Reality Therapy (William Glasser)
Basic Beliefs
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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
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Need for Survival
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Need for Belonging
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To be better than others
Need for Freedom
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Need for love or relationship
Need for Power
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Taking care of oneself by eating, drinking…
How we wish to live our lives, express ourselves…
Need for Fun
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Laughing, joking, sports, reading…
View of Human Nature--people
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Try to meet basic psychological needs
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Try to get what they want
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Identify the frustrated need and try to satisfy it.
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Choose to be miserable instead of becoming
miserable
Store experiences related to how to fulfill their
basic psychological needs in their brain
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Four reasons for choosing depression
(based on choice theory)
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Keep their anger under control
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Get others to help them
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Depression is a way to get help
Excuse the unwillingness to do something more
effective
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Being anger can lead to violence, but depression does not
To avoid searching for a job
Gain powerful control over others
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Others must do something for them
Therapeutic Goals
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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
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Create a good relationship with their clients
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Challenge clients to evaluate themselves
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Instill a sense of hope
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Therapeutic relationship is a mentoring
relationship with therapist as a teacher and
client as a student.
Therapist Attitudes
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Do not accept excuses
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No punishment or criticism
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But, make a new plan
But, examine the consequences for not completing the
goals; reevaluate the plans and make new ones.
Do not give up
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Change is not an easy process
The process of reality therapy
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Establish a supportive relationship
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Explore clients’ needs, wants, and perceptions
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Evaluate how effective they are in getting what
they want
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Make a plan to do better
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Make a commitment to plans
Reality Therapy Strategies
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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
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have a reasonable chance of getting you what
you want?
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P
Planning – identify ways to fulfill their wants
and needs.
SAMIC
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S
A
Simple - Easy to understand, specific and concrete
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?
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C Controlled - Can you do this by yourself or will you be
dependent on others?
Research on Reality Therapy
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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.
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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
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Contributions
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Focusing on acting and thinking reduce resistance to
counseling
Allowing for a wide range of acceptable behaviors to
satisfy needs
Limitations
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Ignoring environmental factors
Not appropriate for some cultural values
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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
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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
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Not give enough emphasis to
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Feelings
Unconscious
Dream
Transference
the effect of early childhood experiences,
the power of the past to influence one’s
present personality.