ABSTRACT
Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) therapists vary considerably concerning how much information they obtain from their clients during the therapeutic process. Some REBT therapists prefer to follow the medical or psychiatric practice of conducting a fairly rigorous assessment at the outset of therapy. Other REBT therapists do not carry out a structured assessment at the beginning of therapy, preferring to start by teaching clients the ABCs of REBT and to use this framework to obtain relevant information on clients' presenting problems. The strength of carrying out comprehensive formal assessment at the outset, is that you can learn to understand your clients from a holistic framework and build up a picture of how their problems may relate to one another. However, many clients may become impatient with a long and drawn-out assessment phase, particularly those who consider therapy to be a relatively brief intervention.
