The New York Times has an obituary of Albert Ellis, a highly innovative psychotherapist who died yesterday at the age of 93.
In the 1950s, Ellis broke with tradition by rejecting the theories of Sigmund Freud, which were widely used at the time.
As an alternative, Ellis developed a method called Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), which involved encouraging his patients to alter their behaviour by focusing on current events in their lives.
This new method, along with that developed by Aaron T. Beck, would later form the basis of cognitive behaviour therapy.
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Ironic that he was considered to be the second most influential psychotherapist, given that the man named as the first most influential developed nothing that's been shown to be useful. It's a sad commentary on the state of the discipline.