Stress Counseling: A Rational Emotive Approach

2014

The Sport Psychologist

The use of REBT in sport psychology has received scant research attention. Therefore little is known about how REBT can be adopted by sport psychology practitioners. This paper principally outlines how practitioners can use REBT on a one to one basis to reduce irrational beliefs in athletes. Guidance is offered on the introduction of REBT to applied contexts, the REBT process through which an athlete is guided, and offers an assessment of the effectiveness of REBT with athletes. It is hoped that this paper will encourage other practitioners to adopt REBT into their work and to report their experiences. Theoretical BackgroundThe quote from Rory McIlroy after his 2011 Masters failure reflects one of the fundamental aims of Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT; Ellis, 1957), to promote rational and logical responses to life events. That is, by applying the rational and logical notion that there are as a matter of fact worse things that can happen than failing in sport, athletes can assuage dysfunctional emotions. Therefore, helping athletes to adopt rational beliefs may help them better deal with career adversities such as failure, rejection, and performing under pressure.Applied sport psychologists working within professional sport are taxed with how to structure their provision, and in particular, whether and to what extent they provide one to one psychology support to athletes. Over the past five years we have undertaken consultancy work in professional football and cricket clubs. We have come to realize that the cannon of psychology skills (Anderson, 2009) is an invaluable strategy that we have used with many athletes, but some athletes require more fundamental changes in core beliefs to overcome performance disrupting psychological issues. Therefore, we have adopted REBT with athletes who present with dysfunctional emotions that stem from irrational beliefs.The use of REBT is seldom documented in sport psychology literature (Turner & Barker, 2013), even though the beliefs of athletes may have an important influence on performance (e.g., Balague, 1999;Burton & Raedeke, 2008;Cockerill, 2002). Albert Ellis conceived REBT (then called Rational Therapy; RT) in 1955, inspired by the view that it is "Using Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy With Athletes" Turner MJ, Barker J The Sport Psychologist © 2012 Human Kinetics, Inc. not the event that causes emotional disturbance, but ones view of the event (e.g., Aurelius, Lucian, Martyr, Pater, & Edman, 1945). RT was reformulated in 1961 and became RationalEmotive Therapy (RET), to formally recognise the role emotions have in mental processes and in therapy. RET then became REBT in 1993, now formally recognising a behavioural emphasis and also embodying a humanistic and collaborative approach to therapy (Enfield, 2010). REBT is currently one of the predominant techniques associated with CognitiveBehaviour Therapy (CBT), asserting that beliefs individuals hold in relation to failure, rejection, and poor treatment will mediate their perceptions of events, inf...

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Section: Education Phasementioning

confidence: 99%

Using Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy With Athletes

2014

The Sport Psychologist

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“…Informed by our observations we were able to tailor the workshop towards recognizing and disputing specific primary and secondary irrational beliefs in favour of rational beliefs. The workshop comprised three stages and used techniques advocated in REBT literature (e.g., Dryden, 2009;Dryden & Branch, 2008;Ellis & Dryden, 1997;Ellis, Gordon, Neenan, & Palmer, 1997): REBT education, recognizing and disputing demands (primary irrational beliefs), and recognizing and disputing awfulizing (secondary irrational beliefs). We wanted the workshop to be relaxed and interactive to encourage discussion throughout.…”

Section: Intervention Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not the End of the World: The Effects of Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) on Irrational Beliefs in Elite Soccer Academy Athletes

Slater

Journal of Applied Sport Psychology

2014

“…Specifically, REBT suggests that unhealthy dysfunctional emotions (e.g., immobilising emotions such as anxiety), and associated maladaptive behaviours (e.g., withdrawal), stem from irrational beliefs. In contrast, healthy functional emotions (e.g., mobilising emotions such as concern), and associated adaptive behaviour (e.g., assertiveness), stem from rational beliefs (Ellis, Gordon, Neenan, & Palmer, 1997). In REBT there are four types of irrational belief, one primary (demands) and three secondary (awfulizing, low-frustration tolerance, self-depreciation); the secondary beliefs are derived from the primary belief.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the Effects of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) on the Irrational Beliefs of Blue-Chip Professionals

J Rat-Emo Cognitive-Behav Ther

2014