How people perceive situations and events is regarded as important in explaining their emotions and behaviour. REBT therapists therefore, help their clients to identify and change their thoughts, behaviour and emotions in relation to a specific problem.

One of the aims of REBT is to help each individual learn to be their own therapist. The techniques are not shrouded in mystery; once an individual has learned how to cope more effectively with a problem, they can use their newly acquired skills to address the same problem again if it were to reappear. The same approach can also be used to cope better with different, unrelated problems. This means that an individual may never need to see a therapist again.

REBT can be a relatively brief treatment (when compared to psychodynamic and analytical approaches). Brief therapy could apply to anything up to approximately 30 sessions but often people need no more than about 15 sessions and some people only need to see an REBT therapist a few times. The number of sessions needed depends on the nature of the difficulty and also the amount of practice a person has in applying REBT to their problems. A general rule of thumb is that the more practice a person has then the more likely they are able to use the approach to help themselves without the support of a therapist.