Helping clients to develop alternative and more constructive viewpoints to tackle their problems lies at the heart of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). This development is facilitated by the quality of the argument not to be confused with arguing that therapists present to their clients. Students as well as experienced practitioners frequently complain that they are "stuck" when confronted with some clients' self defeating thoughts and beliefs; they lack or cannot think of good and persuasive arguments to put forward at the time. The purpose of this book is to provide therapists with ideas and arguments they can present to and build on in their discussions with clients. This book represents an addition to the therapist's "argumentarium" in the same way that new techniques are added to the therapist's armamentarium. It will appeal not only to cognitive behavioural practitioners, novice and experienced alike, but also to every therapist who wants to improve their current repertoire of rational arguments to promote client change.

Rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) can, on first impressions, appear to be simple to practice. Its model of emotional disturbance and change, ABCDE, describes a clear and uncluttered approach to therapy. However, the easy progression implied by the model belies the often extremely difficult tasks that the therapist has to execute in each component of the model in order to facilitate this progression. For example, if a client's presenting problem is "my hole life," the therapist has to help the client translate this amorphous problem into a specific one and then link it to goals that are behavioural, measurable and observable.

The aim of this book is to demonstrate the complexities of REBT in order to do justice to a system of psychotherapy that is both sophisticated and efficient in tackling emotional disturbance.

This work addresses the manifold difficulties that both client and therapist bring to Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT). It offers ways of tackling difficulties that should assist their resolution and thereby help to build a productive and less stressful therapeutic relationship. The authors stress that the use of persistence, force, ingenuity, energy and persuasion are more likely to overcome blocks in therapy than stale, unimaginative approaches. They see the discovery of new techniques and strategies for removing roadblocks in therapy as one of the continual pleasures and challenges in REBT, and their enthusiasm for problem-solving is communicated to the reader.