[5][6] LBT retains the theoretical base of the cognitive-behavioral psychotherapies, insofar as it contends emotional and behavioral problems to be rooted in malignant and maladaptive thought processes and patterns.
[11] For example, the first premise in the above syllogism is irrational because one is exaggerating just how bad the divorce is (thinking of it as though it were on the level of a catastrophic disease or natural disaster).
LBT permits clients to trace their inferences to higher order premises that might be at the root of an emotional and behavioral disturbance.
In contrast (but like other types of CBT), LBT does not place any particular emphasis on past relationships or the causes of problems and is even less concerned with interpretation.
In contrast to classical REBT, LBT identifies positive virtues that can guide a person in overcoming irrational beliefs.
[15][16] According to LBT, all basic irrational beliefs ("cardinal fallacies") identified by REBT theorists and philosophers are related to "transcendent virtues" that can overcome them.
[16] For example, the Kantian categorical imperative that says to "treat oneself and others as ends in themselves and not as mere means" can be used as an antidote to damnation of self or others, and thus as a sort of recipe to attaining the transcendent virtue of respect for self and others.
[18] While it makes no commitment to the existence of free will in any metaphysical sense, it recognizes the practical value of building "willpower muscle" as a means to overcome cognitive dissonance and attain one's transcendent virtues.
LBT emphasizes and promotes the power that one has to change the way in which an event or situation is interpreted by altering one's thought patterns.
LBT's emphasis on the "willpower muscle" suggests the ability of agency and choice in regard to therapeutic change.
However, it holds that the client's emotional reasoning "tracks the flow of associated images, interoceptive feelings, and other bodily sensations generated by cortical, somatosensory, and limbic structures.
However, the goal is to create more flexible and open ways of interpreting the world and extinguish "absolutist" thinking or unrealistic expectations as a result of a collaborative therapeutic relationship.
However, understanding and changing one's inferences and logical structures requires a certain level of intellectual ability, and consequently, may limit the application.
While LBT may be conceptually sound and have firm theoretical roots, much of psychotherapy and counseling research emphasizes the importance of evidence-based practice, that is, interventions and therapeutic approaches that have scientific evidence for their efficacy.
[24] Given this, to establish LBT's efficacy and effectiveness, further empirical validation must occur through psychotherapy research methodology.