ABSTRACT
While there is no precise or right time to initiate disputing strategies there are, however, important tasks to accomplish before deciding when to use these strategies. A different problem occurs when novice Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) therapists hold back on using disputing techniques. Rather than disputing their clients' irrational beliefs prematurely, these therapists delay their disputing interventions sometimes indefinitely. Therapists in the first category need to overcome their fear of failure by identifying and challenging their own fear-related irrational beliefs and using disputing strategies even if they do so poorly. They also need to understand that disputing is a high-level skill that can only be acquired through repeated use with clients and through expert supervision. Therapists in the latter category need to ask themselves what they think will happen if they challenge their clients' irrational beliefs, and then test out their predictions by disputing these beliefs and eliciting their clients' reactions to their disputing interventions.
