REBT-Devil's Advocate is best described as...

• A. The therapist challenges the client's belief directly.
• B. The therapist adopts the client's belief and argues for it.
• C. The therapist pretends to doubt the client but leaves it to the client.
• D. The therapist uses exposure to test the belief.

Answer: (B)

In this approach, the therapist temporarily adopts the client's irrational belief and argues for it, playing devil’s advocate to test its logic and consequences. By stepping into the belief as if it were true, the therapist highlights where the belief is rigid, exaggerated, or self-defeating, making its irrationality more apparent to the client. This sets up a powerful moment for cognitive reappraisal: after seeing the belief argued from the inside, the clinician can guide the client through disputing it and replacing it with more flexible, rational alternatives.

This isn’t just about criticizing the belief from the outside; it’s a deliberate role-play that uses internal-consistency checks to reveal how extreme or unrealistic the belief is. Exposure, direct disputation, or feigned doubt without embodying the belief don’t capture the same effect as this technique, which is why adopting and arguing for the belief is the best description.