Radical Accountability Theory

In-Depth Explanation

Radical Accountability Theory (RAT)

Radical Accountability Theory (RAT) is a synthesis of two other psychological theories which are all widely regarded as effective therapy theories namely and with the added help of bilateral stimulation.

How This Benefits You:

Understanding The Power Of Belief

Our beliefs greatly influence our emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. By working through negative beliefs and changing them to positive ones, you learn just how influential your beliefs are in your experience of everything.

Gaining Insight

This method often results in a lot of insight for people as to why they developed these beliefs as well as the inherent lack of truth behind their own negative beliefs.
This method also helps you learn to see and recognize how other people's beliefs are driving their emotions, thoughts, and behavior, which leads to increased understanding and compassion.

Understanding The Power Of Choice

As with the other methods, once you start to completely reverse your negative belief systems, you start to understand the amount of power you have over your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. This leads to increased self-control and self-empowerment.

Differentiation

Differentiation is a theory on emotional maturity and how to develop it based on the book Intimacy and Desire by David Schnarch which you can read about . In essence, the theory states that the problems that we have in life are a result of our personal lack of emotional maturity, not the lack of emotional maturity of others. This is a sentiment shared throughout religion including Christianity and Buddhism and nearly all famous philosophers who emphasized the ultimate virtue as the mastery of self. Taking accountability is a prerequisite to healing and you can only heal as much as you are willing to take accountability.

"Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

— Jesus

"It is our own thoughts that lead us into trouble, not other people."

— Buddha

"If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation."⁣

— Epictetus

REBT

REBT is a theory stating that our beliefs create our reality and views healing in terms of changing unhealthy psychological beliefs. The theory uses an ABCDE formula to explain itself. A stands for Activating Event, which is whatever the event is that triggers a reaction. In REBT the event is always inherently neutral, no matter how good or bad it may seem. What determines whether the event is good or bad is B, our Belief about it. As a result of our belief we interpret the event a particular way and have a Consequence, C, which is our reaction to the event whether it be emotional, cognitive, or behavioral. As events are always inherently neutral, we, as agents of our own volition, get to choose our beliefs about them. D stands for Disputing which is challenging and changing our current belief. The successful changing of a belief results in E, Effectuating Change, which is the new set of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral reactions to the exact same event as a result of a changed belief. Taking accountability for one's beliefs allows for them to be changed resulting in increased stability and personal peace.

The theory focuses on what are called "core negative beliefs" which you can easily google to find lists of them, but they are, on the most basic level, our emotional fears. As the human brain values emotions on a hierarchical level far, far above that of logic, it doesn't matter what you think, this process is always focused on how you feel. Emotions are king when it comes to psychology and even knowing something logically doesn't necessarily impact an emotional belief.

The last element of the theory is the principle of processing behind EMDR's success called bilateral stimulation. You can read about that and how to do it .

Taking these all into account, Radical Accountability Theory is a theory of healing centered around identifying and changing any belief system that results in distress by taking accountability for how your mind is complicit in the distress with the aid of bilateral stimulation.

The Process

Structurally the process is able to be done at any one of three levels of insight. The deeper the level of insight, the more potential gain from using this method although working through distress at any level is worth doing.

Levels of Insight

1. Beliefs

Beliefs are the deepest level of self awareness and result in the largest long-term gains. "I am not enough," "I am unloveable," and "I am worthless" are the most common examples of this level of insight. Beliefs can be about oneself or the world at large.

2. Ideas or Concepts

Knowing the general thing that creates distress for you is enough to start this process. "Being called a bitch" or "my dad's death" are examples of this level of insight.

3. Emotions

Any emotion is a good enough starting point. If you have a distressing emotion, but have no idea what it's stemming from, you can just focus on the distressing emotion e.i. anger, anxiety, sadness, etc. as the focus.

Rating and Goals

Once you have identified what you're working on from one of the three levels of insight listed above, you rate your level of distress from it on a scale of 0-10 with 10 being the most distress you can feel. This scale is used to measure change and progress. The first goal is to get to 0 on the distress scale, with a 0 meaning that you can leave the past in the past, feeling neutral towards something, or being at peace with the targeted issue. The second goal is to replace the or emotion with its mirrored . Examples include "I am enough," "I am leaving this in the past," or "peace" depending on what level of insight you're using (belief, concept, emotion). You are done when the positive belief feels 100% true. Bilateral stimulation should accompany this entire process for optimal results.

The Three Methods

Working through something using this method can be done in one of three different ways and you can mix and match as you see fit. This is what you do while you engage in bilateral stimulation.

1. The Subconscious Method

This method is based on the theory that your brain automatically knows how to heal itself psychologically just as it does physically with an injury. In this method you start by thinking about the chosen thing and then let go of control and allow your subconscious to take over, assuming that it will take you to what it needs to, for as long as it needs to, in order for you to heal from it. You know this method is working if you are getting images, memories, or other mental stimuli. The overall rule is if something is happening, the process is working, even if you don't understand what is happening. It isn't working if the mental stimulus is completely and objectively unrelated, such as thinking about what you will make for dinner tonight, or if your mind is completely blank. This method has the greatest variance of experience by a large margin so my rule of thumb is when in doubt of if something is relevant, keep going until you are absolutely sure it isn't.

2. The Conscious Method

This method deals with using logic to change emotional beliefs. As emotions are stronger than logic the process starts with understanding your emotional reaction and then using logic to break it down until it is no longer believed at an emotional level. If the logic you are trying to use isn't creating emotional change, time to try a different plan of attack. This method is the most difficult of the three, but it can be highly effective when used well. This method is working if the emotional belief is lessening and isn't working if the belief isn't changing or the distress isn't lessening. The distress scale can be used as an intervention technique in this method by asking yourself how you can lower one point on the scale or what you would need to do to lower one point, which can help you gain insight into how to make additional progress. If you choose this method it would be helpful to understand the four methods REBT uses to change beliefs which you can read about .

3. Body Sensations

The body stores emotions physically and you can use your body to release trapped emotions. When thinking of the targeted issue, just notice where your body feels distressed. This method is very simple and all you do is focus your attention on the distressed body part as the feeling increases in intensity, decreases in intensity, or shifts throughout your body. This method looks for physical shifts and movement in the body which is how you know it's working. Other things you can try with this method are consciously relaxing the parts of the body that are distressed or imagining a color of light that enters into the distressed body part and helps heal it. This method works if physiological changes are occurring and is not working if nothing is changing in your body. Sometimes it takes a long time for body sensations to shift so patience in this method is sometimes necessary.

If a Method Isn't Working

If a method isn't working there are a couple things you can do:

For the subconscious method the most common thing to do is to restart your thought process at the original belief. If you think about the belief as a tree trunk and the various parts of your life that influenced the belief as branches of the tree, sometimes when you reach the end of a branch you have to restart at the trunk in order to process the next branch.
For the conscious method you need to ask different questions. The questions you ask greatly influence your progress so if your current questions don't create movement change up your questions.
Body sensations generally always work as long as you can identify something physiologically.
If any method isn't working as you'd like, another option is to switch to a different method. I will typically use the conscious method until I get stuck, switch to body sensations to get me past whatever emotional or mental block I encountered, then resume the conscious method. Mix and match to see what works best for you.

Identifying Beliefs

You cannot change a problem that you are unaware of. Thus, the ability to accurately identify beliefs dictates this method's efficacy. Identifying beliefs is by far the hardest part of this method and links on how to do it were provided earlier. I highly recommend you read those if you choose to use RAT.

That being said, don't overthink identifying a belief. It is far more effective to start and have your subconscious self-correct than for you to worry about whether or not you identified the right belief. If the belief you chose isn't the best one for you, you will figure that out in the process and identify what would be a better focus.

Key Considerations

There are a few things I feel are worth mentioning that will help in this process:

Just Start - The most important thing by far is just to start trying to work through something. A deeper level of insight is helpful, but not necessary. Often in the process you will gain greater degrees of awareness. If you've incorrectly labeled a belief as the cause of your distress, you will correct yourself at some point in the process. Don't let perfectionism or doubt get in the way of attempting to heal yourself.
Wording Matters A Lot - Our word choices are a reflection of our subconscious and the subconscious is very literal. Small word changes in the phrasing of a belief can have completely distinct reactions. For example "I am worthy" and "I can be worthy" may seem the same but one is a statement of fact and one of possibility. "I am worthy" and "I can be worthy" are very different statements with different levels of associated healing.
Beliefs Are Compartmentalized - Similar beliefs are not necessarily the same beliefs. "I have no worth" and "I am worthless" may seem like they would address the same thing, but they might not. If you have worked through a belief, but the distress remains, more than likely you have not worked through similar, but not synonymous, belief systems. This is why getting good at identifying beliefs is the trickiest part of this whole process. The best way to check is to name beliefs you feel are synonymous and check to see if they are true for you or create distress for you. This process requires a lot of educated guesses and analysis of whether it healed what you hoped it would. If it didn't take care of the problem, try a different belief.
Positive Beliefs Are Positively Phrased - Phrase positive belief in terms of what you are, not in terms of what you aren't. "I am not worthless" could mean that you are literally anything in the world other than you aren't worthless, the options are infinite. Moreover, being not worthless does not mean that you are worthwhile. The brain does not think in terms of what you aren't, it thinks in terms of what you are.
Keep Feelings Out of Beliefs - The idea in this theory is that beliefs create emotions. As such, feelings are generally kept out of belief systems as much as possible. Instead of "I'm scared of being abandoned," using statements of fact like "I will be abandoned" is more accurate to why you experience the emotion in the first place. If you didn't subconsciously and implicitly assume that you will be abandoned, that fear wouldn't exist. Beliefs are often assumptions about the future typically based on the past. Either way, you should generally keep emotions out of belief statements because emotions are a product of beliefs (at least in this theory).
Focus on You, Not Others - Focus exclusively on yourself, not on others. The moment you start to try and figure out why this person treated you the way that they did, or wonder if they will ever feel bad for what they did, or any other focus on another person, you've halted your progress. This process is about you and releasing what you are holding on to, it has nothing to do with anyone else. Focus on your emotional response and changing it and let other people take responsibility for their own shit.
Focus on Emotions, Not Behaviors - Emotions create behaviors. The fastest and most effective way to create lasting change is to change how you emotionally feel towards something. If you find yourself thinking of behaviors you can start doing to help yourself believe something different, not to say that it can't work, but you are choosing the less effective path. What you have started to do is create a checklist of things that need to be done in order for you to feel okay. As long as there is a checklist, your emotional stability can readily be taken away. For example, if your belief is "I'm lazy" and your solution to not feeling lazy is working out every day, you have effectively stated that "you are not lazy if..." and the moment you stop working out daily, you immediately feel like you're lazy again. The most effective healing originates from beliefs with no conditions attached to them. If you believe that you cannot objectively change your belief without changing something external, think again. Change the emotion and you will change the behavior without even having to think about it or put conscious effort into it.
Don't Settle - For the distressing thing, always get yourself to a 0 on the distress scale, no exceptions. Getting to a 0 means that you have fully moved past it psychologically. Getting to a 0 is not being happy that something happened to you, being okay with an objectively bad experience, or anything in between. Being at a 0 means that you are no longer going to be defined by it and can be at peace with your past. Anything other than a 0 means something remains. The same applies to the positive belief and getting to a 10/10. A 9 on the scale may seem good enough, but the emotional difference between a 9 and a 10 is quite large. Leaving room for a belief not to be true, even a little bit, means that you are signing up for future distress.
Use Projection To Your Advantage - is best summed up by the statement, we judge others the way we judge ourselves. If you find yourself getting annoyed at people you think are dumb, what you are saying is that you judge yourself for being dumb (or would). We take what is internal and project it on to the outside world. Using this knowledge is incredibly important to understanding oneself and becoming aware of internal beliefs. If you are not at peace don't blame other people, look inward to see how you're projecting your own lack of healing.
Follow Your Intuition - Much of what I've learned has come from trying things I thought might work. Everyone is different and that shows more in individual psychology and healing than potentially anywhere else. I've seen many things work for other people that I never would've thought of. Try what you think will help, even if it may seem odd, and you may be pleasantly surprised.

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