Helping Clients Deal with Adversity by Changing their Attitudes: A Concise Therapist Guide

Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of contents
Introduction
Part 1 The role of attitudes in psychological disturbance and health in the face of adversity
	Introduction
	Adversity
	Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
	The role of attitudes
	Rigid versus flexible attitudes
		Rigid attitudes
		Flexible attitudes
		A brief overview of the consequences of rigid and flexible attitudes
	The case of Frank
	The importance of inferences
	Frank holds a rigid attitude
	Frank holds a flexible attitude
	The consequences of rigid and flexible attitudes
	The consequences of rigid attitudes
		Secondary attitude consequences of rigid attitudes
			Awfulising attitude
			Discomfort intolerance attitude
			“Devaluation of self / others / life”
		Emotional consequences of rigid attitudes
		Behavioural consequences of rigid attitudes
		Other thinking consequences of rigid attitudes
	The consequences of flexible attitudes
		Secondary attitude consequences of flexible attitudes
			Non-awfulising attitude
			Discomfort tolerance attitude
			Unconditional acceptance attitude towards self / others / life
		Emotional consequences of flexible attitudes
		Behavioural consequences of flexible attitudes
		Other thinking consequences of flexible attitudes
	Notes
Part 2 Helping clients change their attitudes towards adversity
	Introduction
	Understanding-oriented techniques to promote intellectual insight
		Have the client examine attitudes in pairs
			The true-false standpoint
			The sense-nonsense standpoint
			The healthy-unhealthy standpoint
			Encourage the client to make a commitment towards their flexible / non-extreme attitudes
		Ask the client which attitude they would teach their children
	Techniques to promote emotional insight: Helping clients to develop conviction in their flexible and non-extreme attitudes
		Cognitive techniques
			The rigid-flexible dialogue
			Help the client identify and respond to doubts, reservations and objections
		Behavioural techniques
			Encourage the client to make a commitment to act
			Encourage the client to make their attitudes, behaviour, talk and associated thinking work in harmony
		Other methods and principles
			Use imagery rehearsal
			Understand the change process
				Expect that the first response to an adversity will be problematic and respond to it in healthy ways
				Attitude dissonance
				Feelings are often the last to change
				The practice principle: It’s like going to the gym
			Helping the client to deal with the thinking consequences of rigid / extreme attitudes
				The client can use the TCs to identify and respond to their rigid/extreme attitude and then develop and rehearse...
				The client can respond to these TCs and then return to the rigid/extreme attitude that spawned them and respond...
				The client can acknowledge the existence of the TCs, but not engage with them
	Notes
Appendix 1: A guide to the eight emotional problems and their healthy alternatives with adversities, basic attitudes and associated...
Appendix 2: A list of inferential (cognitive) distortions, their realistic and balanced alternatives, descriptions and examples
Appendix 3: Arguments to help clients examine their rigid/ extreme and flexible/ non- extreme attitudes
Suggested further reading
References
Index