But identifying our own irrationalities is difficult, admitting to ourselves that we have them is difficult (for rationalists, anyway), removing them is difficult, and overcoming the emotional attachment we have to them is sometimes the most difficult part of all.

I would reverse the ordering you have there: overcoming an emotional attachment is actually the easiest thing to do, finding the irrational belief is the hardest. Actually, finding any implicit belief/assumption is hard, whether it's rational or not. We see the picture framed by our beliefs, but not (usually) the frame itself.

Admitting and eliminating one's emotional beliefs can be done in a systematic,near-rote way, simply by asking a few questions (see e.g. Lefkoe or Katie). Identifying one's emotional beliefs, on the other hand, requires something to compare them to, and you can never be quite certain where to start. Brains don't have a "view source code" button, so one is forced to reverse-engineer the assumptions.