title: Why I (really) became a therapist.
abstract: This article describes how the author really became a therapist and worked on his own social and performance anxiety. He was at first a follower of liberal psychoanalysis, but, in successfully using in vivo desensitization on himself, he overcame his anxiety and became highly constructivist. He finally created rational emotive behavior therapy, the pioneering cognitive-behavior therapy; integrated it with emotional-evocative and experiential methods; and used it to cope with much criticism he received about his active-directive techniques.
authors.affiliation: Albert Ellis Institute, New York, NY 10021, USA. aiellis@aol.com
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ellis
mesh_terms: D002321:Career Choice; D006801:Humans; D011613:Psychotherapy; D011617:Psychotherapy, Rational-Emotive; D014481:United States