Radical Accountability Theory (RAT)
Step by Step Instructions
Difficulty
Advanced
Duration
5 min - hours
Avg Change
+3.8/s
Rating
4.6
Radical Accountability Theory (RAT)
A synthesis of Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), Differentiation, and bilateral stimulation that centers healing around taking radical accountability for your emotional reactions and changing your unhealthy belief systems. Read a more in-depth explanation to understand Radical Accountability Theory here.
Benefits
- Works for 80-90% of people
- Addresses root causes rather than just symptoms
- Can be done at any level of self-awareness
- Combines proven elements from well known therapy theories
Caution Advisory
- This method can bring up severe distress for some people. If it does for you, take breaks, try a different method, or seek out professional help.
- Processing may occur even after ending a healing practice. Common side effects are tiredness, emotional exhaustion, headaches, fluctuations in mood, and memory recall related to the issue being worked on. If these occur, they typically last 1-3 days.
Why This Works
- REBT states that our beliefs create our reality and we have the power to change them. If we have a negative reaction to something, a negative belief is at play. By taking responsibility for your beliefs and actively working to change them, you can change your emotional reactivity.
- Bilateral stimulation should be used while doing this theory to speed up the healing process.
Important Considerations
- RAT is used to get rid of distress. RAT uses a scale of distress 0-10 to mark progress over time. Start by rating yourself on the 0-10 scale with 10 being the most distress you can think of relating to the issue you want to work through and then use RAT to get yourself to a 0, meaning that the thing that caused you distress now doesn't cause you any distress. Don't stop until you're at a 0. The second step is replacing the negative reaction with a positive belief reflecting how you want to respond to the indicated stimulus in the future. Choose a positive belief and rate yourself on the 0-10 scale for how true it feels with 10 being 100% true and use RAT until the positive belief feels 100% true. Don't stop until you are at a 10. If you aren't familiar with beliefs, I recommend researching REBT before attempting this theory.
- There are three ways to go about using RAT. Listed in order of effectiveness: Beliefs, ideas or concepts, and emotions.
- A belief is a statement of an assumption or expectation about yourself, others, or the world. To use beliefs, identify a negative belief and work through it, then choose a positive belief and integrate it fully with RAT. Examples of negative beliefs include "I'm not good enough," "I'll never be financially successful," "People need to respect me," etc.
- An idea or a concept refers to the general thing that is causing you distress. Examples of this include the name of a person who bothers you, being made fun of, public speaking, taking tests, someone judging you, etc.
- An emotion is as simple as it gets, you are simply working through the emotion you are currently feeling. Rate the strength of the emotion 0-10 and start RAT.
- The subconscious is extremely literal. Even small word changes may target extremely different things even though they might seem like the same thing to your conscious mind. For example, the belief "I am worthless" and "I'm not worthy" may be the same thing to one person's subconscious mind but completely different to another's. The only way to know if you've targeted the right thing is to say the statement to yourself and gauge your distress level. If the statement brings up distress, there is something you need to work through. If it doesn't, then what you need to work through is closely related but not the same thing.
- When thinking of positive beliefs, think in terms of what is rather than what isn't, because that's how the subconscious mind works. Saying "I am not a giraffe" means that you could be literally anything in the world but a giraffe. A positive belief should state what you are, not what you are not. For example, instead of using the belief "I'm not unloveable" you would phrase it as "I am loveable."
- There are three ways to use RAT to create change with no method taking precedence over others, it's just personal preference.
- The Subconscious Method: In this method you assume that your subconscious brain knows how it needs to heal itself and it will just do it automatically. Start with your mind focused on the thing you want to work through and then relinquish control and let your subconscious mind take over. You know this method is working if you have things coming to mind, even when those things don't initially make sense. You know it's not working when either your mind is completely blank or you are thinking of things that don't relate to what you're trying to work through such as what ingredients you need to make dinner tonight.
- The Conscious Method: This method uses logic to try and change your belief systems, but using emotion as your guide. Start by trying to ask yourself what your emotional beliefs are about the chosen thing you wish to work through and then attempt to use logic to change how you emotionally feel about it. If there is no emotional change, your logic isn't working. This method draws up the methods of REBT to change beliefs.
- Body Sensations: This method uses your body to heal. Focus on where your body feels distress and simply keep your attention there. You should notice those feelings increasing or decreasing in intensity or moving to different parts of your body. Keep going until there are no physical sensations attached to the negative belief or are only positive sensations for the positive belief. While using this method you may also try to intentionally calm your body using other techniques such as breathing exercises. Another way to use this method is to imagine a healing color of light and filling the distressed body part with that light. Feel free to change the color of light or how it's utilized in order to heal your body. Follow your intuition.
Proven Practice
Step-by-Step Instructions
Measured Efficacy
+3.8
Avg Change / Session
84
Sessions Measured
4.6
7 Ratings
Speed
- 1Identify your target (what you want to work on and change) at one of three levels: Beliefs, ideas and concepts, or emotions.
- 2Rate your distress from 0-10 using the SUDs scale with 10 being the worst distress you can be in.
- 3Begin bilateral stimulation.
- 4Process using one of the three methods: Subconscious (free association), Conscious (logic to challenge beliefs), or Body Sensations.
- 5Continue until distress reaches 0 when thinking about the chosen target.
- 6Choose a positive belief about how you'd like to feel about the chosen target and rate from 0-10 for how true it feels.
- 7Process using one of the three methods until it feels 100% true.
4.6
7 ratings
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