Change your thoughts and you change your world. Norman Vincent Peale.
This cognitive therapy is aimed at changing the irrational, unrealistic ideas or self-statements people have. It helps individuals feel greater confidence and control in their lives, so they can achieve the goals they are capable of achieving.
Rational-emotive therapy was originally developed by Albert Ellis (1970), who believed that people’s irrational views of the world and wrong assumptions were at the core of most emotional disturbances. These led to self-defeating internal dialogues, which influenced what people did.
He described this thought-feeling-behavior link as an A-B-C relationship. “A” stood for the activity or circumstance which caused “B,” a rational belief, and “C,” a rational consequence. An irrational belief, “B*,” however, could cause an irrational consequence, “C*,” such as low self-esteem, anxiety, or depression.