</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
Hopefull said:
I can see that labeling a thought or belief as irrational is a bad idea. I think a T could teach a client to replace unuseful thoughts or negative thoughts with postive thoughts. Also, I
think the client should be the main one who chooses what beliefs are changed with the T pointing out some possible candidates.

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">

Yes, that's pretty much my view too. Certain of our unhelpful thoughts are defensive reactions which are not helping us any more, but harming us. I don't like the word irrational, which implies that there is something loopy about the sufferer, I prefer unhelpful or maybe negative.

If a person had been repeatedly attacked and bitten by the family dog throughout their childhood I would see nothing irrational about them choosing not to have a dog in later life, or even avoiding dogs altogether!

The thoughts we suffer have a rational basis, they are just out of hand and hurting, which is a different thing, IMHO.

Cheers, M