COOL IS BEST is based on

Albert Ellis

Albert Ellis created Cognitive Therapy (CT) and revolutionized psychology worldwide. CT has helped many millions of people resolve their emotional and behavioural problems over the past 50 years.

Typically it is used to help people who already have problems but at CIB we apply it preventively, as recommended by Albert Ellis himself. As a result, participants learn to manage their emotions, to feel good even in the face of difficult situations, to have better relationships, and to be more successful in their personal, school and professional lives.

Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers also revolutionized psychology worldwide when he created “Person-Centered Counselling” and established for the first time in psychology the importance of listening with empathy.

Rogers believed that we all have a tendency to grow personally and that the best way to help people with problems is to listen to them with unconditional acceptance and approval – what he called “Unconditional Personal Regard” (“UPR”).

He developed a way of listening that came to be called “Active Listening”. True listening and empathy are rare things in our society but they are key to creating good relationships with others and to preventing violence.

Their Collaborators and Successors

Virginia Axline, Thomas Gordon, Marshall Rosenberg, all Carl Rogers PhD students, are three psychologists who continued Carl Rogers’ work, and CIB also draws on their work.

The Practice of Being Conscious

Being aware (“Mindfulness”) gives us the ability to realize how things really are instead of seeing what happens around us, and to us, through the filter of our prejudices. Being mindful helps us put all the 6 skills into practice.

COOL IS BEST is inspired by the teachings of the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jon Kabat Zinn, and many others.