REALITY THERAPY
Note taken from Key Reference Text :
Theory & Practice of Counseling & Psychotherapy, Gerald
Corey 9th Ed.
Note taking by ONG SING YEE (KB, PA)
CHAPTER ▪KEY CONCEPTS
OVERVIEW
▪THE THERAPEUTIC
PROCESS
▪APPLICATION:
THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUES AND
PROCEDURES
SEMINAR ▪ KEY CONCEPTS
OBJECTIVE
✓Understand and able to
apply the key concepts on:
❖View of Human Nature
❖Choice Theory Explanation
of Behavior
❖Characteristics of Reality
Therapy
KEY CONCEPTS View of Human Nature
▪ We are not born blank slates waiting to be externally
motivated by forces in the world around us.
▪ We are born with five genetically encoded needs that
drive us all our lives: survival, or self preservation;
love and belong; power, or inner control; freedom, or
independence; and fun, or enjoyment.
▪ We are by nature social creatures we need to both
receive and give love.
▪ Love and to belong is the primary need.
▪ Our brain functions as a control system.
▪ Our quality world, which is at the core of our life.
- Personal Shangrila – the world we would like to live in
if we could.
- It is completely based on our wants and needs.
- It is very specific.
- It consists of specific images of people, activities,
events, beliefs, possessions, and situations that fulfill
our needs.
▪ We develop an inner picture album.
KEY CONCEPTS Choice Theory Explanation of Behavior
▪ All we ever do from birth to death is behave and,
with rare exceptions, everything we do is choosen.
▪ Total behavior teaches that all behavior is made up
of 4 inseparable but distinct components – acting,
thinking, feeling and physiology – that
necessarily accompany all of our actions, thoughts
and feelings.
▪ It emphasizes thinking and acting.
▪ The primary emphasis is on what the client is doing
on and how the doing component influences the
other aspects of total behavior.
▪ Our behaviors come from the inside and thus we
choose our destiny.
KEY CONCEPTS Characteristics of Reality Therapy
▪ Contemporary Reality Therapy focuses quickly on
the unsatisfying relationship or the lack of a
relationship, which is often the cause of clients’
problems.
▪ The therapist does not get involved with finding
fault.
▪ They ask clients to consider how effective their
choices are.
▪ The basic axiom of choice theory “ the only person
you can control is yourself”.
KEY CONCEPTS Characteristics of Reality Therapy
Emphasize choice and responsibility
▪ If we choose all we do, we must be responsible
for what we choose.
▪ It changes the focus of responsibility to choice
and choosing.
▪ Therapists focus on those areas where clients
have choice, for doing so gets them closer to the
people they need.
KEY CONCEPTS Characteristics of Reality Therapy
Reject Transference
▪ Being themselves, therapists can use the
relationship to teach clients how to relate to
others in their lives.
KEY CONCEPT Characteristics of Reality Therapy
Keep the therapy in the present
▪ The past may have contributed to a current
problem but that the past is never the problem
▪ To function effectively, people need to live and
plan in the present and take steps to create a
better future.
KEY CONCEPT Characteristics of Reality Therapy
Avoiding Focusing on Symptoms
▪ People who have symptoms believe that if they
could only be symptom free they would find
happiness.
▪ Almost all symptoms are caused by a present
unhappy relationship.
▪ By focusing on present problems, especially
interpersonal concerns, therapy can generally
be shortened considerably.
KEY CONCEPTS ▪ Characteristics of Reality Therapy
▪ Challenge Traditional Views of Mental
Illness
SEMINAR THE THERAPEUTIC
OBJECTIVE PROCESS
✓ Understand and apply
the concept on:
▪Therapeutic Goals
▪Therapist’s Function and
Role
▪Relationship Between
Therapist and Client
THERAPEUTIC Therapeutic Goals
PROCESS
▪ Help clients get connected or reconnected
with the people they have chosen to put in
their quality world.
▪ A basic goal is to help clients learn better
ways of fulfilling all their needs.
▪ Basic human needs serve to focus treatment
planning and setting both short and long term
goals.
THERAPEUTIC Therapist’s Function and Role
PROCESS
▪ Therapists teach clients how to engage in self
evaluation
▪ They assist clients in evaluating their own
behavioral direction, specific actions, wants,
perceptions, level of commitment, possibilities
for new directions and action plans.
▪ Therapist convey the idea that no matter how
bad things are there is hope.
▪ They function as an advocate, or someone who
is on the client’s side.
THERAPEUTIC Client’s Experience in Therapy
PROCESS
▪ Clients are not expected to backtrack into the
past.
▪ The emphasis in on actions.
▪ When clients change what they are doing, they
often change how they are feeling and
thinking.
▪ Clients can expect to experience some
urgency in therapy
THERAPEUTIC Relationship Between Therapist and Client
PROCESS
▪ An understanding and supportive relationship
or therapeutic alliance, which is the foundation
for effective outcomes.
▪ Establishing a trusting relationship is critical.
▪ The basis for therapeutic intervention to work
effectively rests on a fair, firm, friendly and
trusting environment.
SEMINAR APPLICATION:
OBJECTIVE THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUES AND
PROCEDURES
✓Understand and apply the
concept on:
▪Phases of Existential
Counseling
▪The Counseling
Environment
▪Procedures that Lead to
Change
▪The WDEP system
APPLICATION: The Practice of Reality Therapy
THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUES AND ▪ Can best be conceptualized as the cycle of
PROCEDURES
counseling which consists of 2 major
components:
- Creating the counseling environment
- Implementing specific procedures that lead to
changes in behavior.
APPLICATION: The Counseling Environment
THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUES AND ▪ Supportive and challenging environment
PROCEDURES
▪ Therapeutic relationship
▪ It is from this mildly confrontive yet always
noncriticzing, nonblaming, noncomplaining,
caring environment that clients learn to create
the satisfying environment that leads to
successful relationship.
APPLICATION: Procedures That Lead to Change
THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUES AND ▪ We are motivated to change
PROCEDURES
▪ When we are convinced that our present
behavior is not meeting our needs
▪ When we believe we can choose other
behaviors that will get us closer to what we
want.
▪ 1st session, a skilled therapist looks for and
defines the wants of the client.
▪ The therapist also looks for a key unsatisfying
present relationship – usually with a spouse, a
child, a parent or an employer.
▪ The emphasis is on encouraging clients to
focus on what they want to control.
▪ When clients begin to realize that they can
control only their own behavior, therapy is
underway.
▪ The rest of therapy focuses on how clients can
make better choices.
APPLICATION: The WDEP System
THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUES AND ▪ Effective, practical, usable, theory based, cross
PROCEDURES
cultural and founded on universal human
principles.
▪ Help clients explore their wants, possible
things they can do, opportunities for self
evaluation and design plans for improvement.
APPLICATION: The WDEP System
THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUES AND Wants (exploring wants, needs and perceptions)
PROCEDURES
▪ Therapist assist client in discovering their
wants and hopes.
▪ Exploring the picture album/ quality of clients
and how their behavior is aimed at moving
their perception of the external world closer to
their inner world of wants
APPLICATION: The WDEP System
THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUES AND Direction and Doing
PROCEDURES
▪ Early in the counseling it is essential to discuss
with clients the overall direction of their lives,
including where they are going and where
their behavior is taking them.
▪ Therapist encourage clients to take action by
changing what they are doing and thinking.
APPLICATION: The WDEP System
THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUES AND Self Evaluation
PROCEDURES
▪ Evaluation involves the client examining
behavioral direction, specific actions, wants,
perceptions, new directions and plan.
▪ It is the counselor’s task to assist client in
evaluating the quality of their actions and to
help them make responsible choices and
devise effective plans.
APPLICATION: The WDEP System
THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUES AND Planning and Action
PROCEDURES
▪ Once clients determine what they want to
change, they are generally ready to explore
other possible behaviors and formulate an
action plan.
▪ The process of creating and carrying out
plans enables people to begin to gain
effective control over their lives.
APPLICATION: The WDEP System
THERAPEUTIC
TECHNIQUES AND SAMIC = simple, attainable, measurable,
PROCEDURES immediate, involved, controlled by the planner,
committed to, and consistently done.
▪ Characteristics
- The plan is within the limits of the motivation and
capacities of the client.
- Good plans are simple and easy to understand
- The plan involves a positive course of action, and
it is stated in terms of what they client is willing
to do.
- Counselors encourage clients to develop plans
that they can carry out independently of what
others do.
- Effective plans are repetitive and ideally are
performed daily.
- Plans are carried out as soon as possible.
- Plans involve process centered activities.
- Before clients carry out their plan, clients
evaluate it with therapist.
- To help clients commit themselves to their plan,
it is useful for them to firm it up in writing.
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