Reality Therapy (William Glasser)

Basic Beliefs
 Key person: William Glasser
 Key theory: Choice theory and control theory
 Focus on responsibility for choice
 Focus on the unsatisfied needs, which are
often the cause of problems
 The only person you can control is yourself
 Behavior = an attempt to get what we want
 Focus symptoms = avoid facing unsatisfied
needs
 Five basic psychological needs
 Need for Survival

Taking care of oneself by eating, drinking…
 Need for Belonging
 Need for love or relationship
 Need for Power
 To be better than others
 Need for Freedom
 How we wish to live our lives, express ourselves…
 Need for Fun
 Laughing, joking, sports, reading…
 View of Human Nature--people
 Try to meet basic psychological needs
 Try to get what they want
 Identify the frustrated need and try to satisfy it.
 Choose to be miserable instead of becoming
miserable
 Store experiences related to how to fulfill their
basic psychological needs in their brain
 Four reasons for choosing depression
(based on choice theory)
 Keep their anger under control
 Being anger can lead to violence, but depression does not
 Get others to help them
 Depression is a way to get help
 Excuse the unwillingness to do something more
effective
 To avoid searching for a job
 Gain powerful control over others
 Others must do something for them
 Therapeutic Goals
 Help clients meet their psychological needs
 Assess how well these needs are being met
and what changes should take place
 Take an education approach to help clients
meet their needs
 The more severe the symptom, the more
clients are unable to fulfill their needs
 Clients determine what they want
 Therapist’s function and Role
 Create a good relationship with their clients
 Challenge clients to evaluate themselves
 Instill a sense of hope


 Therapeutic relationship is a mentoring

relationship with therapist as a teacher and
client as a student.
 Therapist Attitudes
 Do not accept excuses
 But, make a new plan

 No punishment or criticism
 But, examine the consequences for not completing the
goals; reevaluate the plans and make new ones.

 Do not give up
 Change is not an easy process
 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
 Ask what they want and what their plans are.

 Being positive
 What the client can do and reinforce positive actions

 Confrontation
 Not accept excuses, but continue to make effective plans

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

 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?
 Research on Reality Therapy
 Some research published in the International
Journal of Reality Therapy.
 In general, research on reality therapy is limited
 A number of studies have been done
internationally.
 In Taiwan, group reality therapy as well as lessons on
choice theory have positive effect on experimental
group members’ locus of control and self-concept
compared to the control group.
 From a multicultural perspective

 Contributions
 Focusing on acting and thinking reduce resistance to
counseling
 Allowing for a wide range of acceptable behaviors to
satisfy needs
 Limitations
 Ignoring environmental factors
 Not appropriate for some cultural values
 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)
 Summary and Evaluation
--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
Summary and Evaluation
--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.