• 2010 464pp paperback ISBN: 9781568871233
Reviews
"Perhaps you think Albert Ellis' REBT
(Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy) involves the mindless but forceful
repetition of a few simple concepts. This book should change your mind.
REBT, presented by Velten and Penn as RAPT (Rational Assessment and
Personalized Treatment), is capable of deeply responding to the
complexities and nuances of life."
"Just as medical illustrations can be a better teaching tool than
actual photos, the authors' constructed session 'transcripts' are an
excellent tool for teaching the subtleties of REBT, particularly as
applied to individuals with serious and combined substance and mental
health problems. The transcripts are interspersed with highly helpful
explanations of what is happening in the sessions and how it is being
responded to."
"The book is set as an imaginary visit to
Arizona. Ellis visits several treatment settings and conducts ten
demonstration sessions. These sessions illustrate how Ellis would work
with a broad range of problems. The initial sessions are with the
professionals themselves. Ellis asks them to consider how REBT could be
applied to their own lives, and how their own lives are not
fundamentally different than the lives of the clients they work with.
After working with a counselor depressed about not losing weight, and
three counselors experiencing burnout, Ellis works with a
methamphetamine user with psychotic symptoms, a woman with drinking
problems diagnosed with DID (dissociative identity disorder), a
methadone client not getting 'take home' doses of methadone because of
pot use, a man with a history of alcohol and LSD use now diagnosed with
schizophrenia who is frustrated because people do not believe he has
microchips installed in him, another counselor working in a prison
feeling stuck in his job, and an alcohol using man diagnosed as having
rapid cycling bipolar disorder and placed on a locked psychiatric unit."
"There are also didactic presentations on
counselor burnout, the realities and language of 'dual diagnosis' and
'co-morbidity' (leading to the conclusion that 'co-occurring problems'
is the most sensible term), the best practices for dealing with
co-occurring problems, the principles of RAPT, responding to seemingly
hopeless and unmotivated clients, and SMART Recovery. There is even a
'radio interview' of Ellis as he addresses a popular audience about
REBT."
"This book is ideally suited for
professionals in the public treatment system, on either side of the
substance abuse/mental health divide the authors hope to help end.
Because of the rich clinical wisdom throughout this book, even
experienced REBT practitioners are likely to admire and learn from it.
Those who knew Ellis personally will re-experience him on these pages. .
. . As noteworthy as the clinical wisdom is the humor. Ellis has a
well-deserved reputation as a humorist, and Velten and Penn carry on
this tradition. Their humor will be especially meaningful to public
treatment system professionals, whose world is well understood by Velten
and Penn. However, I suspect just about all readers will come away from
this book as I did, laughing with my clients and with myself. To laugh
and learn simultaneously, what a treat!"
-A. Tom Horvath, PhD, ABPP, President, Practical Recovery; President, SMART Recovery
"Often labeled as 'Dual Diagnosis'
most patients have co-occurring problems on DSM Axes I, II, III, and IV,
and poor functioning coded on Axis V. They present for therapy with
what I have called 'symptom profusion.' Drs. Emmett Velten and Patricia
Penn have developed a model they term Rational Assessment and
Personalized Treatment (RAPT), based in Ellis' REBT. In this volume they
offer a conceptual framework, a strategy for cognitive, emotional,
behavioral and philosophical change, an explication of the
RAPT techniques, and superb clinical examples. This book is essential
reading and study for all CBT therapists."
-Arthur Freeman, EdD, ScD, ABPP, Visiting Professor, Governors State University, University Park, IL:
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Preface
Chapter 1: Behind the Scenes
Chapter 2: Shortcuts
Chapter 3: Ellis by Air and by Land
Chapter 4: The ABCs of Treatment and Self-Help
Chapter 5: A Demonstration of REBT With a Counselor
Chapter 6: Burnout, Part I - Causes and Cures
Chapter 7: Burnout, Part II - How To Proof Yourself Against It
Chapter 8: "Dual Diagnosis" and Its Contenders
Chapter 9: Best Practices: Integrated, Unique Treatment for Integrated, Unique People
Chapter 10: Radio KOPE: Ellis on the Airwaves
Chapter 11: Rational Assessment and Personalized Treatment (For People With Co-occurring Problems)
Chapter 12: Unmotivated, Defensive, In Denial ? Hopeless Case
Chapter 13: Ramsay Ramsay, Quite Contrary
Chapter 14: In Deep Mañura
Chapter 15: SMART Recovery
Chapter 16: Medication-Assisted Treatment - The Clinic
Chapter 17: Ellis in the Garden of Eden
Chapter 18: The House of Corrections
Chapter 19: Inpatient Psychiatric Locked Unit
Chapter 20: Going Home
References & Resources
About the Authors
Emmett Velten, PhD, was, for many years, Clinical Director at Assisted Recovery Centers of
America, a private program in Phoenix, AZ using cognitive-behavioral
therapy together with anti-craving and other medications, to treat
people with alcohol and/or opioid problems. Dr. Velten is a long-time
practitioner and trainer in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. He was a
founding member of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Self-Help Network, and was a
long-time member of the Board of Trustees of the Albert Ellis Institute
in New York City. With Ellis, he co-authored two books, When AA Doesn’t
Work for You, and Optimal Aging. He edited Under the Influence:
Reflections of Albert Ellis in the Work of Others, and Albert Ellis:
American Revolutionary (in press). He held a variety of posts,
including Clinical Development Director at Bay Area Addiction Research
& Treatment (BAART), a nationwide substance abuse treatment and
primary healthcare organization headquartered in San Francisco.
Patricia E. Penn, PhD, is a psychologist
and the Director of Research and Evaluation at La Frontera Center in
Tucson, Arizona. She has been the principal investigator or evaluation
director for projects funded by federal and state grants, including
NIDA, SAMHSA’s National Child Traumatic Stress Network, the NIDA
Clinical Trials Network, the Arizona Biomedical Research Commission,
CSAT, and CSAP. These were primarily to develop and study treatments for
co-occurring conditions. She was an invited member of the American
Society for Addiction Medicine’s work group to revise their Patient
Placement Criteria to include co-occurring conditions, the Arizona
Integrated Treatment Consensus Panel (SAMHSA funded), and an expert
panel on improving treatment for co-occurring conditions sponsored by
SAMHSA. She led the development of ADMIRE Plus, an integrated treatment
program for co-occurring conditions, which received an Award of
Excellence from the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare
in 2000. In 2003, she received a leadership award from the Arizona
Practice Improvement Collaborative. She also directs La Frontera’s
comprehensive program evaluations and is faculty in their psychology
doctoral internship program. In addition, she teaches meditation and
mindfulness at Miraval Resort.