ABSTRACT
Here is how I (WD) respond to such a question: ‘REBT states that people disturb themselves (C) by the beliefs (B) that they hold about the negative activating events in their lives (A). Now A’s can be present events, future events and past events. Thus, if a client is disturbed now about certain aspects of her past, then an REBT therapist would certainly deal with this using the ABC framework where A is the past event (or events). What REBT questions, however, is the position that a client’s past has made him disturbed now. This you will recall is an example of “A causes C” thinking to which REBT objects. Now, even if we assume temporarily that the client was made disturbed as a child by a past event, or more usually by an ongoing series of events, REBT theory argues that the reason the person is disturbed now about his past is because in the present he holds a set of irrational beliefs that he has actively kept alive or perpetuated from the past.
