REALITY THERAPY
Key Terms to Remember:
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William Glasser
From Choice and Control Theory
Considered as a Cognitive-Behavioral Approach
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(BCP) Behaviours are attempt to Control our
Perceptions of the external world and to fit in
self-satisfying our inner world
Success Identity, Positive Addiction, Failure
Identity, Contraction
No excuses, No Punishment
Focus in the Here-and-Now
Never give up on clients
Four Psychological Needs
1. Survival
2. Belonging
3. Power
4. Fun/Freedom
Steps:
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rejects the medical model, the notion of
transference, the unconscious, and dwelling
on one’s past.
Relationship is FEDERAL.
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Create the relationship
Focus on current behaviour
Evaluate current behaviour
Develop a plan
Extract a commitment
Require no excuses
Always no punishment
Love the client. Refuse to give-up
Behavior = Thinking, Feeling, Doing, and Physiology
 WDEP System procedures that are applied to the practice of
reality therapy groups; strategies help clients identify their wants;
determine direction behaviors
take them, selfevaluations, and designs plans for change.
W = wants, explore wants, needs and perceptions;
D = direction and doing, focus on what clients are doing and the
direction they are headed;
E = evaluation, challenge clients to evaluate their total behavior
(continual basis);
P = planning and commitment, assist in the formulation of realistic
plans and making commitment to carry out plans
…reality therapy
Basic Human Philosophy:
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Individuals are responsible for what they do.
Our behaviour is a result of the attempt to get
what we want.
People are self-determining
Our behaviour is aimed at satisfying our 4 basic
needs (Survival, Belonging, Power,
Fun/Freedom)
People attempt to control around them and
teaches them to effectively get what they want
so they won’t hurt others.
Goal is to help the client make a better way of
meeting their 4 basic needs
-Clients are assisted in learning ways to regain control
of their life
-They are challenged to examine what they are doing,
thinking and feeling and figure out better ways to
function
-creates warms, supportive, yet challenging relationship
between the therapist and the client
-therapists confront clients with the reality and
consequences of their actions and will refuse accepting
excuses from clients who are not following the
commitment.
-Exploring wants, needs and perceptions thru the use of
skillful questioning and brings humor into the process
Applications:
-youthful offenders, family and group therapy,
elementary and secondary school settings, military
hospitals for drug and alcohol abuse
Limitations:
-doesn’t deal with the past, transference, social and
cross cultural work
Key Terms
 Autonomy - state of accepting responsibility and taking control
of self (life).
 Commitment – following the treatment plan
Responsibility- satisfying personal needs while not interfering with
people who fulfill their needs.
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EXISTENTIAL (LOGOTHERAPY)
Key Terms to Remember:
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Victor Frankl
Logotherapy-Healing through meaning
Uses humor and paradox
What we do in our life is more important than
genetics
believed that when we can no longer change a
situation, we are forced to change ourselves.
existential vacuum-the inability to find or
create meaning in life, leading to feelings of
emptiness, alienation, futility, and aimlessness.
Core Properties
1. Each person has a healthy core.
2. One's primary focus is to enlighten others to
their own internal resources and provide them
tools to use their inner core.
3. Life offers purpose and meaning but does not
promise fulfillment or happiness.
Logotherapy proposes that meaning in life can be
discovered in three distinct ways:
1. By creating a work or doing a deed.
2. By experiencing something or encountering
someone.
3. By the attitude that we take toward
unavoidable suffering.
3 Techniques:
1. Dereflection: Dereflection is aimed at helping
someone focus away from themselves and
toward other people so that they can become
whole and spend less time being self-absorbed
about a problem or how to reach a goal.
2. Paradoxical intention: Paradoxical intention is
a technique that has the patient wish for the
thing that is feared most. This was suggested
for use in the case of anxiety or phobias, in
which humor and ridicule can be used when
fear is paralyzing. For example, a person with a
fear of looking foolish might be encouraged to
try to look foolish on purpose. Paradoxically,
the fear would be removed when the intention
involved the thing that was feared most.
3. Socratic dialogue: Socratic dialogue would be
used in logotherapy as a tool to help a patient
through the process of self-discovery through
his or her own words. In this way, the therapist
would point out patterns of words and help the
client to see the meaning in them. This process
is believed to help the client realize an answer
that is waiting to be discovered.
Applications:
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Cancer patients with suicidal thoughts
Depression in children
Job Burnout
Marital Problems
ADLERIAN THERAPY (Individual Therapy)
Alfred Adler
-humanistic, unified, holistic, and goal oriented, based
on a growth model
Basic Philosophy:
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Person’s conscious behaviour is the mainstay
of behaviour not unconsciousness
Social Interest- individual’s feeling part of the
whole/community which is a result of social
training
People strive to become successful and
overcome the areas that they perceived as
inferior. (Striving for perfection)
Inferiority Complex- when a person did not
overcome feelings of inferiority
Superiority Complex-when a person
overcompensated feelings of inferiority
Maladjustment = choosing a behavior that
results to lack of personal growth and social
interest
Teleology- a person is motivated by future
goals not by past experiences
Birth Order- can influence personality
development
First Born- high achievers, parent pleasers,
conforming, well behaved.
Second Child- more outgoing, less anxious, and
less constrained by rules than first born.
Middle children have perceived unfair
treatment, manipulative, excels in family
politics
Youngest- spoiled, ability to please
Only Child- selfish, lack social skills, seek to be
pampered
Family interaction influences the child before
the age of 5
Basic Mistakes:
-Overgeneralizing
-False or impossible goals of security
-Misperception of life and life’s demands
-Minimization or denial of one’s worth
-Faulty values results in a ‘me first’ mentality
Four Stages
1. Engagement. The client and therapist begin to
establish the therapeutic relationship. The
relationship should consist of collaboration
towards addressing the client's problems. The
therapist should offer support and
encouragement.
2. Assessment. The therapist works to learn more
about the client's background, including early
memories and family dynamics. In this part of
therapy, the therapist attempts to understand
how the client may have developed certain
styles of thinking that are no longer helpful or
adaptive for them.
3. Insight. The therapist offers
an interpretation of the client’s situation. The
therapist suggests theories about how past
experiences may have contributed to issues the
client is currently experiencing; importantly,
the therapist leaves it up to the client to decide
whether these theories are accurate and
useful.
4. Reorientation. The therapist helps the client to
develop new strategies that the client can use
in daily life.
Applications:
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Guidance, social work
Group, couple, and family therapy
Applicable to many cultures
Rehabilitation and substance abuse counselling
Brief counselling
*congruent with many cultures
Limitations: Weak in terms of precision, testability,
and empirical validity
SOLUTION FOCUSED BRIEF THERAPHY
(SBFT)
Steve de Shazer and InSoo Kim Berg
Basic Philosophy
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usually, 5 to 8 sessions
individuals have the skills to create change in
their lives;
focuses on future hope, optimism, and change
rather than the problem or the past. Mind
mapping is a visual thinking tool that helps
structure information. It helps clients to better
analyze, comprehend, and generate new ideas.
highlights the strengths of the client when
things are going well.
helps the client to clarify his goals
main technique is to illuminate the exception.
(How it is going when the problem did not
exist).
Instead of assignments, experiments are asked.
If you do this, what has changed?
Techniques
3. Miracle Question
Suppose there is a miracle and your problem is
solved, how would you know that the problem
is solved?
4. Exceptions to the Problem
When were things better?
What were you doing differently during that
time?
5. Coping Questions
These types of questions open clients up to their
resiliency. Clients are experts in their life
experience. Helping them see what works,
allows them to grow from a place of strength.
“How have you managed so far?”
“What have you done to stay afloat?”\
6. Scaling Questions
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 representing the
best it can be and one the worst, where would
you say you are today?”
7. SMART+ Goals
1. SMART+ Goals
S = Specific M = Measurable A = Attainable/ or
Agreed Upon R = Realistic T = Timely - allowing
enough time for achievement
2. Presupposing change questions
“What stopped complete disaster from
occurring?”
“How did you avoid falling apart.”