ABSTRACT
Ordinary social conversation between two people can range quite widely over a variety of issues. Much social interaction permits tangential changes in the direction of conversation. So, when clients come to Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), they bring with them a long history of interacting with people in a tangential manner. This tendency may be exacerbated if your clients have been in the type of psychotherapy which encourages tangential talk. Thus, clients who have been in non-directive or psychoanalytic therapy may have been encouraged to explore their concerns in an open, unstructured manner. Inform your clients that from time to time you may interrupt them politely in order to keep them focused on their problems. You need to explain that tangential talk is a natural human tendency and ask their permission to interrupt them if you consider that they are going off the point.
