The Institute for Emotive-Cognitive Embodied Narrative Therapy (E-CENT)

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Holistic Counselling and Psychotherapy – Clinical Research and Development

Promoting awareness of ‘individual humans’ as Socialized-Body-Brain-Mind-Environment-Complexities

Directors: Dr Jim Byrne and Renata Taylor-Byrne

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Research – Development – Publications

Coaching – Counselling – Psychotherapy

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Homepage of the E-CENT Institute

Updated on 21st March 2024

Introduction: From Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) to Emotive-Cognitive Embodied Narrative Therapy (E-CENT)

On this website you will find:

– A page of information about the origin and development of the Institute for E-CENT: About the E-CENT Institute.

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– A page which describes the nature of Emotive-Cognitive Embodied Narrative Therapy (E-CENT): What is E-CENT Counselling?

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– Over a period of 17 years, we have published about 25 books which are directly or indirectly linked to the core theory of E-CENT counselling and psychotherapy; for examples, on the subjects of how to control anger, anxiety, depression; how to use writing therapy to create a better life for yourself; how to improve your sleep, diet, and exercise; how to overcome childhood developmental trauma; and much more besides. See our page of Books linked to E-CENT counselling.

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Change is the law of life, according to Taoism; and change, upheavals and reformulations are at the centre of scientific enquiry, even in the world of counselling and psychotherapy, coaching and mentoring, and psycho-education. (See for example, Thomas Kuhn’s theory of Scientific Revolutions).

This website would not have come into existence if it had not been for the following facts:

• Jim Byrne and Renata Taylor-Byrne were impressed by Albert Ellis, and they became fans of him and his theory of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT). We foolishly thought that we were learning how to “think more effectively”, whereas in fact we were imbibing a set of dogmas about how all human disturbance could be captured in the simplistic ABC model, which asserts, after Epictetus (a slave who was the son of a slave!), that people are NOT disturbed by what happens to them, but rather by unrealistic, unreasonable, irrational beliefs.
• Over a period of years, from 1992 to 2007, we became more and more disillusioned by, at first, gaps in the theory; moral weaknesses in the theory; and finally, no substantial basis to the theory whatsoever!
• Albert Ellis died in July 2007, and soon afterwards we had the idea of perhaps finding the shards and chippings of REBT, which were left over after our original piecemeal critiques. And that was the original basis for setting up this institute. However, when we got down to it, we found that the entire theory of REBT was insupportable in the face of critical analysis.
• Please see our critique here: A Major Critique of REBT.
• And our newly evolved theory of human disturbance, and how to help disturbed individuals, with body-brain-mind-based counselling and therapy, can be found in this book:

Lifestyle Counselling and Coaching for the Whole Person.

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That’s all for today.

Best wishes,

Jim Byrne, Doctor of Counselling

Executive Director. The Institute for Emotive-Cognitive Embodied Narrative Therapy (E-CENT)

21st March 2024.

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