Homework Assignments
Your progress in therapy depends much more
on what you do between sessions than on what happens in the
session. To help you make the most of therapy, we will be
devising various kinds of homework assignments for you. At
the beginning of each session, we will review your progress
on your assignments. It's okay if you don't do it, but you
might want to examine your thoughts and feelings about the
assignments to see if you might be sabotaging yourself.
Please feel free to discuss any aspect of the homework with
me. Several kinds of homework will be used, as follows:
Reading This will be an
ongoing task which is best done regularly. This could include
reading the workbook material, books, articles or whatever.
Please refer to the list of recommended readings in the
workbook. You can also obtain many RET books on particular
problems through the Institute of Rational-Emotive Therapy,
as described in the catalog I will give you. While reading
can be quite helpful, it is probably not enough because
learning RET is a skill, not just knowledge. Skill is
acquired through practice, practice, practice. Therefore,
there are many other types of assignments.
Written Assignments There
will be many of these, mostly writing out ABC's. Use the
various forms in the workbook to keep a log of your feelings,
thoughts and behavior. As you progress, you can advance to
more complex forms. Keep in mind, however, that RET involves
many specific skills and it is better if each one is mastered
before you progress to the next one. Most people find it is
easiest to spend 20 to 30 minutes daily or every other day
writing out these assignments. You can take current events
that you are upsetting yourself about, or use past situations
for analysis. Bring your written materials to each session
and I will go over it with you. Don't worry about whether it
is right or wrong. One of the best ways to learn is to make
mistakes, then get feedback so you can adjust what you are
doing.
Experiential Activities It
is not enough for most people to just think about your
irrational beliefs. To eliminate such fundamental beliefs, it
is often useful to fight them in your daily life by living,
acting and feeling according to your new rational beliefs.
There are many ways to do this, including:
- Switching: Using
visualization to replay tapes in your mind of events where
you made yourself upset. First, you get into feeling upset,
then run the tape again, forcing yourself to switch the
feeling.
- Shame Attacking: This
involves confronting feelings of shame and embarrassment by
doing something silly that would usually embarrass you, but
doesn't hurt anyone. Such experiences prove to you that you
don't need approval.
- Risk Taking:
Confronting your fears is a good way to get rid of them. We
encourage implosion, direct confrontation rather than
gradual exposure.
- Discomfort Attacking:
Exposing yourself to uncomfortable, frustrating situations
can help you develop greater frustration tolerance.
Examples might be picking a long line to stand in or
deliberately creating symptoms, like making yourself feel
depressed or anxious on purpose.
- Consequences: It can be
helpful to provide positive and negative consequences to
yourself for doing or not doing something. Try
experimenting with different consequences until you find
one that works.
- Anti-procrastination Strategies:
There are many specific methods you can use, including time
versus priorities, the five minute plan, bits and pieces,
do the worst first and leading task.
- Anti-perfectionism: For
perfectionists, it is helpful to fight it by making
yourself do things imperfectly, like only washing half your
car or taking a different, inefficient route home every
day, or spending a day spontaneously, with no plans.
People often have emotional reactions to
such assignments, ranging from fear to boredom. It is
important to discuss these feelings openly, as they may be
stumbling blocks to progress. Feel free to bring up any
concerns you have about homework assignments. Even though
they may be uncomfortable, you will find that you will get
much more out of your investment in therapy if you are
diligent in carrying out your homework.
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