ABSTRACT
Up to now, I have encouraged you to assume temporarily that your critical A (i.e. the aspect of the situation that you were most disturbed about in the situation under consideration) is true. I have urged you to do this because this is the best way for you to identify the unhealthy irrational beliefs that we in REBT lie believe at the core of your disturbed reactions at C in the ABC framework. If you were to reconsider your critical A earlier in the emotional episode under consideration, you may realize that your interpretation or inference of the situation you were in was distorted and while you may feel better as a result, you would not have gained practice at identifying, challenging and changing your irrational beliefs. Consequently, these beliefs would remain intact and would be triggered the next time you encountered a similar critical A.
