06/07/2026
My Impolite View of REBT's Popularity Problem
I often wonder why REBT is not more popular with clients and professionals. I have seen firsthand how useful REBT is for a broad range of existential challenges. Some textbooks on psychotherapy do not mention REBT. To my amazement, doctoral-level graduate students I have interviewed for training positions at the University of Pennsylvania have come to interview with me and admit they have never heard of Albert Ellis. I am committed to reviving interest in REBT among professionals and nonprofessionals to help ensure this powerful system of ideas does not become extinct. Why? Because I have witnessed, in my own life and in the lives of many people I have taught REBT to, that it can have a profoundly positive impact.
In mulling over the sad state of affairs, I have reached several conclusions. First, I believe there is value in sharing my perspective on why REBT is not popular. I think prospective beneficiaries of REBT, professionals and non-professionals, will profit from my biased view of how the field of psychotherapy operates. I say 'biased' because everyone has their likes and dislikes, which influence how we evaluate what happens in reality. Despite my personal preferences, I believe my view is empirically supported by my 36 years of experience in the field, including working with hundreds of clients conducting approximately 25,000 hours of therapy and serving for several years at a highly respected research center at the University of Pennsylvania, the Aaron T. Beck Center of Psychopathology, during two separate tours of duty. I admit I could be wrong, but I strongly believe much of what I have to say on the matter is valid. By sharing my view, prospective learners of REBT, both professionals and non-professionals, may give it a better chance. In my view, choice and competition in the marketplace are a good thing, ultimately for the consumer of psychological services. Here is my impolite view:
1. Since Albert Ellis's death in 2007, REBT has not marketed itself well. For reasons not entirely clear to me, the Albert Ellis Institute in New York, the preeminent institution responsible for disseminating Albert Ellis's ideas and preserving his legacy, has failed in its mission to widely publicize REBT and to recruit and train professionals. Without recruiting new professionals who are interested in and formally trained in REBT, it is no wonder REBT is unpopular, and clients have very limited opportunities to encounter it.
2. Some professionals interested in cognitive behavior therapy wrongly conclude that REBT is not a distinct form of cognitive therapy despite clear evidence that it is the first form of psychotherapy that formally introduces the impact of cognitive processing on emotional reactions (Ellis, 1957, 1958).
3. REBT was created in the rough-and-tumble streets of Manhattan, not in academia. Although REBT has empirical support, there are fewer high-quality studies than for the models developed in academia. Because Americans are enamored of randomized controlled clinical trials, REBT’s brand has suffered.
4. There is a bias by academics against therapeutic models like REBT that have not been cultivated in the club of the academy. It is not a well-publicized fact that the leading figures in the competing academically rooted models, Beck's Cognitive Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy, did not actually work with clients over the course of their careers; instead, they spent their time submitting research grant proposals, analyzing data gathered from paper-and-pencil tests measuring the outcomes of their protocols, and then presenting their research at conferences. These conferences are largely attended by other academics, young professionals, or graduate students. This failure to practice what they preach is ignored by professionals and not known to the public. Truth be told, it is common practice for academic authorities to tell practicing clinicians and students how to do psychotherapy based on their research, but never actually do the therapy they teach. Instead of real-world personal clinical experience delivering their therapy to a range of clients and demonstrating it with people willing to discuss a real problem in a public setting, as we do in REBT, they opt for role-playing with volunteers who ultimately have to capitulate out of politeness. Role plays are not authentic demonstrations because the person playing the client role plays along and allows the academic, who does not practice as a clinician, to demonstrate their therapy unencumbered by genuine resistance.
5. Out of concern for professional repercussions, many in the field are hesitant to highlight or discuss the problematic reality that prominent advocates of academically based therapy models often have little practical clinical experience in applying them. This reluctance stems from a fear of criticism and ostracism for drawing attention to this uncomfortable truth.
6. Albert Ellis’s straightforward style and salty language possibly turned off many prospective clients and professionals. Some may wrongly assume this is the only way to practice REBT and, as a result, are reluctant to learn more about this approach. REBT can be practiced without using four-letter words and in a style different from Ellis's trademark style.
7. At a professional conference, I personally heard a prominent CBT psychologist stand before a large audience and say, “Albert Ellis made fun of his clients.” The truth is that Albert’s humorous songs made fun of what fallible humans often tend to think, sometimes do, and feel. Albert Ellis did not make fun of or put down people, as people. This is an important distinction that some professionals do not appreciate.
8. The zeitgeist does not value reason, personal responsibility, and hard work.
9. It is easy to acquire a rudimentary understanding of REBT, but it is not easy for clients and therapists to implement this understanding due to their low discomfort tolerance. REBT emphasizes hard work, and people, in one way or another, largely by nature, prefer to avoid hard work.
10. People do not like to face the worst-case scenario and prefer to avoid coming to terms with the hard realities of life. Who wants to think about and come to terms with some of the grim realities of life? REBT does not shy away from open and honest discussion about the grim realities of life and advocates that we face and address them in a sensible way.
11. Many professionals have outdated or false knowledge of REBT theory and practice. Dryden (2012) empirically documented errors and confusion in current psychology textbooks. His careful analysis sadly revealed that many authors were not accurately presenting the theory and practice of REBT.
12. The public and professionals are inclined towards fads. A newer therapy, a popular idea, or a catchphrase offers new hope that therapeutic change can be achieved with less effort (e.g., mindfulness).
13. People have an aversion to the word Rational in the name of the therapy and erroneously believe emotions are not addressed in REBT. Professionals and nonprofessionals generally do not know that REBT discriminates between healthy (self-helping) negative emotions and unhealthy (self-defeating) negative emotions. REBT puts the discussion of emotions center stage in the therapeutic discussion.
14. People, probably due to their low discomfort tolerance, prefer to talk about and vent their thoughts and feelings about their problems rather than take action to address them. REBT emphasizes taking action, maintaining action, and accepting that action is a key ingredient in therapeutic change. This is a hard sell to many people.
15. People do not want to accept what they cannot change. Accepting what one cannot change is not the preferred solution in our contemporary society, where it is hoped technology will solve all adversity and allow us to live in comfort and good health. REBT emphasizes that utopias do not exist. This, too, is a hard sell.
16. People do not understand the idea of unconditional self-acceptance, its advantages, and opt for self-esteem, which is easily understood and commonly advocated by mental health professionals.
17. People misunderstand what is meant by acceptance in REBT. Acceptance in REBT does not mean resignation. It means acknowledging that all the conditions for a negative state of affairs currently exist, along with the right to exercise one's option to attempt to change them if this is possible, or a willingness to live somewhat happily even when they cannot be changed. This is a hard sell. REBT advocates finding alternative paths to happiness when the preferred path is blocked or unachievable.
18. As I know from firsthand experience, REBT can be exhausting for full-time clinicians who see 35 clients each week, given the active-directive stance assumed by the psychotherapist. REBT asks a great deal of the therapist in terms of energy and concentration. It is easier to go with the flow and tell clients what they want to hear or what is easier for them to hear. As stated previously, REBT also asks a great deal of clients. REBT is a hard therapy for both parties, even if it delivers significant rewards.
19. Professionals and non-professionals alike, perhaps influenced by low discomfort tolerance, think it is both better and necessary to go back in time to understand the origins of their emotional and behavioral disturbance as a prerequisite for overcoming it. This is wishful thinking. If enduring therapeutic change could be accomplished by insight alone, life would be so much easier for all of us.
20. REBT's emphasis on the biological predisposition towards rigid, extreme self-defeating thinking and behavior, which is not evenly distributed in the at-large population, can be easily misunderstood, leading people to inaccurate conclusions that REBT devalues those who have to work harder to manage their predisposition to emotional disturbance. Nothing could be further from the truth. Note: REBT holds that people have equal human worth, even the most disturbed among us, but differ in their biological predisposition and in their practiced tendency to disturb themselves.
As a result of my strong desire and commitment to see that REBT not become extinct, I have joined with Dr. Windy Dryden to form the Academy of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. Its mission is to train professionals and offer masterclasses to the public. Please visit our website: https://academyofrebt.org/
Ellis, A. (1957). Rational Psychotherapy and Individual Psychology. Journal of Individual Psychology, 13, 38–44.
Ellis, A. (1958). Rational psychotherapy. Journal of General Psychology, 59(1), 35–49.
Dryden, W. (2012). The “ABCs” of REBT I: A preliminary study of errors and confusions in counselling and psychotherapy textbooks. Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 30, 133–172.
The Academy of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy View Syllabus Apply Now What is REBT? Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is a problem-focused, solution-oriented, evidence-based approach to addressing self-defeating emotional and behavioral responses to various problems. It is the original ...
