The flavor of REBT I'm familiar with (it's coming back to me now
) reframes Ellis' concepts (although they are still Ellis' concepts through and through) with the specific goal of treating addictive behavior. The addictive voices are labeled as arising from the "reptile brain," (the most evolutionarily ancient part of the brain) or, in Freudian terms, the id. These are the voices that want, without any awareness of other factors. More food, more drugs, more of that rush, more of what made it feel good.
Countering these constant animalistic desires is the frontal lobe—our rationality, or, in Freudian terms, the ego. The conscious, rational part of us is normally "the boss" of the reptile brain. Say you've hiked to the peak of a steep, rocky hill. Peering down the other side of the hill, you see a nearly-straight descent littered with pebbles. "Wouldn't it be fun to slide down that?" the reptile brain (aka "the Beast") says, and the rational brain says, "Um, I think I'll pass. It looks like I could easily break my neck."
As it applies to eating, the reptile brain is the voice in your head that says, "Have another helping! A few chips never hurt anyone. Mm, listen to the ice cream in the freezer calling us. Aww, cutting veggies up is so much work; just get something from the vending machine instead. Chocolate CHOCOLATE
CHOCOLAAAAATE."
I think the most useful part about REBT for weight loss is learning to recognize the voice, and learning to externalize it, to realize that it's not entirely "you," but that it's just a very ancient PART of you that only knows how to want. Rather than placate it by feeding its mindless desires, you realize that "you," aka the conscious, evolved you, have a duty to serve as caretaker and disciplinarian to the dumb, unevolved voice of the reptilian brain.
P.S. Isn't cognitive-behavioral therapy the single therapy that's ever been found to actually "work?"
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