Last updated: 7/2009

sychologist/Philosopher
For Cognitive-Emotive Narrative Therapy (REBT/CBT/CENT)
"Helping you to overcome your emotional, behavioural and relationship problems; and to have a life of happiness and success"

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
By Jim Byrne and Renata Taylor-Byrne
July 24th; 20.00 hrs, UK time.
It was with great sadness that we learned of the death, on July 24th, of Dr Albert Ellis, the founder of REBT, and a very good friend to us.
...more here...
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CURRENT QUOTES
?The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president (or the queen!). You realize that you control your own destiny.?
Albert Ellis PhD
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?Everything is what your opinion makes it,
and that opinion lies within yourself.
Remove it when you will,
and at once you have rounded the foreland
and all is calm ? a tranquil sea ?
a tideless haven?.
Marcus Aurelius
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"The foundation of all of my work is Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT/CBT): combined with Transactional Analysis (TA) and Zen; and other modern narrative therapies. If I can be said to specialize in anything, then I specialize in happiness coaching. However, I do this by helping people with all kinds of emotional, behavioural and relationship problems to become more effective at managing their lives".
Jim Byrne, July 2007.
So if you want to be happier, or to learn how to help others to be happier, then please email Jim Byrne, at ABC Coaching. Or phone me on 01422 843 629 (from inside the UK), or 44 1422 843 629 (from outside the UK).
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WELCOME AND SIGNPOSTING
Hello and welcome to ABC Coaching and Counselling Services; the home of Cognitive-Emotive Narrative Therapy, which is a fusion of Narrative, Cognitive and Psychodynamic therapies.
On this page you will find a general introduction to this website; plus some articles on happiness, success, and other topics; plus some links to my main services.
If you have a problem with your emotions, behaviours or relationships, there is always great hope of a better tomorrow!
Would you like to feel much less miserable than you currently do? To move in the direction of more happiness in your life?
Would you like to have happier relationships with your loved ones? That is perfectly possible.
Do you want help with problems of anger, anxiety, depression, self-confidence, self-esteem, stress or relationship difficulties? If so, I can help you - no matter where you live on planet Earth. Please stay on this page and read on.
Due to increasing demands upon my time, only a limited number of appointments is now available, either face-to-face or by telephone, email, or over the internet.
There are links to three video clips on this page: one in the 'Philosophy of Life' section, and two in the 'Psychology of Success' section. Those clips are meant to inspire you; to draw attention to vitally important aspects of life that may be escaping you. Please take a look.
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ABOUT JIM BYRNE
My name is Jim Byrne and I am a trained, experienced, registered and accredited Counselling Psychologist/Psychotherapist. I am in my ninth year in private practice, in Hebden Bridge and Halifax, West Yorkshire; and worldwide over the Internet and the telephone system. I use Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, combined with elements of Transactional Analysis, Zen philosophy, and other modern narrative therapies, in my therapeutic work with clients and trainees. To find out more about me, please go here:
About Jim Byrne.
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ABOUT RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIOUR THERAPY
Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) is the original form of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy; originated in 1955 by Albert Ellis PhD, a New York based clinical psychologist. Dr Ellis had trained as a clinical psychologist when person-centred ideas were prevalent; but then retrained as a neoFreudian psychoanalyst and did that for about six years, until he discovered that this approach went into "every philosophic irrelevancy", and missed all the philosophic relevancies. So Dr Ellis went back to the philosophers, not the psychologists, and reviewed them: from the ancient Chinese; Greeks; Romans and up to modern Europeans and some of the American pragmatists. Out of this mixture, he fashioned REBT.
More - What is REBT?
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ABOUT COGNITIVE-EMOTIVE NARRATIVE THERAPY (CENT)
Cognitive-Emotive Narrative Therapy (CENT) is a new integration of therapies, including REBT, CBT, TA, Narrative therapy, Zen therapy, and others. It is currently under development by Jim Byrne.
More - The New Academy for CENT.
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MY MAIN SERVICES
My main services are as follows:
Telephone coaching and counselling worldwide.
Counselling and therapy by email exchanges, worldwide.
Coaching, counselling and therapy by Instant Messaging (or chat-room typing exchanges), worldwide.
Coaching, therapy and counselling over the internet, using voice and video technology (with webcams combined with internet voice-over technologies).
Face-to-face coaching, counselling and therapy in Hebden Bridge and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Face-to-face Couples Therapy in Hebden Bridge and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Books...Books...Books. Jim Byrne's Recommended Books on Coaching, Counselling, Therapy, Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Transactional Analysis (TA), Happiness and Life Enhancement, Zen philosophy, etc.
Confidence Coaching, over the telephone, the internet, by email, or face-to-face.
Training courses for counsellors/therapists, in REBT/CBT.
Remote supervision (by audio tape) of REBT therapists.
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INFORMATION
Get your copy of the Downloadable Information Pack about face-to-face coaching, counselling and therapy services, including fees.
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SPECIAL FEATURES
About Albert Ellis - His legal conflict with his former colleagues at the Albert Ellis Institute.
What is Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT)?
REBT and Research.
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A PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE
Some people think of philosophy as airy-fairy waffle that is of no interest to anybody but academics and pretentious buffoons. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is nothing more practical and useful than a good philosophy of life. Each of us lives our life from an unconscious philosophy of life - a blueprint that we follow like Pavlov's dogs. Unless and until we make that philosophy conscious, and change it so that it serves us instead of defeating us, we will be the pawns of those who trained our current philosophy of life into us.
On this website you will find elements of philsophy which can begin the process of liberating you from the chains of an excessively restrictive philosophy of life. Increasingly in the future, you will also find elements of philosophy that are designed to tackle the post-liberation event with guidance on how to live a productive pro-social life, in harmony with others, and in just institutions, without which there cannot be a harmonious society.
More on philosophy of life.
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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SUCCESS
Success! What does that mean to you? For some people it means a bigger car. A bigger house. More cash to blow on empty calories. More conspicuous consumption. That, of course, is a possible way to be. But it is not success! It is not a form of 'right livelihood'. And it has nothing to do with the road to happiness or completion as a human being.
Indeed there seem to be more 'failures' among the super-rich today than among the moderately poor. ('Affluenza', by Oliver James, psychologist and author).
There are many different ways of defining and approaching personal and professional success, and success in life in general. My dictionary defines success as: "1. the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. 2. the gaining of fame, wealth, or social status..." And I would say that while number one is an important part of my definition of success, number two quite definitely is not. If you do what you love in life, and love the people in your life, you will gain all the acclaim and joyful success that any person could reasonably want.
More on the Psychology of Success.
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CLIENT TESTIMONIALS AND LONG-DISTANCE SERVICES
Over a period of more than eight years I have helped almost 400 individuals, including many couples, to overcome their emotional, behavioural and relationship problems; and to become much happier than they had ever been before. To see some testimonials from satisfied customers, please take a look at the Client Testimonials page.
If you are looking for help with an emotional, behavioural or relationship problem, but you do not live within commuting distance of Hebden Bridge or Halifax, West Yorkshire, then please take a look at the Online (including Telephone) Coaching page.
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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HAPPINESS
My dictionary of psychology does not contain a definition of the word 'happiness', mainly because, historically, psychology was concerned more with human misery and malfunction than with human thriving.
My English dictionary defines 'happiness' as "...feeling or showing pleasure..." But is that what we normally mean by the word happiness? I suspect that this is sometimes what we mean, but that we often mean something much calmer, and less dramatic, such as feeling calm and serene; feeling centred and grounded; feeling bliss; feeling comfortable and at peace; and so on.
Indeed, in my model of human emotions, and how they relate to bodily (or physiological) arousal, the word 'happiness' refers to an aroused positive state which occurs at a similar level of cardiovascular and visceral arousal as the 'healthy negative emotions' of concern and irritation. That is to say that happiness thus defined is a reasonable level of positive emotion, with a reasonable level of physiological arousal. Above that level of arousal we get mania, or overly-aroused positive emotion, with excessive physical activity and a generally negative effect upon others who are present and having to witness this mania.
Using this system of definition, we can say that many people are seeking happiness as just defined, but that it can only be achieved by encountering a 'positive stimulus', such as getting a pleasant surprise, gaining something that was desired or sought, escaping from something that was experienced negatively, and so on. Thus, in this definitional schema, happiness is contingent upon the external environment for its presence. If there are no external positive stimuli, then there is no internal state of positive arousal, called 'happiness'. Thus, in this schema, if you want to be happy, you absolutely need to get things, and experience events, that have a positive meaning for you. But that cannot always be arranged, as life tends to have good and bad elements. So that approach to 'happiness' would often, if not normally, be counterproductive. For example, when you experience loss or failure, how are you going to experience any happiness at all?
Another definition of 'happiness' could be this: 'To experience peace of mind; to be calm; to be contented; regardless of external circumstances'. This is closer to the Buddhist concept of 'detachment from desire'; or the Greek (Aristotelian) concept of 'Eudaimonia', which flows from living a virtuous life, rather than receiving anything from outside yourself.
Since you cannot always get what you want; and life can be very difficult, frustrating and sometimes downright painful, I strongly advise my clients to seek the second type of 'happiness' - namely 'contentment; detachment; eudaimonia; serenity; acceptance of your lot'. With this approach, you stay with the difficulties in your life; complete your experience of them; embrace them; and feel the sadness, irritation, concern, and so on that these situations evoke in us. What we find with this approach is that, after a certain amount of healthy negative emotion, such as sadness, the sun comes out, and happiness returns, without any need to receive anything (much) from outside of ourselves. Thus the psychology of success, for me, becomes the psychology of acceptance of what is so; detachment from excessive desiring of the unattainable; the living of a virtuous life, with and for others; and so on. In this way we can be 'happy' even when the rain pours in through our leaking roof, or the money runs out of our bank accounts too quickly!
Two other elements are also important:
(1) Firstly, it is important to focus your mind upon the mildly positive things in your life, in order to notice them, and feel happy that they are there. Otherwise, your attention will tend to focus upon the mildly negative things in your life, and you are likely to make yourself miserable about them. So managing your attention is crucial.
(2) Secondly, it is good to have long-range goals. But if all your goals are long range you will always be putting off pleasure to some dim, distant future which may never come. But if you only have short-term goals, you may fail to achieve all that may have been possible if you had thought of the long term, planned for it, saved for it, trained for it, and so on. So what you need is a good balance of long-term and short-terms goals, with daily, weekly and monthly rituals to extract what happiness you can from your life as it proceeds.
But now let us take a look at some of the findings of happiness researchers:
The psychology of happiness indicates that material assets are not prime factors in promoting happiness, once subsistence level has been reached. The more important factors include:
(1) Being involved in engrossing activities that are meaningful for you;
(2) Having a purpose in life that is much bigger than yourself;
(3) Having at least one major relationship involving trust and intimacy;
(4) Working intelligently towards your own goals;
(5) Learning to distinguish between what you can and cannot control; and "when it rains, just letting it rain!"
(6) Learning to practice gratitude for what you have in your life, instead of always focusing on what you do not have!
And so on.
Jim Byrne, July 2007
POSTSCRIPT
If you are habitually unhappy, and want to learn how to be happier, then call Jim Byrne on 01422 847882 (from inside the UK) or 44 1422 847882 (from outside the UK). Or email me on ABC Coaching and Counselling Services.
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OTHER SERVICES
If you do live within commuting distance of Hebden Bridge or Halifax, which are about half-way between Leeds and Manchester, on the M62 motorway, and the trans-Pennine rail link, then please take a look at the Face-to-face Therapy page.
I also offer a downloadable, online Information Pack for individuals who want face-to-face counselling/therapy; or I can send you a copy if you email me. Among other things, the Information Pack contains details of my availability, locations and my sliding scale of fees.
I have written a few self-help books, and I also offer a range of books from ABC/Amazon.
I offer Distance Learning (or Home Study) courses in Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), at Primary Certificate level, Advanced Certificate level, and Diploma level, for professional counsellors/therapists. I offer supervision of REBT therapists for individuals with less than five years post-qualifying experience, in accordance with the rules of the ISPC. And I offer occasional public seminars for members of the public; and face-to-face training events for both the public and professionals. See the Training in REBT page.
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SEEKING CONTENTMENT
"The psychology of everyday contentment is based upon the elimination of certain attitudes and beliefs that predispose us towards emotional disturbance. Chief among these are the tendency to catastrophize about relatively minor difficulties and frustrations, and to demand that things be different from the way they are. In addition to damning ourselves, others and the world when things go wrong. I teach a range of approaches to changing attitudes and beliefs in my coaching and counselling work".
Jim Byrne, October 2006.
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ON FREEDOM
?Freedom is the recognition of necessity?.
Plekhanov.
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?Freedom and happiness consist of understanding one principle: There are certain things you can control and certain things you can?t. It is only after you have learned to distinguish what you can control from what you cannot, that inner harmony and outer effectiveness become possible?.
Epictetus, The Enchiridion.
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LINKS
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ABC Coaching and Counselling Services.
Jim Byrne?s Email Address.
Face-to-face coaching, counselling and therapy.
About Albert Ellis.
Online and telephone coaching, counselling and therapy.
Email coaching and counselling service.
The Academy for Integrative Therapeutic Studies (AITS).
Couples Therapy Service: (Relationship skills; marriage counselling).
Albert Ellis Discussion Forum.
Confidence Coaching Service.
Training in REBT/CBT for counsellors/therapists.
The REBT Network, for information about Albert Ellis and REBT.
Albert Ellis Friends.Net: New Albert Ellis fan-site.
The REBT Network, for information about Albert Ellis and REBT.
Albert Ellis Friends.Net: New Albert Ellis fan-site.
I am a Registered Member of Counselling
I am a Licensed Member of the International Society for Professional Counsellors.
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CONTACT DETAILS
Enquiries about this website, or any of the services describe within, can be sent to:
Jim Byrne
Coaching and Counselling Psychologist/Philosopher