rease the likelihood of success with his patients, Ellis focused more and more on thought processes and logic, turning to the writings of philosophers such as Bertrand Russell, Epictetus, and Spinoza. By 1955, Ellis had formulated a theoretical framework for therapy, terming it Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy or REBT.
Ellis' basic framework, which essentially serves as the foundational bedrock of cognitive-behavioral psychology (see: Davison, Neale & Kring, 2003) has several components. The first of these, according to Ellis (2001) is what has been termed the ABCs of therapy. These are:
1. A = Activating event. This event is the stimulus, the triggering incident, or the core segment of the experience that an individual reacts to. In the refined model, this activating event is said to be an adversity that has been encountered.
2. B = Belief. Belief refers to the perceptual or interpretive framework the individual uses to understand the triggering stimulus. It is the conceptual framework used to judge a
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