JESSICA REY J.

TAN

REALITY THERAPY

PROPONENT

 WILLIAN GLASSER

 Born in Cleveland, Ohio

 He become a Chemical Engineer at age 19, a Clinical Psychologist at age 23 and a Physician at age 28.

 He also received Psychiatric Training at the Veteran’s Administration Centre in UCLA.

 Dr. Glasser founded The Institute for Reality Therapy in 1967

 He has devoted his life to educating people about his beliefs and working directly with school
counselors, administrators and teachers.

VIEW OF THE HUMAN BEING

• Human beings have a single psychological need that is present throughout life: the need for identity. This
includes a need to feel a sense of uniqueness, separateness, and distinctiveness.

• The needs are usually classified into two: a.) the need to love and be loved; and b.) the need to feel
worthwhile (Glasser and Zunia, 1973.)

VIEW OF THE HUMAN BEING

• Survival

• Love and Belonging

• Power/Achievement

• Freedom/Independence

• Fun

SOURCES OF DIFFICULTY

• People have difficulties when they have not been successful in meeting their needs.

• They develop failure identity

• Their attempt to meet their identity

• They tend to select ineffectiveness behaviour that virtually assure their failure.

• All patients have a tendency to deny the reality of the world around them and act irresponsibly (Patterson,
1973)

GOAL OF COUNSELING
 • The clients must be helped to fulfill the basic psychological needs to love and be loved to feel worthwhile to
him-self/herself and to others.

• He/she must helped to achieve autonomy.

ROLE OF COUNSELOR

 The Reality Therapy has a number of roles to play (Glasser, 1963)

1. To get the client involved with the counselor and with the therapeutic process;

2. To guide client to realistically appraise his/her own behaviour;

3. To confront client in ways that help him/her face reality and fulfill basic needs with-out harm to
himself/herself or others;
4. To client clarify his/her goals and recognize how he/she frustrates progress towards self-defined goals;
5. To assist client in identifying alternatives for goal-attainment ;
6. To help client achieve success identity;
7. To teach client that aim of therapy is not to secure happiness –but to accept responsibility which is the key
to happiness;
8. To set limits within the therapeutic situation and those that life places on the individual; and,
9. To serve as a continuing model of personal responsibility even outside the counseling session.

MAJOR FOCUS

 The her–and–now behavior of the client is the major target while conscious, planned behaviour is the major
focus.

THE PROCESS OF REALITY THERAPY

• Establish a supportive relationship

• Explore clients’ needs, wants, and perceptions

• Evaluate how effective they are in getting what they want

• Make a plan to do better

• Make a commitment to plans

REALITY THERAPY STRATEGIES

• Questioning

o Ask what they want and what their plans are.

• Being positive

o What the client can do and reinforce positive actions

• Confrontation

o Not accept excuses, but continue to make effective plans

• Paradoxical techniques
 o Reframing: helps a person change the way they think

o Paradoxical prescriptions: choose to depress at certain times only

WDEP

• W Wants - What do you want to be and do?

• D Doing and Direction - What are you doing?

• E Evaluation - Does your present behavior have a reasonable chance of getting you what you want?

• P Planning – identify ways to fulfill their wants and needs.

SAMIC

• S Simple - Easy to understand, specific and concrete

• A Attainable - Within the capacities and motivation of the client

• M Measurable -Are the changes observable and helpful?

• I Immediate and Involved - What can be done today? What can you do?

• C Controlled - Can you do this by yourself or will you be dependent on others?

FROM A MULTICULTURAL COUNSELING

• Contributions

o Focusing on acting and thinking reduce resistance to counseling

o Allowing for a wide range of acceptable behaviors to satisfy needs

• Limitations

o Ignoring environmental factors

o Not appropriate for some cultural values

o it is not considered a value to ask for what they need (i.e., thinking of what is good for the social
group as a whole)

CONTRIBUTIONS

• Insight and awareness are not enough

• Action and commitment to following through are the core of the therapeutic process

• Accepting personal responsibility

• Gaining more effective control

• Focusing on what they can do in the present to change their behavior

LIMITATIONS

• Not give enough emphasis to

– Feelings

– Unconscious

– Dream

– Transference

– the effect of early childhood experiences,

– the power of the past to influence one’s present personality.