ABSTRACT
Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) is very clear about what constitutes an irrational belief. An irrational belief can take the form of a rigid belief, awfulizing belief, discomfort intolerance belief or depreciation belief. An important part of helping your clients to challenge such beliefs is to teach them the distinction between these irrational beliefs and their rational alternatives. These rational beliefs are flexible, nonextreme, logical, consistent with reality and more productive with respect to self-enhancement and the development of healthy interpersonal relationships. Rather than show the client that an example of a rational belief is 'I would like to do well', teach her that the full rational belief is 'I would like to do well, but I do not have to do so'. Stating the full form of a rational belief explicitly makes it less likely that your clients will implicitly or silently transform seemingly rational beliefs into covert irrationalities.
