❊ Reality Therapy ❊
Choice Theory
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Choice Theory ⌾
Founders
❊ His work at a prison school for girls led to disagreement with psychoanalysis & to his interest in developing an alternative theory
❊ Developed Choice Theory, which led to Reality Therapy in the 1960s
❊ Difficult childhood & family conflict influenced his focus on personal responsibility
William Glasser
❊ Heavily influenced by William Glasser & expanded on his work
❊ Made Reality Therapy more accessible & applicable
❊ Developed the WDEP system
❊ Adapted theory to diverse populations
Basic Principles
Based on Choice & Control Theory
❊ Choice Theory: suggests that people’s own thoughts, feelings, & behaviors impact their quality of life
❊ Control Theory: suggests that people have inner control systems that guide behaviors & emotions
Robert Wubbolding
Are people choosing & behaving in ways that meet their needs & wants?
Key Concepts
❊ Glasser posits that problems originate during early childhood when we encounter people that believe they know what is right for us
❊ This leads us to believe that others make us feel or act the way we do
❊ Does not use diagnostic terminology - mental illness does not exist in Reality Therapy
❊ Difficulties are a result of people not meeting their basic needs in effective ways
Quality World
❊ Personal wants & subjective perceptions of the ideal world we would like to live in
❊ Unique to each person & exists in our minds (mental picture)
❊ Conceptualization begins at birth and continually evolves overtime
❊ We are always behaving in a way to get us to our quality world
Axioms of Choice Theory
1. The only person whose behavior we have control over is our own
2. Counselors & other people can best help by giving information
3. All long-lasting psychological difficulties are due to relationship problems
4. Problematic relationships are part of present life
5. People can only satisfy their basic needs in the present moment & future
6. People can only satisfy their needs by satisfying their quality world
❊ Comprised of cognitive behavioral principles, but more philosophical than traditional CBT
❊ Assumes that people should take responsibility & not make excuses for difficulties
❊ Self-determination gives people the choice to meet their needs & accomplish their goals
❊ Self-evaluation is very important
Total Behavior
❊ Overall functioning that includes acting, thinking, feeling, & physiology
❊ Helps individuals recognize their ability to change their actions and thoughts, which can lead to changes in feelings and physiology, ultimately improving their overall well-being and relationships
❊ All 4 parts of total behavior are always present & interrelated (wheels)
❊ Direction of the car cannot be changed by only 1 wheel
❊ Front wheels are represented by acting & thinking as these are more directly controllable
❊ Engine = Basic Needs
Basic Needs:
❊ All behavior is purposeful, chosen, & driven by five basic needs
❊ These needs are fixed at birth & the strength of each need impacts our personality
❊ Needs are universal, but how we are able to fulfill these needs varies
7. What people do can best be described as behaving
8. Total behavior is made up of acting, thinking, feeling, & physiology
9. All total behavior is chosen; people have direct control over acting & thinking; feeling & physiology is impacted by the acting & thinking
10. Total behavior is named by verbs
Goals of Counseling
Role of Counselor
❊ Build Trust & Use Caring Confrontation
❊ Collaborative & Supportive
❊ Respectful & Nonjudgmental
❊ Teach & Goal-Oriented
❊ Work to Increase Motivation
Includes 3 Parts:
❊ An introduction that identifies what the clients present with that led to the therapist’s guess of a discrepancy,
❊ Therapists sharing the issue or discrepancies with the client, &
❊ An invitation for the client to respond such as “what do you make of that?” or “would you be willing to explore that with me?”
Caring Confrontation
⤷
❊ No formal therapeutic process
❊ Focus on the client relationship & understanding the relationships that are causing them distress
❊ Work to understand client’s quality world
To help people have greater control over their lives by making better choices
Wise choices…
1. Help people meet their innate needs & specific wants reflected in their quality worlds
2. Are responsible… they help the individual & respect the rights of others
3. Are realistic & likely to be attained through sound planning
Additional Goals
❊ Forming & sustaining positive relationships
❊ Developing a success identity & sense of who you are
❊ Engaging in healthy thinking, feeling, & behaving
Therapeutic Techniques
WDEP System
❊ Remote control & mirror metaphors
❊ Encouraging positive addictions
❊ Utilizing relationships as tools for learning
❊ SAMIC System
❊ Using verbs & "ing" words to show clients that they have control over their live
❊ Allowing natural consequences from behaviors to occur
❊ Paradoxical interventions
❊ Mistakes are designed to be learning experiences
❊ Utilize paradoxical prescriptions
❊ Develop Skills
Applications of Reality Therapy
Multicultural Groups
❊ Experts in Reality Therapy have worked to make theory applicable to more diverse populations
❊ Respectful & humanistic approach that focuses on what the client wants & assumes they are capable of change
❊ Wubbolding offers many resources for modifying Reality Therapy to work with many different populations & developmental ages
LIMITATIONS
❊ Important to continue to investigate ways to apply this theory to more diverse populations
❊ Exercise caution & sensitivity when working with clients whose belief system emphasizes a higher power, predestination, & the value of an external locus of control
❊ Does not directly address environmental & social problems which can severely limit one’s ability to choose different paths