ABCDE Model

The ABCDE Model takes one specific moment and walks it through five stages. A is the activating event. What happened? Describe like CCTV footage, with no interpretation. B is the belief you formed about it. C is the consequence, how you felt and what you then did. D is disputation, where you argue with that belief. E is the effective new belief you are left holding. It comes from Albert Ellis, an American psychologist who developed rational emotive behaviour therapy in the 1950s. Ellis was working years before Aaron Beck's cognitive therapy, and his central claim was the one the Stoics had made 2,000 years earlier. Events do not upset us. Our belief about events upset us. The stage people tend to rush is A. Write what happened, not what it meant. 'She did not reply to my email' is A. 'She is annoyed with me' already is B. And if you smuggle it into A, you've lost before you start. Disputation is where the work is. Where is the evidence? What else could explain it? What would you say to a friend who had told you this? Use it on one specific incident that is still bothering you. This tool is for the moments. For themes, use Limiting Beliefs.