Category Archives: rebt-cbt-post

By Kristina Wilder, M.A.

Last week was my birthday, which is normally a nice excuse to relax a little bit or to do something fun. But on this particular birthday my schedule was challenging to navigate and I ended up spending most of the day busy and/or working. As a consequence I didn’t really get the relaxation or opportunity to reflect that I would normally do. However, I will take that opportunity now.

Upon reflection, I find that the fact that I didn’t find my birthday relaxing to be part of a larger problem.… Read more…

By Mary Russell, Psy.D.

Do you ever have moments in your life when you feel like everything that could go wrong has gone wrong? It’s not fair. You feel utterly helpless. You believe you have no control over your life and you are at the mercy of some malicious force committed to screwing everything up.

A lot has been going wrong lately – I have had to be particularly vigilant about slipping into such unhelpful patterns of thinking that only lead to harmful emotions like depression, and maladaptive behavior.… Read more…

By Malek Mneimne, Ph.D.

“S/he has no common sense.”

I’ve heard the phrase over and over, primarily from frustrated and/or angry people, often in response to something apparently nonsensical like someone riding an elephant the wrong way on a major highway during rush hour or a homeless man claiming to be intellectually superior to everyone. But what is common sense? What isn’t? Do we all have it or not?

Common sense is a broad term. Apart from Paine’s book by the same name, many people seem to think that common sense is some magical guiding light that most people are born with that aids in decision making.… Read more…

By Eric Sudler, M.S.

So here we are again, at the proverbial crossroads looking down each path into the unknown. Any road you pick conjures up feelings of fear, doubt, and anxiety. This is usually the point at which the “what ifs” creep in and do their job, further obfuscating any rational decision you’d hoped to make. Among all of the unknowns, there is still one known feeling you can count on: that familiar feeling of being in unfamiliar territory.… Read more…

By Leonard Citron, LMHC

Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy is a solution-focused, goal-orientated form of therapy. One of the most common questions therapists get asked in their initial meeting with clients is “How long before I get/feel better?” So, how long before clients actually do “get better”? This blog will try and answer that question with as much detail and specificity as possible.

Last year a client terminated with me after a few sessions, noting that they had not had a “eureka” moment in the 3 weeks we had been working together.… Read more…

By Alina Boie, M.S.

We live in a large city and driving is for most of us part of our daily lives. You may commute two or twenty miles every day, but I am quite sure there are moments when you wish you had taken the bus or the subway. There are very few people, if any, who could say that they never “lost it” when another driver on the road acts stupidly, dangerously, or both.… Read more…

By Malek Mneimne, Ph.D.

“What is real? How do you define real? If real is what you can feel, smell, taste, see and hear, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.” – Morpheus, The Matrix.

“I don’t even remember what I did yesterday.” – Anonymous.

Like The Matrix, many movies and books portray objective reality, or some aspects of it, as illusory; that is, not ‘real.’ Because the more ‘extreme’ variants of this idea do not lend themselves readily to empirical investigation, can probably only be discovered (as in The Matrix and The Truman Show), and we do not currently have evidence for them, they are most likely purely hypothetical.… Read more…

By Rebecca Eliason, M.S.

This week’s blog I write in procrastination of packing and preparing for an early morning flight.  I’ve come to find it quite ironic how the preparation before a trip is so stressful. After all, isn’t the point of many trips to alleviate stress? By the time I’m done booking the trip, price shopping, running errands, doing laundry, organizing food, packing and planning some type of itinerary, not to mention getting my work done in advance so I can actually take off the intended days, I am so tired that I need a vacation much more than when I booked!… Read more…

By Fabian Boie, M.S.

I was recently discussing with a friend about the impact of technology on our lives. I know this is a topic of great interest and we read about it all the time. We were actually talking about how technology may even change our ways of doing therapy, improve our assessments, communication with clients, scheduling and note-taking. The use of electronic devices simply permeates all levels of our day-to-day life.

I catch myself checking my e-mail several times a….minute and I realize how ridiculous that can be.… Read more…

By Eric Sudler, M.S.

As one who has all but mastered standing out and being different, I can say with confidence that it really doesn’t get any easier. My life has been an infinite loop of situations and scenarios where I never quite fit the mold or have to adapt more than my colleagues and contemporaries. Thankfully, being diverse and flexible in nature is my greatest attribute. If it were not, I probably wouldn’t be in the position to type this today.… Read more…