Coaching Practiced

21 Deserted Island technique: Demonstrating the difference between musturbatory and preferential beliefs in cognitive behavioural and rational coaching

Stephen Palmer

Abstract

This article focuses on the Deserted Island technique which can be used in cognitive behavioural and rational coaching to teach the B-C connection and demonstrate the advantages of challenging and modifying musturbatory beliefs and subsequently how to develop preferential beliefs.

Keywords

Deserted Island technique; musturbatory beliefs; preferential beliefs; cognitive behavioural coaching; rational coaching; unhelpful and helpful negative emotions.

Original publication details: Stephen Palmer, “Deserted island technique: Demonstrating the difference between musturbatory and preferential beliefs in cognitive behavioural and rational coaching,” pp. 127–129 from The Coaching Psychologist, Vol. 5, No. 2, December 2009. Reproduced with permission of The British Psychological Society.

Incognitive behavioural and rational coaching¹ (see Neenan & Palmer, 2001a, b; Palmer 2009a) sometimes it is useful to demonstrate to coachees the benefits of challenging and modifying demanding, absolutist and rigid beliefs. These beliefs often consist of ‘musts’, ‘shoulds’, ‘have tos’, ‘got tos’ and ‘oughts’ and are referred to as ‘musturbatory’ beliefs in the rational emotive behavioural literature and are considered ‘irrational’, unhelpful and goal-blocking (see Ellis et al., 1997). Once these beliefs are challenged, to ...