An adversity is a negative event. So when you are looking for a healthy alternative to an emotional problem in the face of adversity, it is not realistic for you to select an emotion that is positive or neutral. Problems with positive emotions as healthy alternatives to the emotional problems If you want to feel a positive emotion about an adversity, you will have to convince yourself that it is good that the adversity happened. Now, I concede that adversities do have some positive features, but they are largely negative in nature. As such, the only way you are going to convince yourself that it is a good thing that an adversity happened is to lie to yourself and to believe your lie. As you can see, this is unlikely to work in the longer term and is, thus, not a good strategy. Problems with neutral emotions as healthy alternatives to the emotional problems It is also not realistic to have a neutral feeling about an adversity. If you want such a neutral response, you will have to convince yourself that it 1 Throughoutthisbook,Iwillrefertoeventswhereyoudon’tgetwhatyouwant,orget what you don’t want, as ‘adversities’. Emotional problems 3 does not matter to you that the adversity happened. However, that won’t work since it does matter to you that the adversity happened. Quite properly, you would have preferred that the adversity did not happen. So again the only way you are going to convince yourself that it doesn’t matter to you that the adversity happened is to lie to yourself and to find your lie convincing. This, again, is unlikely to work in the longer term and is, thus, not a good strategy. Problems with living in an emotional vacuum as a healthy alternative to the emotional problems If a positive or neutral emotional response to an adversity is ruled out as a healthyalternativetoanemotionalproblem,whatisleft?Youcouldsaythat when an adversity happens, you don’t want to feel the emotional problem that you felt. Harry regularly experiences anxiety about going to see his tutor because he thinks she is going to criticise his work. When asked what he wanted to feel instead, Harry replied: ‘I don’t want to be anxious about the possibility of my tutor criticising my work’. The problem with this approach is that we don’t tend to live in an emo- tionalvacuumwhenanadversityhashappenedorwethinkthatitislikelyto happen. Thus, it matters to Harry that his tutor does not criticise him. We experience emotions in areas of life that matter to us. Since it matters to Harry that his tutor does not criticise him, he is going to experience an emotion about this prospect. Don’t forget that we are looking for a healthy alternative to the emotional problem of anxiety in Harry’s case, and to all eight emotional problems in general. Problems with reducing the intensity of emotional problems as healthy alternatives to these emotional problems Peopleoftensaywhentheyareaskedtonominateahealthyalternativetoan emotional problem that they want to feel a less intense version of the emo- tional problem. Applyingthisto our example, whenaskedwhathewantsto feelinsteadofanxietyaboutseeinghistutor,Harrysaysthathewantstofeel less anxious. Now the problem with having a less intense version of an

See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.