Rational Living Therapy is a form of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). All true CBT approaches are based on the fact that our thoughts cause our feelings and behaviors, not people, places, and things.

Rational Living Therapy is a very systematic approach to cognitive-behavioral therapy, which means that the Rational Living Therapist knows where he or she is at any given point in the process of therapy. Each session has a structure and an objective.

Rational Living Therapy emphasizes both therapist skills and client rational self-counseling skills.  Rational Living Therapy recognizes that people often hold onto entrenched beliefs and need help to free themselves from those beliefs. For that reason, Rational Living Therapy utilizes powerful persuasive techniques to help decrease conscious resistance to the therapist’s suggestion of change and success in therapy.

Rational Living Therapy is highly motivational.  If you dislike giving up on clients, and wish that there were some way to encourage any client to make changes, Rational Living Therapy is ideal for you.  It is designed to tap into the client’s desires by utilizing Rational Motivational Interviewing techniques.

Rational Living Therapy is very instructive.  The instructive nature of RLT helps produce long-term results for the client.

Rational Living Therapy also focuses on underlying assumptions.  By doing so, therapy is much “deeper” thus making the results more long-term.

Rational Living Therapists are very concerned with irrational labeling.  For this reason, we disagree with the labeling that results from mental health professionals’ use of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of Mental Disorders.  Many of these “diagnoses” actually are only labels for a set of behaviors.  However, these labels often create a perception that the client “has” or “suffers from” a “disorder.”  This perception can become very problematic for the client, leading to a great deal of hopelessness.  Rational Living Therapists help clients avoid irrational labeling and hopelessness.

Rational Living Therapy takes the best of Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy, Rational Behavior Therapy, and Cognitive Therapy and integrates knowledge and research findings in the areas of cognitive development, learning theory, general semantics, brain functioning, social psychology and perception, and linguistics.  Rational Living Therapy takes advantage of special brain states to facilitate learning and progress.

Rational Living Therapy also rejects the common concepts of self-esteem and self-confidence, and also departs from the traditional CBT emphasis of “self-acceptance.”  RTL’s replacement to these concepts (the “Four A’s”) is much more practical and useful.