JOAN: Yes, but my job seems to be taking more and more out of me. [Begins to cry.]
DR. K.: Well, it seems like you're doing your job OK; it's just that you, from your point of view, aren't perfect! So therefore it's all just empty pretense: you're just faking it! But, if you'll give up your nutty perfectionism, you'd be in the clear, because you're obviously satisfying people at work; you're satisfying their expectations. But since you feel bad about yourself, you say to yourself, "Well, they just haven't found me out! When they do, I'm in for it." And so you live in a state of fear.
JOAN: That's it.
DR. K.: It's all because of your unreasonable expectations. Can you see that?
JOAN: [At least temporarily convinced.] Yes, I think I can!
DR. K.: This is what I'd like to work on with you. It's going to take some self-discipline on your part, but together we can help you get rid of some mental habits that bring you unhappiness. They don't serve a useful purpose, and they drag you down. Why don't you tell me more specifically what upsets you at work?
APPLICATIONS OF RATIONAL-EMOTIVE THERAPY
Although rational-emotive therapy has been used to treat many different kinds of problems, Ellis admits that his approach is most effective for the treatment of clients with a single major symptom or clients who are only moderately disturbed. In addition, Ellis does advocate rational-emotive therapy for individuals whose patterns of irrational thought are severe, but for such individuals—when they can be helped—therapy is a long-term process.
From evaluative studies completed so far, it appears that rational-emotive therapy is especially effective in reducing anxieties resulting from such things as public speaking, relating to others on an individual basis, and facing old age. Other specific applications of rational-emotive therapy include these:
* problems of maladjustment, where you have increasing difficulty coping with either an already familiar environment or a situation new to you