Rebt 5

J Rat-Emo Cognitive-Behav Ther
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10942-022-00459-x
Making a Difference: A Review and Auto-Ethnographic

Account of Applying Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy
(REBT) in Policing
J. K. Jones1 · M. J. Turner1
Accepted: 2 May 2022

© The Author(s) 2022
Abstract
The current article provides a review and auto-ethnographic account of the appli-
cation of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) in a police setting. After
reviewing literature that explores the application of both REBT in policing to date,
the focus will then turn to a reflection of the personal experiences of applying the
principles of REBT theory in the context of policing. This commentary will high-
light the broad applicability of REBT across the many challenging facets of polic-
ing. From stress management and resilience enhancement to optimal performance
and team cohesion, this article posits that REBT theory provides an accessible foun-
dational framework on which individuals, teams, groups, and systems can perform
effectively. The nuanced application of the approach in the face of exposure to
traumatic events and cultural challenges within policing will also be discussed.
Keywords CBT · Occupational · Reflection · Irrational
Policing is a complex, fast-paced, 24/7 environment. Within the law enforcement/

police practice literature there has been a broad and growing interest in ensuring the
ongoing psychological well-being of police officers and support staff (Cartwright
& Roach, 2021). The fact that policing is stressful is well supported (Houdmont &
Elliot-Davies, 2016), and the negative effects that stress has on police performance,
and personnel wellbeing, is also broadly known (Nisar & Rasheed, 2020). As stress is
largely a psychological challenge, the field of applied performance psychology is in a
strong position to respond. Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT; Ellis 1962)
is a psychological approach to human functioning that, at its core, aims to shift peo-
J. K. Jones
jenni@jennijonespsychology.com
1
Department of Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University, Brooks Building, 53
Bonsall Street, M15 6GX Manchester, England
13
J. K. Jones, M. J. Turner
ple’s perspectives to achieve a profound philosophical change that greatly impacts

their quality of life. It is posited that through changing their philosophy people can
move from experiencing debilitating stress to functional pressure (Ellis et al., 2001).
The aim of this paper is to reflect on the experiences of applying REBT theory from
a performance psychology practice orientation within a British Police organisation,
to draw pragmatic conclusions that inform its effective application in this context and
to illuminate avenues for future research.
REBT theory is a goal-oriented comprehensive life philosophy which, it is
claimed if applied robustly and rigorously, can bring about profound effective emo-
tional relief and behaviour change (Ellis, 1994). REBT began as an evidence-based
cognitive behavioural psychotherapy (CBT) that focused on the identification and
disputation of irrational beliefs and the construction of rational beliefs as healthy
and functional alternatives (Digiuseppe et al., 2013). REBT has several distinctive
features that distinguish it from other forms of CBT (Dryden, 2009). Most notably,
REBT places significant emphasis on the role rational and irrational beliefs play in
shaping emotions and behaviours. In REBT rational beliefs are defined as beliefs that
are flexible, non-extreme, and logical (i.e., consistent with reality), and in contrast,
irrational beliefs are rigid, extreme, and illogical (i.e., inconsistent with reality). Irra-
tional beliefs underpin unhealthy emotions and behaviours, whilst rational beliefs
underpin healthy emotions and behaviours (Turner, 2016). The chief aim of REBT is
to weaken irrational beliefs and to develop and strengthen rational beliefs to promote
greater wellbeing (Digiuseppe et al., 2013).
Performance psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses on describing,
explaining, predicting, and optimising performance-oriented activities in fulfilment
of general and domain-specific ethical standards (Nitsch & Hackfort, 2016). In par-
ticular, performance psychology researchers are interested in the balance of optimal
performance, development, and wellbeing (Williamon & Philippe, 2020). Recently
researchers in the field of performance psychology have started to examine the role
that REBT theory may have in relation to motivation (Artiran et al., 2020; Davis &
Turner, 2020; Chrysidis et al., 2020; Jones et al. 2021). Motivation is a key compo-
nent of change (Gagné & Deci, 2005) and the quality of motivation, as with the qual-
ity of beliefs (e.g., rational or irrational) and emotions (e.g., healthy or unhealthy)
is thought to be important in a change process (Turner & Davis, 2019). The current
paper is grounded in self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2000) as well as
REBT theory. SDT represents a broad framework for the study of human motivation
and personality (Ryan & Deci, 2017). SDT takes a unique approach to the concept
of goal-directed behaviour as it differentiates the content of goals and the regulatory
processes through which goals are pursued (Deci & Ryan, 2000). This process is
outlined by organismic integration theory (OIT; Ryan & Deci 2017) which is one
of six mini theories that capture different aspects of motivation and psychological
integration within the SDT framework. Furthermore, SDT employs the concept of
innate basic psychological needs (BPN; Ryan & Deci 2017) and their satisfaction as
a foundation for the integration of developing behaviours.
The little REBT research that exists in policing (Jones et al. 2021; Onyishi et al.,
2021; Nwokeoma et al., 2019) demonstrates that the application of REBT theory is
effective in managing stress, improving motivation, and improving wellbeing. Hav-
13
Making a Difference: A Review and Auto-Ethnographic Account of…
ing noted that police contexts are vast and complex, the specific application of REBT
may differ according to the context in which emotional distress occurs. This leads
to calls for detailed professional practice literature that illustrates how REBT theory
can be applied across and within a police context effectively. Along with a shortfall
in empirical investigations into the theoretical tenets of REBT in policing, there is
also an absence of professional practice literature that explores the nuances and chal-
lenges of applying REBT within policing. The effective application of REBT theory
requires both a thorough understanding and innovative thinking so that accurate and
relatable interventions can continue to evolve. Conventional research approaches,
such as cross-sectional and experimental designs, do provide support and advance-
ment in theoretical knowledge but do not often illustrate the detail of the experiences
of professional practice. Literature that explores the nuances of professional prac-
tice has the potential to illustrate and provide an evidence base for a more detailed
application of REBT and can provide important recommendations for practitioners
working within policing contexts. To this end, the purpose of the present article is
to discuss the emergence, application and future of REBT in policing. It is hoped
that reviewing and synthesising practitioner reflections, through an autoethnographic
account, will help provide a foundation that may inform future practice and stimulate
innovative thinking to effectively support performance and wellbeing in this complex
and challenging environment.
Methodology
This research is situated in a pragmatic research philosophy (Fishman, 1999). A prag-

matic philosophical approach to research, with origins in the work of Dewey (1931),
James (1907), and Peirce (1984), emphasises practical solutions to applied research
questions and the consequences of enquiry (Rosiek, 2013). Critics of an extreme pos-
itivist approach to applied psychology research recognise that the reality of experi-
ence is influenced by socio-cultural conditions and subjective biases (Giacobbi et al.,
2005). Pragmatism is an approach to research that attempts to explore and evaluate
the practical value of knowledge as a tool for helping people cope and thrive within
their specific context, as opposed to striving to reflect an underlying reality (Rorty,
1990). Pragmatic knowledge consists of the usefulness of research findings in terms
of problem-solving and achieving goals in the context in which we operate (Fishman
& Messer, 2013).
Autoethnography (Heider, 1975; Goldschmidt, 1977; Hayano, 1979) was adopted
to chart the lead author’s multi-faceted application of REBT interventions in the
dynamic and complex world of policing. An autoethnography is a research method
that draws on personal experiences to describe and understand experiences, beliefs,
and practices within a specific culture or context (Adams et al., 2017). The rationale
for adopting an autoethnographic approach is to complement and build on the grow-
ing body of research in REBT within high-performance contexts (e.g., Jordana et al.,
2020). In this study, this rationale will be addressed through the exploration of the
nuances of applying REBT from a performance psychology orientation in the context
of policing. Such exploratory findings may, ordinarily, be masked by generalisation
13
in more traditional research approaches (Sparkes, 2015). Qualitative findings may be

structured using narrative approaches, although this is not commonplace in the pre-
sentation of the results of scientific enquiry (Sparkes & Smith, 2009). Autoethnogra-
phy contains narrative components which have a potential contribution to broadening
the understanding of psychological processes and building knowledge (Poerwandari,
2021), and is congruous with a pragmatic research philosophy as it allows for reflec-
tion on experience to take place (Rosiek, 2013). It is possible to apply an analytical
approach to autoethnography which aims to capture the lived experience of profes-
sional practice in an ethical way but also stimulate collective progress in knowl-
edge development (Wall, 2016), Furthermore, pragmatism grounds the first-person
account through reflexive critique and locates enquiry in the context of historically
and culturally constituted experiences. Reflexivity is the critical examination of per-
sonal experiences and is central to autoethnographic research (Fassett & Warren,
2007). Autoethnography involves the examination of the self while maintaining an
outward account of the broader context where self-experiences occur. Autoethno-
graphic texts are written in the first person and feature dialogue, emotion, and self-
awareness as a narrative that are affected by history, social structure, and culture
(Ellis & Bochner, 2000). The context of autoethnography as a research method in this
study is that there are many opportunities and benefits of adopting a rational emotive
behavioural approach to address the broad psychological challenges faced in policing
and the obstacles in doing so.
I, the lead author, am a performance psychologist. A performance psychologist
applies interventions that focus on human performance in professions that demand
excellence in performance, policing is deemed to be such a profession (American
Psychological Association, 2014). Performance psychology is a sphere in which
researchers and practitioners describe, explain, and predict human behaviour (Raab,
2020). Effective performance is denoted by an optimal mindset that keeps the per-
former focused on the task at hand at the expense of other competing stimuli (Cot-
terill, 2017) and seeks to understand the cognitions and behaviours initiated when
working towards competent performance (Matthews et al., 2000). The general tasks
of performance psychology are likely to be the description, explanation, prediction,
and psychological optimisation of performance-orientated activities (Cotterill, 2017).
Performance psychology is also especially concerned with contextual factors and
their impact on performance as well as the impact that performance has on those
contextual factors. For example, the external environment or emotional state of a
performer are considered in terms of the quality of performance as well as the impact
of performance tasks on wellbeing, and long-term performance (Matthews, Davies,
Westerman, & Stammers, 2000).
The data generated for this study is drawn from my reflective experiences of first
working as a performance psychology researcher in policing and then becoming an
embedded performance psychology researcher/practitioner within the organisation
over four years. Each theme arose through regular reflective practice based on an
integration of reflective models proposed by Gibbs (1988) and Mason (2002). As a
practitioner, I regularly reflect on my practice as a form of performance evaluation
and as a means of developing my skills. To add depth and structure to my reflec-
tive process I draw on the discipline of noticing (Mason, 2002) which orientates my
13
reflective practice to surface experiences at the inner level (e.g., emotion, attention,
memory) and outer level (e.g., assumptions, predispositions, biases) and deeper expe-
riences at the inner level (e.g., rational/irrationality, motivation, behaviour changes)
and outer level (e.g., critiquing ethical, social, political values). To add further struc-
ture to the analysis salient themes were selected, through reflexive dialogue with my
supervisory team; consultation with texts that focus on the differentiation of REBT
from other psychotherapeutic approaches (Dryden, 2009, 2021; Digiuseppe et al.,
2013) Salient themes were also based upon practitioner experiences that are thought
to echo and build upon previous practice literature. The process of identifying themes
was as outlined by Chang (2016).
Findings
As a result of collating, reading, and rereading the data, sometime after writing the
initial reflective entries, I identified units and then categories from the data. Nine
key categories emerged from data analysis. Categories one to six directly reflect the
GABCDE model popularised within REBT; G = goal; A = activating event; B = belief
system; C = cognitive, emotional, and behavioural Consequences; D = disputes or
discussions to reveal engagement of the irrational belief system; E = presentation of
rational and effective new beliefs and their resulting consequences (Ellis & Dryden,
1997). For B, there is a focus in the present paper on irrational beliefs, which are
beliefs that are dogmatic, inflexible, inconsistent with social reality, and hinder long
term goal attainment, whereas rational beliefs are flexible, consistent with social real-
ity, and aid long-term goal attainment (Turner, 2016). In the first category, I expand
on G; goals and include values and motivations as a more representative description
of my experience and way of working. Categories seven to nine felt important to
include separately as a narrative of my experiences of professional challenges, my
growth as a practitioner, and my ideas for the future.
Goals, Values, Motivations (gs), and Contexts in Policing
An emphasis on client goals, values, motivations, and context. In my practice, I

have found it important to explore the goals, values, and motivations of the people
that I work with, the importance of which is mentioned frequently in REBT theory
and research (Ellis, 1994; Turner et al., 2020). The stressors and psychological chal-
lenges that people face in policing can often be linked to their goals, values and moti-
vations. Emotional reactivity in the form of activating events occur when there is a
perceived incongruence between expectations in terms of goals and reality (Chadha
et al., 2019; Ellis, 1994). In this section, I reflect on the topic of exploring goals, val-
ues, and motivations in policing and within an REBT practice philosophy.
The values of policing and behavioural expectations of police employees in Eng-
land and Wales are currently set out through the College of Policing’s Competencies
and Values Framework (CVF; COP, 2016). It espouses that the core values of policing
are impartiality, integrity, public service, and transparency, all of which are grounded
in the Police Code of Ethics (COP, 2014). Personal and organisational values align-
13
ment has been significantly related to anxiety and work stress (Posner, 2010), with
poor personal and organisational values congruency correlating with higher work
stress and anxiety. Many officers and staff that I encounter express intrinsic motives
for joining the police service. That is, they sign up for reasons that tend to fall in
line with giving to one’s community as opposed to gaining wealth, fame, and image
(Kasser & Ryan, 1993). Without exception they tell me their motivation for being in
policing is to fulfil a drive to “make a difference”, but on closer examination “making
a difference” is rarely the only life goal at play. Extrinsic motivators such as buy-
ing a house, looking after a family, and earning a secure and decent wage are also
important.
The goals landscape becomes more crowded when you consider the complexity of
policing, including the rising demands of policing, the cuts to police numbers, and the
politics that swings policing priorities. While perhaps at the start of a policing career
values are strongly in line with making a difference, that important intrinsic goal is
often trumped by extrinsic aspirations. These extrinsic foci tend to include, main-
taining a positive image in front of others, gaining respect, being promoted, making
it to retirement, and drawing a generous pension. Such extrinsic foci are a facet of
modern society and are by no means poor or immoral goals, but their presence builds
complexity into the picture of goal achievement creating a prioritisation challenge
for individuals to manage and an important area for focus in applied practice. The
contents of goals are then coupled with how an individual is motivated in pursuit of
their goals. Often the extrinsic goals of maintaining a positive image are coupled
with introjected regulation or self-pressure and they can be experienced as having to
do as one is told which is an external form of regulation. Both introjected regulation
and external regulation are known to be associated with poorer goal achievement
and psychological wellbeing outcomes (Ryan et al., 1996). Assessing the content and
process of goal pursuit is therefore an important focus of applied practice also.
The complexity of goal focus is further compounded with the desire to avoid cata-
strophic policing mistakes. The goals of many of the individuals I work with tend
to be about self-survival within policing (e.g., “I cannot/must not make a mistake,
because mistakes can be catastrophic”). Such internal conflicts can be explained by
an approach-avoidance conflict where individuals are both motivated towards and
repelled from high-risk goals as there are elements of such goals which have posi-
tive and negative qualities (Ito & Lee, 2016). There is a lot of evaluation within and
of policing. The word “scrutiny” is common parlance, often resulting in mindsets
focused on egoic survival over masterful effectiveness. Motivation research has dem-
onstrated that dominance of a performance/egoic motivational climate which is pre-
dominantly focused on results and performance outcomes predicts that individuals
will fear judgment and failure and so are likely to experience increased stress, alter-
natively, the dominance of a mastery motivational climate which is predominantly
focused on continually improving skilled task performance predicts that individuals
will experience lower stress (Nerstad et al., 2018). In my experience, the dominant
motivational climate in policing is a performance egoic motivational climate. This
possibly stems from the high risk, high-profile nature of the context where perfor-
mance failures can carry catastrophic consequences. The realities of the risks carried
by those who work in policing coupled with their drive to protect the public can lead
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to an extreme, yet predominant mindset of contingent worth, in that if individuals fail

to solve all crime and perfectly protect the public they will be wholly bad people who
have failed victims of crime. Developing the confidence to deliver effective police
performance is a key reason for seeking psychological support.
Theoretically, when people can identify and perceive that they act/live in line with
their goals, values, and motivations the distress that they experience is minimised
(Deci & Ryan, 2000). In such situations, the volume of activity in pursuit of goals
can appear to be extremely high. For example, during high-profile criminal inves-
tigations, there is often a relentless motivation to deliver justice and is experienced
as “just doing the job”. In those circumstances, the officers and staff seem fully con-
nected to “making a difference” and don’t tend to report high stress levels. Alterna-
tively, I have examples of individuals experiencing extreme distress due to failure
to reach the goals that others had suggested for them. For example, an officer not
being promoted into a position after being asked to apply for that position. When we
explored the distress of this individual, we discovered that they “didn’t even want
the job in the first place” but that they experienced a great deal of personal shame
in not getting what they were told they would get. Exploring “who’s goal was this
anyway?” seemed to help the client recognise the reality of the situation and resolved
their distress to a certain extent. Doing so allowed us to reflect on their shame through
an REBT lens too. I think this makes the case for the importance of assessing goals,
values, and motivations within the REBT framework. Clients’ goals, values, and
motivations can be assessed against the contents of goals (Ryan et al., 1996), the
motivation types that are influencing clients, and the satisfaction of basic psycho-
logical needs (BPNs; Ryan & Deci, 2008) and in conjunction with critical activating
events (A) and consequences (C) (Ellis et al., 2001) with all hypotheses striving to
identify irrational beliefs (B).
I draw on REBT and SDT theory to explore a client’s choice of focus and goals. I
think that raising awareness of what is important to humans (their goals and values)
along with understanding what drives them (their motivations), and if what drives
them is healthy or unhealthy is an important part of the therapeutic process. SDT
also situates individuals in their social context and makes sense of human experience
through the dialectic between the two. REBT theory does address goals, values, and
motivations but does not explicitly focus on their importance as “disturbance fac-
tors”. REBT theory is in agreement with SDT that a person’s goals are preferably
constructive, and intrinsic (Ellis, 1973).
When good goals go bad. I think the following reflection illustrates the complex-
ity of competing motivations as experienced in policing. The most common police
value that I think is misinterpreted is the public service value of selflessness (UK
Government, 2014). It states that holders of public office should act solely in terms
of the public interest. It seemed in many of my early one-to-one meetings with police
officers and staff through Socratic examination of their “overdoing it habits” that this
argument seemed the most solid reasoning that they would give for compromising
their wellbeing to the extent of burnout and breakdown. Those who seemed to suffer
most “could not believe” how others could take a break adding to their emotional
disturbances about not matching up to apparent superhuman levels.
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While practising within policing I came across the concept of public service moti-
vation (PSM; Perry & Wise 1990). PSM is a person’s predisposition to respond to
motives grounded in public endeavours. Four dimensions are reported to be empir-
ically associated with PSM, these are an attraction to public policymaking; com-
mitment to the public interest and civic duty; compassion; and self-sacrifice (Perry,
1996). It seems to explain, to some extent, how the habits of overdoing it can happen
in policing. Being public service motivated extremely and dogmatically, i.e. where
one believes that they absolutely must be committed to serving the public at all times
may be the causal route of negative outcomes associated with the construct.
While having PSM is thought of as positive to foster (Ritz et al., 2016) my imme-
diate thoughts were how would that lead to detrimental wellbeing and performance
outcomes. I could see that it might be possible that reducing resources would per-
haps have a psychological effect on strengthening intrinsic motivation which might
ignore the signs of burnout because the work being done was for the greater good.
Indeed, in the initial formulation of the concept, there were concerns that PSM could
produce negative outcomes through overcommitment (Perry & Wise, 1990), a point
that was largely ignored as the concept gained research momentum. More recently
the darker side of PSM has been researched (Schott & Ritz, 2018). The compassion
and self-sacrifice components of PSM have been shown to foster resigned satisfac-
tion (Giauque et al., 2012) and as an overall concept PSM has been positively related
to stress (Gould-Williams et al., 2013); burnout and job dissatisfaction (Van Loon et
al., 2015); involuntary or long-term absenteeism (Koumenta, 2015); presenteeism
(Andersen et al., 2016), and negatively to physical well-being (Liu et al., 2015). This
is bleak reading for researchers and practitioners who focus on purpose and values
as key to motivation. It seems that an over-emphasis on PSM could be detrimen-
tal to wellbeing, particularly if we see and promote motivation as a unidimensional
construct and focus solely on the goals and values of public service which are easily
interpreted in extreme and dogmatic ways.
PSM theory does not account for contextual factors and is a theory that has
developed independently of broader social psychology. SDT is a broader and more
empirically supported motivation theory and posits that contextual factors are vitally
important (Ryan & Deci, 2000). This means that there is more than one way to be
healthily motivated and while a person’s PSM may be high, other sources of motiva-
tion may add to or come into conflict with the drive that they experience. External
and partially internal types of motivation may factor into the equation. For example,
an officer may have a strong sense of public service motivation (intrinsic motiva-
tion), along with a desire to please their boss (external regulation) which clashes with
the importance they would like to give to their home life commitments (identified
regulation) all topped off with believing that they ought, should, or must meet all of
their goals and that they are terrible people if they do not (introjected regulation).
Each motivational element can be supportive of psychological wellbeing so long as
officers’ basic psychological needs are satisfied and not frustrated in the process of
managing the progress towards achieving their complex goals and values in complex
contexts. It is my view that managing progress towards achieving and maintaining
psychological wellbeing can be achieved through applying many of the principles of
REBT. Of particular importance is motivation through introjected regulation which
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seems to be the clearest alignment of SDT and REBT theory. Irrational beliefs are
created when people elevate their goals and values to dogmatic absolutes (e.g. I must
achieve my goal). This, in turn, creates the setting for events to become activating
(As) which consequently trigger stressful emotional disturbances (Cs).
If PSM is generally thought of as having a positive impact on individual perfor-
mance through healthy motivation (Perry & Wise, 1990) because individuals scoring
high on PSM measures are expected to perform well due to the meaningfulness of
their work (Petrovsky & Ritz, 2014), how does PSM contribute to stress and burnout?
It has been argued that those with high PSM suffer due to the discrepancy between
what they think should be the outcome of their work and the actual outcome of their
work (Koumenta, 2015). From an REBT perspective, it is the demandingness applied
to the achievement of outcomes that is the causal factor in stress. Stress in these
instances results from the fact that individuals cannot meet the high demands they
have set themselves (Schott & Ritz, 2018).
We have seen that in other contexts, for instance, sport, overly- high self-expec-
tations lead to poor athlete wellbeing outcomes (Tait et al., 2020). In policing self-
expectations play out against a backdrop of real and potentially traumatic events
regularly. Making a stand for rational emotive behavioural mindsets is arguably even
more important in policing contexts. In general, the irrationally stressed police offi-
cers who believe that they “must” make a difference can be stoic in their stance.
Disputation has been difficult in some cases. The evidence for the apparent irrational
“They or I must perform more or better or I am not protecting the community that I
serve” can feel difficult to counter. The psychological collisions that my clients and
I discuss in sessions of political policies, public safety, and personal resilience are
challenging to navigate. It’s hard to convince a committed police officer to be less
self-sacrificing. Initially, I felt that I was teaching police personnel to care less about
the work that they do. Ethically doing this felt wrong, however, through self-reflec-
tion and exploratory supervision conversations, self-disclosure and honesty with my
clients I came to rest in the notion that REBT doesn’t challenge us to think less,
believe less, feel less, or act less. Instead, it challenges us to think effectively, believe
effectively, emote effectively, and act effectively in relation to our important goals
and values. The message that has stuck with several of my clients in policing is not to
care less, but to care differently, to care in a way that helps for now and for the long-
term and that an effective formula for quality care is adopting a rational approach.
Typical Activating Events (as) in Policing
Activating events (As) represent perceptions of objectionable or unfortunate occur-

rences (Digiuseppe et al., 2013). Specifically, “As” represent the feature of a situation
that a client is most troubled by (Dryden, 2009). “As” may be an external environ-
mental stimulus, i.e., an event that has happened and/or an inference about reality.
There are a wide variety of potential activating events reported in policing includ-
ing working in negative social situations such as crime and suffering (Henry, 2004),
along with organisational red tape (Queirós et al., 2020). My experience has echoed
those reported but also extends to issues of inclusion within the organisation and per-
sonal matters such as relationship challenges. The most prevalent activating events
13
that clients have reported in my practice emphasise personal internal pressure to per-
form, self-confidence and organisational issues. It seems that operational matters are
less overtly activating, although the carrying of risk seems to be a prevalent activat-
ing event. In this section, I offer a brief description of the typical activating events or
stressors that I have noticed in my tenure in policing so far.
Performance confidence Some of the most prevalent activating events in policing
are associated with an individual’s relationship with their performance. These range
from questioning one’s skills and abilities within policing to feeling frustrated that
time and resource constraints do not allow for individuals to deliver quality perfor-
mance where individuals are likely to experience competence and autonomy frustra-
tion. Transitioning into new roles brings activating events associated with imposter
cognitions which may also frustrate an individual’s BPNs. Frustrations also arise
when people feel disconnected and ignored which connects with the frustration of
the relatedness need.
Functional performance conversations. For many talking about performance in
the policing culture is an activating event, as the word performance is often inter-
preted as poor performance, blame, and punishment. Moving the climate forward
where performance conversations are a welcome exploration of collective goal
achievement is a challenge. A functional performance conversation is an opportunity
to reflect on the performance processes of an individual to support future perfor-
mance optimisation. Individually and privately, officers and staff make evaluations of
their performances and are so overly concerned about their abilities and capacities,
that functional performance conversations are often avoided. This is probably the
biggest contrast that my work in policing has with my work in sport. In sport, there
is a relentless appetite for performance evaluation. While subordinate staff found it
difficult to challenge upwards due to a lack of psychological safety there was also
a range of stress associated with challenging poor performing individuals by line
managers. This sort of awkward conversation was often avoided by those who found
tackling such issues uncomfortable which in turn led to greater and more breadth of
activating events as the poor performances perpetuated. Often line managers felt held
to ransom with their fears that tackling poor performance would result in individuals
falling sick and placing a greater burden on an already stretched service.
Vicarious stress. One Detective Inspector (DI) described what he saw as vicari-
ous stress. Vicarious stress can be compared with experiencing secondary traumatic
stress and vicarious traumatisation which is common in policing (Conn & Butter-
field, 2013) In this example the critical A was that the team leader experienced that
his colleagues were stressed about the stress that they observed or perceived others
were experiencing. Another DI spoke about how others’ descriptions of experiencing
“dark” or suicidal thoughts which were catalysed by the volume of work faced by an
individual felt like his responsibility for having asked that person to take on the cases
that were duly his. Feeling responsible for his team’s wellbeing led to his observa-
tions of stress within his team and his colleague’s disclosure of suicidal thoughts
becoming activating events which, through the activation of associated irrational
beliefs, created a sense of debilitating guilt.
Big As (something bad happened) and Little As (nowhere to park). Managing
risk, the high volume of work, dealing with personal challenges are all common
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activating events in my experience of policing. There are some typical activating

events associated with “the little things” which have been referred to in research
as hindrance stressors (Lockey et al., 2021). Hindrance stressors don’t need to and
are not causal of stress but if there are small blockers to efficiency and effectiveness
organisations would do well to address them. These often included, in my experience,
email volume, lack of car parking spaces, the quality of the estate, and the Wi-Fi con-
nectivity to name a few. Such “little things” are easy to overlook but each is a poten-
tial activating event within the police context with chronic stress as a consequence
in such cases.
Equality and inclusion – from ignorance to awareness. As a practitioner equal-
ity and inclusion emerged as an important source of activating events and adversity
throughout my time in policing. As awareness is raised within our societies of the
biases that lead to institutionalised inequality and exclusion, those that make a stand
can experience those inequalities as distressing adversities. On the other hand, those
who are perhaps unaware of how institutionalised racism and exclusion affect their
behaviours are distressed and surprised when they are blamed as a whole for racist
and exclusionary acts. Activating events emerge as not being listened to or supported
when raising concerns about issues of equality and inclusion and alternatively being
seen as a symbol of a biased and prejudiced part of society by being a police officer.
Rational and Irrational Beliefs (B) in Policing
The activating events described in the previous section can activate a range of irra-
tional beliefs that underpin psychological distress. Irrational beliefs are beliefs that
when examined are absolute, dogmatic, rigid, illogical, inconsistent with reality,
do not support goal achievement, and lead to dysfunctional emotional experiences
(Digiuseppe et al., 2013). I am particularly interested in the extent to which the qual-
ity (irrational or rational) of a person’s beliefs helps or hinders them in pursuit of
their goals (G) in the face of activating events (A). Within REBT activating events
can generate up to four core irrational beliefs. These are demandingness, awfulis-
ing, frustration intolerance, and global evaluations. Demandingness is an absolute
expectation of events or individual behaviours (e.g. the beliefs that events absolutely
must be congruent with one’s expectations), awfulising is the extreme exaggeration
of the negative consequences of a situation (e.g. it is terrible, even catastrophic that
events do not live up to expectations), frustration intolerance reflects beliefs of cop-
ing ability (e.g. the belief that one cannot tolerate or survive a certain event), and
global evaluation beliefs imply that humans and complex life events can be rated or
judged at solely good or exclusively bad (e.g. that a person or the world is wholly bad
in the face of expectations not being met). There is a range of typical context-specific
IBs for each belief type. In this section, I reflect on each belief type in turn. In my
experience, irrational beliefs are rarely singular and occur within a complex network
of associated beliefs, some of which are irrational, and some of which are rational.
For ease of reflection, I review each belief category in turn.
Demandingness. Based on the typical activating events discussed in the previous
section there is a range of beliefs that are characterised by demandingness, which
appear within two broad overarching categories; demandingness associated with
13
performance, and demandingness associated with professional relationships. The

demandingness associated with performance can be directed at the self, colleagues,
and the system and include unrealistic expectations based on how one would want to
respond versus how one does respond to performance-related activating events. For
example, performance drivers which may be underpinned by irrational beliefs (e.g.,
I must perform well) are ineffective/inefficient decision making (particularly in mak-
ing prioritisation decisions), managing time, and feeling able to meet organisational
goals. In particular, there is a prevalence of believing that one can perform beyond
one’s limits in terms of time capacity and volume of work. Unfortunately, there is
a constant imbalance of work volume and one’s time and ability to respond to that
volume. Officers and staff typically believe that they must be able to respond to all the
work that they are faced with. Working towards promoting effective new beliefs (i.e.,
I would like to, but I do not have to, respond to all the work that I am faced with) is
important so that individuals can explore functional ways of meeting the realities of
the volume of work that they face. This is to say that staff should not strive to meet
their work commitment, rather, staff should work towards limiting the demand to
meet work commitments and strengthen processes that make successful performance
more likely.
The demandingness associated with professional relationships also stems from
unmet expectations. Those expectations can be of oneself and others. For example,
when aimed at the self this can be the belief that one must not let others down, par-
ticularly the victims of crime. When aimed at others typical demands are associated
with the expectation that a team member “does what they are told” in a disciplined
service or that a senior leader is fully aware of the realities of being a police officer
on the frontline. From a systems perspective, the capacity of the service to respond
effectively to the growing volume of work demand of policing is a source of sys-
tematic and cultural irrational demandingness beliefs. There is an expectation that
the government invest more in policing, and that the service is armed with enough
resources so that it can respond to all the calls from the public. This expectation is
often elevated to demandingness which leads to stress and demotivation. There are
expectations on police, and demands placed on them, however, a key feature of irra-
tional demandingness is that the preference for meeting expectations is transferred
into a demand, which is activated by an event that may prevent expectations from
being met. Of course, police personnel want to meet public demand but elevating that
“want” to a “must” creates stress if the resources simply do not exist.
One defining characteristic of an irrational belief is the rigidity with which it is
held. In my experience, the irrational demandingness beliefs individuals hold are,
often, so rigid that when change occurs which may address some concerns, such as
modernising the promotion process, providing support for wellbeing or effectively
implementing change programs, those holding demandingness beliefs are unaware
of steps being taken to address the real concerns that they raise. I often experienced
this in support sessions in which individuals complain of a lack of support from the
organisation, the very thing that I was providing to them at that time. My observa-
tion seems to concur with REBT literature which highlights the discrepancy between
expectation and reality as causal of emotional arousal (Digiuseppe et al., 2013).
While people may not try to solve a problem that they believe should not exist, it
13
could also be that through selective attention people do not see that the problem that
is distressing them is being addressed.
In police stress research a distinction is made between occupational stressors
(stresses arising from how the organisation functions, like red tape and people man-
agement) and operational stressors (stresses relating to operational policing such as
exposure to traumatic events). My observation is that irrational demands are more
prevalent when individuals focus on occupational stressors. There is a view that
occupational challenges like red tape, people management, working with HR, emails,
and car parking spaces are easy to fix and so should, must, or have to be fixed eas-
ily. Invariably, in a public service organisation, this is not the case. In contrast, when
faced with the extremes of violent crime there seems to be an operational and profes-
sional ability to cope with the job. It seems that when reviewing a crime there is a ten-
dency to respond rationally even in the most traumatic of cases and there are support
services in place which can be used to support the processing of traumatic events. It
seems that police professionals know, to a certain extent, when it is vital to draw on
their cognitive coping abilities and that this occurs when events are inherently stress-
ful. This may be because procedures, processes, and training support preparation and
coping in this domain. I think there is a difference here in terms of what is expected
to be stressful. While the principles of REBT can assist with coping in both sce-
narios, organisational stressors which are the result of irrational beliefs are in danger
of being trivialised and not problem solved.
Frustration Intolerance. While demandingness is at the core of emotional dis-
turbance (Digiuseppe et al., 2013) stress can be experienced in policing through the
route of frustration intolerance (FI, Ellis & Dryden, 2007). Tolerance beliefs seem to
play an important role in the production of dysfunctional stressful reactions. FI beliefs
are beliefs associated with how much frustration and discomfort humans can tolerate
(Ellis, 2003). A person can have rigid expectations about their ability to sustain effort,
survive, or continue in the face of frustration, discomfort, or pain. I have found it
useful to apply the theoretical categories of FI (Harrington, 2005) when exploring FI
with clients. These are emotional intolerance (e.g., the belief that emotional distress
is intolerable and must be avoided or controlled, and uncertainty reduced), entitle-
ment intolerance (e.g. the belief that desires must be met), discomfort intolerance
(e.g. the belief that life should be easy, comfortable, and free of hassles and effort),
and achievement frustration (e.g. the belief that it is intolerable to perform below
ones best). While the cognitive process is fundamentally the same in FI it is thought
that the above categories lead to different emotional and behavioural experiences.
This highlights the importance of fully exploring the content of IBs with the people
I am working with.
Policing comes with a unique set of challenges to tolerate and often officers and
staff are required to tolerate more than the average person as they are exposed to
inherently stressful realities as well as extremes of work volume. Specifically, my
practice has covered tolerance of stressful police-related incidents, tolerance of risk,
tolerance of high workload, tolerance of one’s limits, and tolerance of system con-
straints. Stressful police-related incidents are an accepted part of the job in policing
but there is a requirement to be able to withstand the details of police incidents.
Achieving positive outcomes for the victims of crime often means that officers and
13
staff focus on tasks that are inherently frustrating and uncomfortable with a core
assumption that they can tolerate doing so. Tolerance of risk seems to be a more chal-
lenging task to achieve. Often officers describe living with a feeling of discomfort
due to the risk of crimes being committed and their responsibility to prevent them.
Awfulising. Explaining and disputing awfulising beliefs in policing is challenging.
Awfulising beliefs are beliefs that are magnified negative evaluations about specific
situations or people including oneself (Digiuseppe et al., 2013). When working in
policing I have deliberately emphasised the survivability of socially awful events
and have taken a great deal of care to handle awfulising disputes sensitively and
with empathy and validation of my client’s beliefs. It tends to get to a point where
I articulate that I agree with the awfulness of the traumatic events that are reported
in policing but then challenge my clients to explore whether they are adding to the
awfulness through the perspective that they choose to take. I feel that the timing of
this sort of conversation is very important. In addition, it is possible to not disagree
with a person’s evaluation that a situation is awful, whilst also questioning whether
holding onto this belief is helpful for them (Dryden, 2009).
Beyond the traumatic incidents that occur in the daily work of police officers and
staff, there is a societal culture where the extremes of language are used to describe
situations that might be experienced as bad but that in reality are peripheral to one’s
goals. Such situations include being late for a meeting. Using extreme language to
describe daily challenges tends to lead to an exaggeration of the negative conse-
quences and can be extremely disruptive in many ways. One example I recall was of
a senior officer losing patience with his children because it would be awful to be late
for the first meeting of the day. The frustration that ensued caused upset at home, and
disrupted his ability to focus on the long term goals that within his role.
Global Evaluation. Global evaluation beliefs describe a philosophical stance that
when events, performances or behaviours do not meet expectations the individual
will tend not to accept, approve, or regard themselves, others, or life positively at all
(Digiuseppe et al., 2013). This then derails one’s focus from what could be done to
correct or improve performances or behaviours in the future. This fourth irrational
belief is also referred to as a depreciation (Dryden & Branch, 2008). These negative
global evaluations are negative evaluations of human worth which can be directed at
one’s self, others, and life. REBT theory recognises the complexity of humans and
life events and so holds the position that humans cannot be rated as wholly good or
of worth or wholly bad or worthless, however, I observe that there is a prevalence of
the philosophy of contingent worth within western society, where success is seen as a
sign of human value. The belief that a person should be competent and failure-proof
to be able to be considered worthwhile has been a core observation of irrationality
since the first inception of REBT in the 1950s (Ellis, 2002).
Fearing failure and believing that failing equates to a global evaluation of one’s
self, others or the world has been voiced by many of my clients within policing. Polic-
ing is a high-risk context where overlooking small details can impact the outcomes of
cases in major ways. As a result, many officers and staff develop performance-related
anxiety underpinned by global evaluation beliefs that affect their sense of self-worth
and self-confidence. As described earlier, typical activating events such as focusing
13
on performance, examining failure, challenging others, and feeling responsible for

the wellbeing of colleagues can activate global evaluation beliefs.
Discussions about fear of failure centre on a range of topics from failing operation-
ally to failing to perform in a promotion board or meeting, and letting others down,
particularly the victims of crime, team members, and senior leaders. Furthermore,
there is a pattern of frustration and disappointment in others who are perceived to
have failed to perform. Layering on to this there is also a pattern of expectation that
others should change rather than change being a self-responsibility and self-led. I
have encountered this in group sessions which have led to little change for individu-
als and merely provide a space for venting one’s stresses to the group. When I have
tried to challenge irrational beliefs in these cases and encourage self-responsibility
there has often been resistance to adjusting the focus of change to one’s self. I elabo-
rate further on this point in the “challenges” section of this paper. REBT theory sug-
gests that demands for high standards may reflect self-worth along with FI. Indeed, it
may be a functional goal and value to be a high performing and caring police officer,
however, when failures occur they can become activating events that trigger global
evaluations of one’s self and, in turn, lead to unhealthy negative emotional distress.
Typical Emotional, and Behavioural Consequences of Police Work (C)
In REBT theory the “C” represents the emotional and behavioural consequences that
are experienced about particular activating events. In my work in policing, I have
dealt mostly with stress and have observed a wide range of emotional and behav-
ioural consequences which hinder both an individual’s wellbeing and performance.
Stress and anxiety are currently the most commonly cited reason for absenteeism in
policing (Cartwright & Roach, 2021). In this section, I briefly reflect on the com-
mon emotional and behavioural consequences that I have experienced in my practice
within policing.
Anxiety. In terms of emotions most prevalent are feelings of anxiety related to
being able to deliver on expectations. Here when the goals and values (e.g. to be an
effective performer) of an individual are disrupted by conflicting realities (e.g. high
volume of work) and expectations are not met, irrational beliefs create unhealthy
anxiety, which is characterised by catastrophising related to fear of rejection, fear of
failure, and fear of anxiety itself (Digiuseppe et al., 2013). Many individuals I have
worked with experience anxiety and associated cognitions centre on identifying with
imposter phenomenon (Clance & Imes, 1978), the feeling that one is not qualified
to take on the responsibilities of a role and that they will soon be “found out. Any
expectation of performance evaluation, in this case, can become an activating event
and trigger demandingness (i.e. I must perform well) along with associated awfulis-
ing (i.e. it will be a disaster to fail), frustration intolerance (I can’t stand failure), and
global evaluation (If I don’t perform well it means that I am a truly incompetent and
bad person, cheating everyone who thinks that I am capable), which in turn leads to
further distorted cognitions and unproductive behaviour (e.g. procrastination, over-
preparation). It is common to observe further dysfunctional negative emotions when
people fall beneath their perceived performance expectations. Such emotional conse-
13
quences including guilt, shame, and hurt tend to stem from global evaluation beliefs
(Dudău, 2014).
Unhealthy Anger. In other cases, client’s present with unhealthy anger. Unhealthy
anger which can be categorised as hostility, rage, or contempt interferes with goal-
directed behaviour (DiGiuseppe et al., 2014). Often unhealthy anger and frustration
stem from the expectation that others act in a way that is fair and supportive which,
disappointingly, may not always be the reality that individuals are faced with. Hurt
and anger can also occur when there are generalised negative judgments of police
conduct that are regularly reported in the media. Research has demonstrated that
those that work within policing are vulnerable in terms of their long term mental
health (Jetelina et al., 2020). Such adverse mental health outcomes associated with
policing include occupational stress, anxiety, depression, psychiatric symptoms/psy-
chological distress, burnout, and suicidal ideation (Purba & Demou, 2019).
Moral Injury. Trauma exposure over a career in policing can have a detrimental
effect on an individual’s psychological health and motivation within policing. Pri-
mary and secondary trauma exposure also has long term insidious effects on indi-
viduals which impact their health and enjoyment of life. One area of research within
the field of police wellbeing that may explain some of the emotional and behavioural
consequences that happen over time in policing is known as moral injury (MI; Jink-
erson 2016). A construct with its roots in spiritual, religious, and philosophical tradi-
tions and traumatic exposure, moral injury is a particular trauma syndrome that can
emerge following perceived violations of deep moral beliefs by oneself or a trusted
individual. The emotional consequences of which are reported as dysregulated feel-
ings of shame, guilt, contempt, anger, and disgust. Beyond emotions, MI seems to
challenge a person’s sense of self, spirit, trust, core beliefs, meaning and purpose
(Lentz et al., 2021).
Moral Distress. Moral distress (Jameton, 1984), a related concept, is defined as a
negative experience stemming from a sense of knowing what the right thing to do is
and being prevented or blocked from doing the right thing due to institutional con-
straints (Papazoglou & Chopko, 2017). Such institutional constraints include high
workloads which equal a lack of time to provide adequate attention to detail. Beyond
this, there is a culture of wanting to attempt to respond effectively to all emergency
calls, and be able to support all those that suffer as a result of crime and feelings asso-
ciated with failure sometimes ensue if this expectation is not met. In recent months
these concepts have come to my attention as prevalent “C”s in policing. As yet no
research examines the impact of REBT on moral distress or moral injury although
through the application of REBT within policing I believe that REBT could play a
preventative and therapeutic role.
Disputation, Strategies that Bring About Philosophical Change in Policing (D)
Disputation of irrational beliefs is a central change mechanism within REBT practice

(Digiuseppe et al., 2013). In my work within policing the targets of disputation are
those in REBT in general. That is, I focus on targeting irrational and rational beliefs
(demands/ preferences, LFT/FT, awfulising/anti-awfulising, depreciation/uncondi-
13
tional acceptance). In this section, I reflect on my disputing process within my work

in policing.
Disputing in the context of long-term goals. REBT theory states that disputes
tend to fall into three categories, empirical, logical, and functional. What seems to
be less focused upon in REBT literature is that disputation takes place within the
context of the long-term goals of the client. This, I think, is of particular importance
when exploring the functional nature of irrational beliefs. Holding the goal within
conscious awareness within the process seems to yield efficient functional results.
Specifically, when I dispute a client’s irrational beliefs I continually refer to the long
term goals of the client and ensure that we test the belief in terms of its relationship
with the goal. Interestingly Ellis (2003) referred to functional disputes as both prag-
matic and juristical which may hint at the importance of the contextual aim of hold-
ing certain beliefs. Of course, the pragmatic quality of a belief can only be assessed
against progress towards goals making awareness of goals an important foundation
upon which disputation of irrational beliefs takes place. When working with non-
clinical populations I think it is more challenging to know if emotional reactions
are healthy or unhealthy due to fact that they may be low in intensity and relatively
transient. So, I tend to rely on assessing the functionality of a belief in terms of how it
aids progress towards a goal. That way I think it is possible to recognise the junction
between rational and irrational beliefs and how the consequences of either may be
untangled and categorised.
Context relevant disputation. Along with disputing strategies explored above
several, disputing styles have been identified – Socratic disputing, didactic disput-
ing, metaphorical disputing, humorous disputing (DiGiuseppe, 1991), along with
self-disclosure, and enactive disputation (Dryden, 1990). In my practice, I regularly
combine Socratic and humorous disputing by playing the role of a detective and
using context-relevant comparisons. I think that using context-specific criminal jus-
tice-related language can help strengthen the disputation. By asking a police detec-
tive “do you think that (the evidence that you have given) would stand up in court?”
about rational or irrational beliefs, it seems easier for clients to assess the rationality
of their beliefs. I also adapt this presentation of disputation for different contexts. In
the world of sport I might refer to the rules of a game for example.
Use of humour. Humour can play a major role in the processing of emotion, is
a common antidote to distress (Samson & Gross, 2012; Strick et al., 2009) and is a
hallmark of REBT (Digiuseppe et al., 2013). Humour can also be a source of distress
both deliberately, and accidentally. What has been perceived as acceptable “banter”
is now recognised as discriminatory. The effective use of humour in practice is under-
pinned by a sense of a robust working alliance. I think it is important to recognise
that humour may role model irrational beliefs. When I reflect on my style of practice,
I have leaned on the use of humour frequently. I remember a client telling me that
once during a presentation they watched me encounter technical problems to which I
responded with humour and was unflustered. Something that they would find difficult
to do. I also use humour to build rapport and to meet client resistance effectively.
Coupling assertiveness and using humour has helped me to do this on several occa-
sions. One occasion that stands out to me occurred within my first month in the role.
The use of humour in that session enabled me to ground myself with the group and
13
foster engagement. I reflected that I didn’t need the group to like me, but I wanted
them to listen to me and using humour to build rapport meant that the group were able
to let go of resistance and engage in the session.
Self-disclosure and self-comparison. Self-disclosure and self-comparison have
also emerged as key disputation styles for me. Much has been written in counselling
and psychology literature about self-disclosure and I tend to take caution when using
this. I think what assists some of the people I work with is that they can observe me in
executive leadership meetings, giving presentations, and so on and in sessions I can
reveal irrationalities that might occur for me and use a self-comparison technique.
What I mean by this is because I have had parallel experiences within the hierarchy, I
can disclose my stressful emotional consequences and show them how I use REBT to
navigate these myself. In this sense I role model rationality (and being human) via my
behaviour. What is common is that people assume that I am never irrational and that
I don’t get stressed about anything and that “it’s easy for me” but I can demonstrate
and talk about my similar experiences.
Effective New Beliefs, Philosophical Change and Effective Policing (E)
The effective new beliefs that are constructed through the REBT process must be
assessed against the long and short term goals of the client. In this section, I reflect on
the process of developing effective new beliefs in my work.
Goal focused effective beliefs. As noted in the previous section on goals, there
may be several competing goals and the one to one environment has been the easiest
place to explore an individual’s goal priorities. Sometimes there is a strategic goal
of building a relationship or tolerating a “difficult” personality that becomes most
salient and stress-provoking for a client. By far the most challenging effective new
beliefs to build, in my experience, are those that involve unconditional acceptance
when personal and policing core values are challenged. For example witnessing the
underperformance of others, witnessing prejudice, and accepting one’s limitations in
the face of the extreme demands of the job seem particularly challenging for indi-
viduals in this context and can lead to moral distress. However, when the therapeutic
work undertaken articulates the process of acceptance effectively, i.e. that uncondi-
tional acceptance beliefs represent beliefs that lead to active problem solving towards
long term goals rather than passive continued suffering in the status quo then effec-
tive new beliefs can ensue and lead to, often, profound change. This can, sometimes,
take time and it is my view that I will continue to articulate the benefit of therapeutic
sessions until I can see that the client can apply REBT theory at a philosophical level.
I have been lucky that my role has afforded me the freedom to do this.
Philosophical change. Witnessing philosophical change is a privilege of working
using REBT as a framework and focusing on goals, personal values, and mastering
performance (in whichever way that shows up for an individual) seems to be an
important part of the process in my experience. When people weaken and relinquish
their rigid beliefs they can often realise that the choices that may have a major impact
on their lives are theirs to make. It seems during the process of recognising that they
do have a choice some have felt empowered to change their careers and their lives. It
felt to me that their philosophical freedom seemed to play out in behaviour immedi-
13
ately and sometimes perhaps before they had the opportunity to explore these deci-
sions fully. For example, when one senior leader in the organisation recognised that
they didn’t “have to” experience the stresses of the job they felt empowered to resign
from their post following some post-session reflection. Later they reflected further
are recognised that resignation was not the right decision for them but that drawing
on better coping skills, such as building rational beliefs, and negotiating better work-
ing conditions was a more optimal way of problem-solving for them. Another client
described feeling very different and uncertain about his new philosophy. Although
the philosophy brought positive change they felt that it was important to continue to
explore the breadth and depth of their new way of seeing the world. I recognise this
pattern of behaviour as a catapult effect after change. It was described to me by one
client as almost a rush of rational motivation. Having noticed this pattern along with
feedback from clients about how strange it can feel to embody their new philosophies
I feel that it is important to support a full transition until the client’s new philosophy
is integrated into their lives. Once experienced there can also be a need to support
the maintenance of changes in mindset and this can be achieved through continuous
personal reflective practice and continued rational correction. I think it is possible
for people to fall back into dysfunctional thinking patterns and so I help clients to
develop strategies to stay aware of their thinking patterns.
Challenges
In this section, I discuss the challenges that I have encountered which I think are
specific to the police context. I can identify and reflect on two types of challenges in
my work in policing. First, there are some practitioner challenges and second, there
are challenges that I think are specific to the REBT approach. The practitioner chal-
lenges that I encounter most often are adopting the cultural mindset; clarity of role/
boundaries, and working with the right people. The REBT approach - specific chal-
lenges that I feel are most salient are concerned with how rational thinking is applied;
communicating acceptance as active; confusion over conditional shoulds; encourag-
ing self-responsibility rather than self-blame; recognising linguistic imprecision and
working with it; using REBT to inoculate individuals against the stresses of working
within a system that is under-resourced when it is clear that additional resources are
an optimal solution. In the next section, I will elaborate on each challenge.
Practitioner Challenges
Adopting the cultural mindset. As one psychologist within this environment, I have
noticed that there have been periods where I have felt like I have been swept away
by the tides of policing. More accurately the volume and pace of work within polic-
ing has often meant that I have felt compelled to mirror the cultural norms of polic-
ing. Policing is a reactive environment. In some circumstances and areas of police
business, it has to be this way. For example, detectives talk about a “golden hour”
in which they have the best chance of gathering evidence in a criminal case. I have
found that this reactivity (working at a heightened pace and under pressure to deliver
13
the products of work) extends beyond the circumstances in which it is needed. I have
found myself responding to both the volume and timeframe of requests in an unre-
alistic way simply because I am mirroring the culture. When I reflect on this, I see
my role as grounding myself and those with whom I work to the reality of what is
necessary. Doing so is an important stress management strategy in itself. I am trying
to be the change.
Assessing who would benefit from support. On several occasions, I have been
asked to intervene to help someone else to change rather than help the individual with
their change journey. When I began practising REBT I fell foul of this quite often
and this could sometimes make the situation more challenging if the relationships
became even more strained. It is difficult to assess who needs help and sometimes
difficult to confront people with this perspective. In this situation, I talk through with
the referrer to explore the extent to which they may be able to develop psychological
skills to tackle the issues and assess who would most benefit from an intervention.
Often it is both parties.
REBT Approach Challenges
Literal Rational Thinking. In my experience sometimes the danger of rational mind-

sets are that they can produce what can be perceived as uncaring and unethical mes-
sages. One message that springs to mind is a well-being message to officers and staff
that aimed to help individuals recognise their choices in terms of the constraints and
challenges that they faced as police officers. Rationally there is always the option to
leave the job if its strain is too much, but this message was received by some as offen-
sive. There is a sense in policing that much more could be done to protect officers
from the strain of the job. In REBT and SDT the perception of choice is an important
element that supports psychological wellbeing. Leaving the job would be an effective
means of managing stress but in the face of not being able to provide better working
conditions in the here and now another choice might be to develop robust psycho-
logical coping strategies grounded in REBT theory. In my experience, many police
officers and staff begin to feel trapped in the job. Often they are waiting to reach pen-
sionable age and counting the years, months, and days down to their retirement. Due
to financial constraints, their experience of life means that leaving, even if the job
feels unhealthy for them is not an option. Of course, the psychological choice helps
to support one’s well-being as it acts as a vehicle for autonomy satisfaction but there
may still need to be some validation of the fact that members of police organisations
have strong psychological connections with their police force, along with practical
constraints that make the rational statement “leave if you don’t agree” meaningless
and unhelpful. I think validation of individuals perceived reality is very important in
the process of application of rational arguments. Sometimes one’s experience is that
they have no choice as to whether they leave so their psychological choices may lie
in developing effective coping skills.
Communicating acceptance as an active foundation for change. One of the big-
gest goals of the work I do is to help people understand acceptance as it is presented
within REBT theory. Often the idea can be questioned and rejected by individuals
and groups when we tackle the wrongs that people have faced or are facing. Particu-
13
lar examples in policing have been discussing issues of ethical and moral integrity.
For example, inclusion issues and acceptance are difficult to talk about together. It
seems that our default understanding of acceptance is passive and a “do as your told”
mindset is adopted. The passive default that I experience in policing may be a facet
of the idea that policing is a disciplined service. This, of course, is not conducive to
a context where bias is often unconscious, people are stressed and there is a strong
power distance at play. Unconditional acceptance in REBT involves intentionally
allowing stressful or seemingly unacceptable events to be present so that they can be
examined in enough detail to be able to move forward in a valued direction (Matw-
eychuk et al., 2019).
Equality, inclusion, and unconditional acceptance. Within my first year in polic-
ing I was asked to provide support, in the form of a workshop to constabulary employ-
ees during an inclusion awareness week. I had also been asked to work with the group
that supports women in policing. My workshops were well received and their content
always relied on the principles of REBT to some extent. However, focusing my work
in this direction, initially felt out of my depth. Exploring the boundaries of my prac-
tice and reflecting on whether I should or was qualified to tackle these subjects took
me on a path of self-discovery that declining the invitations would not have.
It seems that to begin to see the answers to the equality and inclusion challenges
that we face it would be of value for us to perhaps adopt the REBT view that humans
are all equal in their worth, and cannot be rated because of their complexity. I think
through REBT theory I can see the potential that unconditional acceptance holds
on a societal level. Not only as an antidote to many mental health issues but more
broadly for us to question the legitimacy of our actions. For example, can I be open
to the unconsciousness of my biases, the answer is yes, through unconditional self-
acceptance, I can.
Encouraging self-responsibility rather than self-blame. One unintended side-
effect of acceptance has often been the experience of self-blame. I think when this
occurs both rational and irrational thinking can be observed simultaneously. In this
case, I try to help clients recognise the difference between self-responsibility and
self-blame and also to help them be aware of when blame occurs and explore with
them how to shift from blame to responsibility. Is blame a facet of irrationality? I
would argue that it is. I think we can hold the thought “who or what is responsible
for this occurrence?” on a platform of rationality, which might mean that beneath
the questions there is tolerance. In reality, such questions are perceived with rigid
demands and intolerance and irrational consequences ensue. From a leadership per-
spective, I would advise that we predict a default irrational response by the perceiver
and encourage leaders to build strong relationships and choose their words carefully
so that the receivers of such questions can recognise the rational space from where
they come.
Self-care and respect for others. There is an emphasis in REBT on self-responsi-
bility but there is a lesser-known emphasis on responsibility to others. I think REBT
can be misinterpreted as an excuse to be rude and un-empathetic to others because
it teaches that one creates their disturbances. I think we do have a responsibility to
others to balance our goals and values with connection and empathy. More often than
not it is within our best interest to develop positive relationships in our work and our
13
lives (Ellis, 1972). Beyond the core theory of REBT, I have relied on the principles of
self-care and respect for others (Dryden & Constantinou, 2004) to assess and develop
healthy assertion skills with clients.
Recognising linguistic imprecision and working with it. Being embedded within
any organisation or team comes with its political challenges but policing within
senior ranks deals with the realities of politics. The challenge of this is that political
messages designed perhaps to make strong political arguments can be perceived as
truth to members of a police organisation. Often those arguments are negative and
tend not to reflect the reality of frontline experience. Such politically and irrationally
charged messages often have ulterior motives (to gain votes, or sell newspapers) but
simultaneously promote disconnection between the lived experience of police offi-
cers and staff and those that lead and govern. Often in sessions, I talk about the use
of language, linguistic precision, and explore referenting when it occurs but there has
also been a need to encourage individuals to acknowledge the imprecise language of
those that are in positions of power, politicians especially. To this end, a functional
dispute seems to help refocus individuals on the realities of what they can control.
Self-Awareness and Personal Growth of the Psychologist
I feel privileged to have been working with the police. Doing so has given me a lot
of opportunities to build on my skills in using this approach. I have been exposed
to several hours of one to one, group, and team sessions. I have also given several
educational seminars to help the workforce cope with the stresses and pressures of
policing. Through evaluation of my practice and reflection, I have been able to inte-
grate REBT into my way of being and through my personal experiences, stresses, and
pressures I have explored how REBT helps me to continue to strive forward.
I feel like I am still developing my core REBT skills through reflective practice
and regular peer supervision. I think there is further opportunity for me to develop
resources on which the police population can draw to support their adoption of ratio-
nal philosophes. I think that I have learnt a great deal about the theoretical underpin-
nings of emotional stress responses and that has helped me to apply are REBT more
robustly. Specifically exploring Socratic questioning and emotion theory has helped
me to build a solid foundation on which to help others to make philosophical shifts.
More broadly my training and initial exposure to REBT was through sport psy-
chology. Working within a performance but the non-sport context has challenged me.
A core competency in my training program is to adapt to the context within which I
work. The policing context (as any context) requires that the fundamentals are trans-
lated and tested against the variety of nuanced challenges faced by individuals within
those contexts. Sport psychology is adaptable to policing to a certain extend but every
context is different. Policing is a word that covers a plethora of roles, and skills.
Each role and skill carries with it its psychological implications. Using REBT as an
approach gave me the ability to support a broad range of psychological challenges.
REBT has empirical support for its application in trauma-related stress (Ellis, 1994)
as well as within coaching (Kodish, 2002) and stress counselling (Ellis et al., 2001).
I took the approach of “testing the theory” in sessions to aid the translation process
13
and I drew on evidence where I could. What was of particular use to me were case
study research papers and practitioner reflections which discussed the nuances of the
translation process. For example, applying goal-setting theory in policing required
some consideration of dealing with prioritisation and completing goals. In sports
contexts, it is usually much easier to make prioritisation decisions. Currently, there is
little supervisory support for performance psychologists that work within the polic-
ing context. This brings challenges to me as a practitioner. For example, when I trans-
late an intervention from a sport context there is little support in terms of knowing
if I am doing this well. Furthermore, the policing context is vast and there is no real
guidance as to what it would be effective for me to know as a performance psycholo-
gist in this field. Trauma knowledge may be a prerequisite for example. This lack of
collegiate support leads to a vulnerability for me as a psychologist where it would be
easy for me to question my utility and my effectiveness within this world. Luckily
my rational philosophy is protecting me for now until in the future a broader support
network grows.
The Future
We know that people generally experience policing as stressful. I think as we begin

to understand stress and particularly vicarious traumatic stress there is a clear oppor-
tunity to provide better mental preparation and ongoing support for those who serve
within the police. Furthermore, formulating guidance on applying the principles of
REBT within the police system appears to be an important next challenge. For exam-
ple policing can take the challenge of becoming more a psychologically informed
environment (Johnson, 2012). Such environments focus on breaking cycles of dys-
functional behaviour. There is also a consideration of the psychological needs of
employees, specifically developing skills and knowledge, increasing motivation, job
satisfaction, and resilience. Psychologically informed environments consist of five
key elements, one of which is the adoption of a psychological framework. REBT
could be an effective psychological framework that could be adopted within a police
context. While trauma care is vital in a police context a broad psychological model
may ensure that issues beyond trauma can be viewed through a psychological lens.
Such a lens would provide a perspective and platform on which wellbeing and ongo-
ing work engagement can be supported.
Drawing on SDT theory I have been able to demonstrate the impact that IBs have
on motivation and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs. SDT is a dialectic
theory that observes the ongoing relationship between an individual and the environ-
ment. Understanding the SDT motivation dialectic from an REBT viewpoint in polic-
ing is becoming an important goal of mine. I believe that recognition of how these
theories fit together will enable the application of much more structure in our police
performance and wellbeing endeavours. This is because, as with any public service,
there will always be limited resources in policing and the nature of police work will
always carry the risk of trauma and vicarious trauma.
REBT has a unique view of emotion which can help officers process emotions in
more functional ways. Teaching emotional responsibility, and the ability to experi-
13
ence healthy negative emotions is an important focus of REBT and a main focus in
my work in policing. This can help officers and staff identify the protective proactive
things that they are already doing as well as provide a foundation on which functional
changes may be made. This could permeate the day to day wellbeing tasks associated
with policing. For example, debrief conversations at the end of shifts could focus, in
part, on the discussion of appropriate emotions, and what behaviours are associated
with them in contrast to unhealthy negative emotions, thoughts, and behaviour.
Concluding Remarks
REBT, as an approach, has long been criticised for lack of empirical support and this
lack of support blamed, in part, for its marginalisation in the field of applied psychol-
ogy, psychotherapy, and coaching (Ellis, 2001). In contrast, the approach is reported
to be popular among practitioners (Still, 2001) and many of its insights are assimi-
lated by the psychological mainstream (David, 2003). In writing the current paper my
goal was to share my reflections and stimulate the readers thinking in terms of apply-
ing REBT philosophy both within the context of police psychology and beyond it and
to provide an alternative approach to building the evidence base on which REBT may
be evaluated. In my view, the universality of REBT makes it an excellent approach to
apply within the complex world of policing.
Author Contributions JJ and MT conceived the research idea and structured and drafted the manuscript.
MT made comments on the final version.
Declarations
Conflict of Interest On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of
interest.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,
which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative
Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line
to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use
is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission
directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/.
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J Rat-Emo Cognitive-Behav Ther

Making a Difference: A Review and Auto-Ethnographic

Accepted: 2 May 2022

Keywords CBT · Occupational · Reflection · Irrational

Policing is a complex, fast-paced, 24/7 environment. Within the law enforcement/

ple’s perspectives to achieve a profound philosophical change that greatly impacts

This research is situated in a pragmatic research philosophy (Fishman, 1999). A prag-

in more traditional research approaches (Sparkes, 2015). Qualitative findings may be

Goals, Values, Motivations (gs), and Contexts in Policing

An emphasis on client goals, values, motivations, and context. In my practice, I

to an extreme, yet predominant mindset of contingent worth, in that if individuals fail

Typical Activating Events (as) in Policing

Activating events (As) represent perceptions of objectionable or unfortunate occur-

activating events in my experience of policing. There are some typical activating

Rational and Irrational Beliefs (B) in Policing

performance, and demandingness associated with professional relationships. The

on performance, examining failure, challenging others, and feeling responsible for

Typical Emotional, and Behavioural Consequences of Police Work (C)

Disputation, Strategies that Bring About Philosophical Change in Policing (D)

Disputation of irrational beliefs is a central change mechanism within REBT practice

tional acceptance). In this section, I reflect on my disputing process within my work

Effective New Beliefs, Philosophical Change and Effective Policing (E)

REBT Approach Challenges

Literal Rational Thinking. In my experience sometimes the danger of rational mind-

Self-Awareness and Personal Growth of the Psychologist

We know that people generally experience policing as stressful. I think as we begin

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