Online Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) from just $35/session with licensed therapists (PhD, PsyD, LCSW, LMHC, LMFT) trained in this evidence-based approach. At Grouport, we offer online individual therapy, online group therapy, couples therapy, family therapy, teen therapy, and virtual IOP options. REBT is the original cognitive behavioral therapy, with over 50 years of research supporting its effectiveness.
It is not what happens to you that makes you upset. It is what you believe about what happens. That is the core insight of REBT, created by Albert Ellis in 1955, a full decade before Aaron Beck developed Cognitive Therapy. Using the ABC model (Activating event, Beliefs, Consequences), REBT helps you identify and challenge the irrational, demanding beliefs ("I must," "They should," "Life has to") that drive depression, anxiety, anger, guilt, and shame. A comprehensive systematic review of 162 intervention studies found that most REBT interventions were successful at reducing irrational beliefs and improving mental health outcomes. A 50-year meta-analysis found REBT produced high effect sizes for emotional distress and medium effect sizes for depression, anxiety, anger, and quality of life. In a landmark randomized clinical trial of 170 patients with major depression, REBT matched both Cognitive Therapy and antidepressant medication, and REBT significantly outperformed medication at 6-month follow-up. Schedule a free call to learn if REBT is right for you.
Consistently Recognized as the #1 Online Therapy pick
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At Grouport, we offer multiple ways to access Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, all led by licensed clinicians. Whether you prefer individual sessions for personalized belief work, group therapy where members practice disputing together, or a more intensive program, our REBT-informed offerings are designed to create lasting emotional change. Many members choose to combine formats for the most comprehensive support.
Our online Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy is designed to help you identify and challenge the irrational beliefs driving your emotional distress through an active, structured approach. Here is how to get started.
Whether you're interested in group therapy, individual sessions, couples or family therapy, or IOP, you'll start by selecting the type of support that fits your needs. Complete our onboarding form and sign up directly for the plan that suits you best.
After signing up, you'll connect with a dedicated care coordinator who will walk you through available therapists, group options, and scheduling. You'll make the final choice about your care based on your goals, preferences, and schedule.
Start challenging your irrational beliefs. Your therapist will guide you through REBT's ABC model, teach you to dispute demanding thinking, and help you build rational alternatives that reduce emotional disturbance. Our team will support you every step of the way.
Whether you want individual REBT sessions, group therapy for shared practice, a combination of both, or our IOP program for more intensive care, you will start by selecting the format that fits your needs and schedule. Complete our onboarding form and sign up directly.
After signing up, you will connect with a dedicated care coordinator who will discuss your challenges, goals, and where you are in the change process. They will match you with a therapist trained in REBT and walk you through your options. You will make the final choice about your care, including which therapists you will meet with and session times.
Start challenging the beliefs that drive your distress. Your therapist will guide you through REBT's ABC model: identifying Activating events, uncovering your irrational Beliefs, understanding the Consequences, and learning to Dispute those beliefs and build Effective rational alternatives. Many people notice meaningful shifts within the first few sessions. Our team will be here to support you at every step.
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy was created by Albert Ellis in 1955, making it the first cognitive behavioral therapy, a full decade before Aaron Beck developed Cognitive Therapy. While both approaches fall under the CBT umbrella, REBT is distinct in its direct focus on the demanding, absolutistic beliefs ("I must," "They should," "Life has to") that Ellis identified as the core driver of emotional disturbance.
REBT uses the ABC(DE) model: an Activating event triggers your Beliefs about it, which produce emotional and behavioral Consequences. In therapy, you learn to Dispute your irrational beliefs through logical, empirical, and pragmatic questioning, arriving at Effective new beliefs and emotions. The key insight is that it is not what happens to you that creates your distress. It is what you demand about what happens.
The evidence for REBT is extensive. A comprehensive systematic review of 162 intervention studies found that most REBT interventions successfully reduced irrational beliefs and improved mental health outcomes including depression and anxiety. A 50-year meta-analysis found REBT produced high effect sizes for emotional distress and medium effect sizes for depression, anger, anxiety, and quality of life. In a landmark randomized clinical trial of 170 patients with major depression, REBT was as effective as Cognitive Therapy and antidepressant medication at post-treatment, and REBT significantly outperformed medication at 6-month follow-up, with better cost-effectiveness than pharmacotherapy.
REBT does not just treat symptoms. It changes the thinking patterns that create them, producing improvements that ripple through every area of your life.
The "musts" and "shoulds" that drive your distress feel like facts, but they are demands you have placed on yourself, others, and the world. REBT teaches you to recognize these rigid demands as they happen and replace them with strong preferences: wanting something without insisting it must be so. This single shift reduces anxiety, anger, and depression at their source.
REBT uniquely emphasizes unconditional self-acceptance (USA): the practice of accepting yourself fully, not because you have earned it through achievement, but because you are a complex human being who cannot be reduced to a single rating. This is different from self-esteem, which rises and falls with performance. Unconditional self-acceptance provides a stable foundation that does not depend on external validation.
Anger typically stems from demanding that others behave the way you think they should. REBT's 50-year meta-analysis found medium effect sizes specifically for anger reduction. By replacing demands on others ("They must treat me fairly") with preferences ("I would prefer fair treatment, but I can cope when it does not happen"), you reduce the intensity and frequency of anger episodes without becoming passive.
Guilt and shame often come from demanding perfection of yourself: "I must never make mistakes" or "I should always know the right thing to do." REBT teaches the crucial distinction between healthy remorse (regretting a behavior) and unhealthy guilt (condemning yourself as a person). You learn to evaluate your actions without globally rating your entire worth.
Anxiety is fueled by catastrophizing ("It would be terrible if...") and low frustration tolerance ("I can not stand..."). REBT directly targets these irrational belief patterns by helping you realistically evaluate the actual severity of feared outcomes and build genuine confidence in your ability to cope. This approach addresses anxiety at its cognitive root rather than just managing symptoms.
REBT does not just make you less disturbed. It makes you less disturbable. By developing a flexible, rational thinking style, you become better equipped to handle future adversity without creating unnecessary emotional suffering. REBT builds what Ellis called "elegant change": not just feeling better in the moment, but developing a fundamentally healthier relationship with your own thinking that lasts.
REBT is an active, directive therapy. Your therapist will collaborate with you, but expect to be challenged. That is where the change happens.
In the early sessions, your therapist will help you map your emotional experiences using the ABC model. Together, you will identify the Activating events that trigger your distress, uncover the specific Beliefs (demands, catastrophizing, low frustration tolerance, self-downing) driving your emotional Consequences, and begin to see the pattern clearly. This is the foundation: understanding that your beliefs, not the events themselves, are creating your suffering.
The core of REBT is disputation. Your therapist will guide you in challenging your irrational beliefs through three types of questioning: Logical (Does it follow logically that because you want something, you must have it?), Empirical (Where is the evidence that it is truly awful, rather than merely disappointing?), and Pragmatic (Is holding this belief actually helping you?). Between sessions, you will practice these skills through homework assignments, written exercises, and real-world experiments.
REBT does not just remove irrational beliefs. It replaces them with rational alternatives: strong preferences rather than demands, realistic assessments rather than catastrophizing, high frustration tolerance, and unconditional acceptance of yourself, others, and life. As these new beliefs strengthen through practice, you experience what Ellis called "elegant change": not just feeling better about this specific problem, but developing a fundamentally healthier thinking style that protects you against future disturbance.
See how our therapy options have helped our members experience life-changing results
Stephanie
“Grouport is time flexible and affordable and if it didn’t exist, I don’t know where I would go. I had looked into other places before Grouport and there really wasn’t any option like it.”
Michael
“I highly recommend this to anyone who is struggling with anxiety or depression. The therapists are top notch and have made me feel really comfortable and my anxiety has improved tremendously in only a few sessions!”
Isabel
"I joined Grouport to work on myself and to heal. I’m learning so much at every session! The change I see not only in myself but in my fellow group members is abundantly encouraging and profoundly fulfilling. Group therapy with Grouport is a powerful healing tool."
Sheldon
“I was feeling very down at the end of 2020 and I was ready to do something drastic that I know I'd likely regret. The group definitely helped show me that there are people who feel the same way as I do.”
Nancy
“The therapy from Grouport is high quality and convenient. I am becoming much more self aware and am liking myself more. My relationships at work are better and I’m much happier.”
Emily
“I like the connection you can make with total strangers and the confidentiality it comes with.”
Danielle
"Grouport can help you with your issues. Their therapists are well trained to work with you on your issues. I felt my anxiety greatly improve after only a few sessions. I highly recommend it!"
Glenn
"Grouport's approach to DBT is a real strength. This approach provides tools and methods for working with difficult emotions and getting a handle on them. It has given me hope where other approaches have failed."
REBT has been researched across a wide range of mental health conditions. Its focus on the core process of irrational beliefs makes it broadly applicable.
REBT has some of its strongest evidence for depression. In a landmark randomized clinical trial of 170 patients with major depressive disorder, REBT was as effective as Cognitive Therapy and fluoxetine (Prozac) at post-treatment, and REBT significantly outperformed medication at 6-month follow-up. REBT targets the self-downing and demandingness beliefs central to depressive thinking.
Anxiety in REBT stems from catastrophizing and low frustration tolerance. Research supports REBT's effectiveness for social phobia, test anxiety, performance anxiety, and generalized anxiety. REBT has been shown to be effective for anxiety disorders including social phobia in randomized controlled trials, targeting the core irrational beliefs that maintain anxious avoidance.
Anger is one of the conditions most naturally suited to REBT. The 50-year meta-analysis found medium to high effect sizes for anger at post-treatment. By targeting the demands you place on others ("They must treat me fairly," "People should not be so inconsiderate"), REBT reduces anger intensity and frequency while maintaining healthy assertiveness and boundary-setting.
Research with post-9/11 veterans found that an REBT-informed group produced significant reductions in both depression and PTSD symptoms in just five sessions. REBT addresses the rigid beliefs that maintain trauma responses, such as demands that the trauma should not have happened or that the world must be safe.
REBT's concept of unconditional self-acceptance directly addresses self-esteem issues. Rather than trying to build self-esteem (which rises and falls with performance), REBT teaches you to stop globally rating yourself altogether: accepting yourself as a whole, complex person who cannot be reduced to a single evaluation.
REBT addresses the low frustration tolerance ("I can not stand feeling this way") and self-downing that drive substance use. Research on rational emotive health therapy (REHT), developed specifically for addiction, found significant reductions in alcohol use frequency. REBT also targets the secondary disturbance (guilt about relapse) that can perpetuate the cycle.
Every Grouport therapist is a licensed, accredited mental health professional with specialized training in evidence-based approaches including Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, and extensive clinical experience in depression, anxiety, anger, self-esteem, guilt, shame, stress, and phobias.
Our therapists typically have over a decade of clinical experience across diverse settings, with specialized expertise in REBT, cognitive-behavioral, and disputation-based approaches, as well as depression, anxiety, anger, self-esteem, and stress. Our therapists are trained in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and other proven modalities to provide the best fit for your needs.
We continually evaluate outcomes through internal studies and outcomes studies with researchers from leading universities such as Carnegie Mellon, University of Essex, and University of Cologne.
MEET OUR THERAPISTS
a healthier future starts right here
80%of our members start with moderate to severe mental health symptoms
70% of our members feel significantly better within just 8 weeks
50% of our members achieve remission levels within just 8 weeks
80%
of our members start with moderate to severe mental health symptoms
70%
of our members feel significantly better within just 8 weeks
50%
of our members achieve remission levels within just 8 weeks
Group, individual, couples, family, IOP, and teen therapy — all online, all therapist-led. Mix and match care options to fit your needs — and get discounted pricing when you bundle.
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Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy challenges the irrational beliefs driving depression, anxiety, anger, and emotional disturbance. Our licensed therapists also treat a wide range of conditions using proven methods.
REBT is the original cognitive behavioral therapy, created by Albert Ellis in 1955. It uses the ABC model to help you identify the irrational, demanding beliefs that drive depression, anxiety, anger, and other emotional disturbance. A systematic review of 162 intervention studies found most REBT interventions successfully reduced irrational beliefs and improved mental health outcomes.
Grouport provides online group therapy, individual therapy, couples therapy, family therapy, teen therapy, intensive outpatient program (IOP), all held virtually over video chat. We also offer a DBT self-guided program. Many members combine multiple therapy formats for comprehensive support.
Yes. Our therapists are licensed mental health professionals with training in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and the ABC disputation framework. Our network includes:
✔ Licensed Psychologists (PhD, PsyD)
✔ Licensed Social Workers (LCSW)
✔ Licensed Mental Health Counselors (LMHC)
✔ Licensed Marriage & Family Therapists (LMFT)
REBT is actually the original CBT, created a decade before Beck's Cognitive Therapy. While both fall under the CBT umbrella, REBT places greater emphasis on three areas: unconditional self-acceptance rather than building self-esteem, reducing secondary problems like depression about depression, and directly targeting demanding beliefs (musts, shoulds, have-tos) as the core driver of disturbance.
REBT is designed to produce change relatively quickly. Research shows successful interventions typically last longer than 4 weeks and involve daily homework. At Grouport, 70% of our members feel significantly better within just 8 weeks. Your therapist will work with you to determine the right duration based on your needs.
Yes. Research has found that virtual REBT equally reduced distress and irrational beliefs compared to in-person delivery. All Grouport sessions are held via secure, HIPAA-compliant video chat.
REBT is available across multiple therapy formats:
✔ Group Therapy: Avg. $32/session ($140/month)
✔ Individual Therapy: Avg. $103/session ($448/month)
✔ Couples Therapy: Avg. $114/session ($496/month)
✔ Family Therapy: Avg. $148/session ($644/month)
✔ IOP: $311/week
✔ Teen Therapy: Avg. $103/session ($448/month)
✔ DBT Self-Guided: $500 one-time
Payment Options: Monthly, Quarterly (Save 10%), Biannually (Save 15%). Switch therapists anytime. Cancel anytime!
You can cancel anytime, and your membership will remain active until the end of your current billing period. To cancel, email us at support@grouporttherapy.com and we'll send you a quick cancellation form to fill out. You can view more information on our Recurring Billing Policy.
Our therapy outcomes are backed by outcomes studies with researchers from leading universities such as Carnegie Mellon, University of Essex, and University of Cologne. 80% of our members start therapy with moderate to severe symptoms. Within just 8 weeks, 70% of members see clinically significant reduction in anxiety and depression, and 50% achieve remission levels.
The ABC model is REBT's core framework. A stands for the Activating event (what happened), B stands for your Beliefs about the event (demands, catastrophizing, low frustration tolerance, self-downing), and C stands for the emotional and behavioral Consequences. REBT adds D for Disputing (challenging irrational beliefs through logical, empirical, and pragmatic questioning) and E for Effective new beliefs and emotions. The key insight is that B, not A, primarily causes C.
Grouport is available worldwide for everyone! We serve clients of all ages and backgrounds, with all sessions held virtually over video chat. We offer separate therapy groups for Adults (18+) and Teens & Adolescents (under 18).
Yes! After signing up, a care coordinator will reach out to understand your needs and match you with a therapist trained in REBT.
✔ You'll be able to choose your therapist.
✔ Most members are placed within a few hours, or within 24-72 hours max.
✔ Flexible options: If you ever want to switch therapists, we can easily make adjustments to ensure the best fit.
REBT is direct and active, but not harsh. Albert Ellis was known for a blunt style, but modern REBT practitioners balance directness with warmth and collaboration. Your therapist will challenge your irrational beliefs, not attack you as a person. In fact, the core message of REBT is unconditional acceptance: you are always accepted as a person, even when your thinking is disputed.
In REBT, irrational beliefs are rigid, absolutistic demands that create emotional disturbance. Ellis identified four main types: Demandingness (musts, shoulds, have-tos), Catastrophizing (it is awful, terrible, the worst), Low Frustration Tolerance (I cannot stand it), and Global Evaluation of self or others (I am worthless, they are terrible). These are contrasted with rational beliefs: preferences, realistic assessment, high frustration tolerance, and unconditional acceptance.
Yes. A meta-analysis of REBT with children and adolescents found positive effects, with the largest improvements in disruptive behaviors. REBT was equally effective for young people with and without identified problems. At Grouport, we offer separate therapy groups for Adults (18+) and Teens & Adolescents (under 18).
REBT is effective for depression, anxiety, anger, phobias, PTSD, low self-esteem, guilt, shame, substance use, OCD, and disruptive behaviors. Its focus on the core process of irrational beliefs makes it broadly applicable across conditions.
A randomized clinical trial of 170 patients with major depression directly compared REBT, Cognitive Therapy, and fluoxetine (Prozac). All three were equally effective at post-treatment. At 6-month follow-up, REBT significantly outperformed medication, while CT showed a similar but non-significant advantage. Both therapies were more cost-effective than pharmacotherapy.
REBT is unique in several ways. It is the original CBT, focusing specifically on demanding beliefs. It emphasizes unconditional self-acceptance over self-esteem. It explicitly addresses secondary disturbance (getting upset about being upset). It distinguishes between healthy and unhealthy negative emotions. And it aims for elegant change: not just symptom relief, but a fundamentally healthier thinking style that prevents future disturbance.
Whether you are dealing with depression, struggling with anxiety, overwhelmed by anger, trapped in guilt or shame, or simply feeling stuck in rigid thinking patterns, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy can help you challenge the beliefs driving your distress and build a more flexible, resilient mindset. With licensed therapists, over 50 years of research evidence, and flexible online formats, Grouport makes it easy to get started. Take the first step toward emotional freedom today.
