ABSTRACT
Preparing clients for psychotherapy has been shown to have a beneficial effect on the outcome of therapy (Orne and Wender 1968). When you prepare your clients to understand REBT and the roles that you and they have to play in the process, they will make more effective use of therapy. Such preparation can be done before clients come to therapy or early in the therapeutic process. In fact, if you do it before therapy starts you enable your prospective clients to make an informed decision about whether REBT is the therapy for them. If you do it after therapy has begun, choose a time which does not interfere with your clients discussing their problems. You might agree to use a portion of an opening session to describe REBT and discuss this with your client; you might even devote an entire session to this crucial point. Whichever method you choose, it is important that you outline your tasks as a therapist and what will be expected of the client. Additionally, you may want your client to read something on REBT which makes clear your respective roles. Russ Grieger (1989) has prepared a client’s guide to REBT which outlines in stepwise fashion what is expected of clients at different stages of the REBT therapeutic process. I (WD) have written a client’s manual which also covers similar ground (Dryden 2004). Our experience of using such material is that clients need to read it step by step rather than in one chunk because much of the guide/manual depends on the client understanding the points previously introduced and experienced.
