This week’s post will discuss Reality Therapy.
Background
Reality therapy was created by William Glasser and Robert Wubbolding in the 1950s and 1960s and is based on Choice Theory. That is, that people are in control of their behavior, and their lives are a result of all of the choices that they have made. People have the capability of choosing their behavior freely. Feelings and thoughts are a result of the chosen behaviors. Therefore, clients are responsible for their lives.
How People Get into Trouble
People get into trouble when they mistakenly choose behaviors they think are going to get their needs met. Either people don’t know what they really want, they don’t understand what their options are, or they simply use bad judgement. People will use behavior as a way to manipulate and modify their perceptions of the world so that it fits what they really want. The problem is, this doesn’t really work because it doesn’t really get people what they want. Therapists can help by helping people plan for and adapt more appropriate and effective behaviors.
How a Reality Therapist Can Help
The first step in the process is to understand what the client wants. According to the tenants of Reality Therapy, we all have fundamental needs for belonging, freedom, power, fun and survival (physiological needs). What the client wants is going to be a combination of all of these. The second step is to evaluate what the client is currently doing in an attempt to meet those needs. Then, a reality therapists helps the client evaluate if what they are doing is really meeting those needs. In the words of Dr. Phil (never thought I would quote him): “How is that working for you?” Lastly, the reality therapist helps the client plan for behaviors that will better meet those needs.
Drawbacks
Although the theory sounds simple, it is not necessarily simple to implement. Reality Therapy does not provide for specific interventions, for example. In addition, it may not be sufficiently clear to some therapists where the boundaries are. Meaning, there are many opportunities for therapists to insert their own judgement where they shouldn’t. For example, a therapist may discourage a client from pursuing an open relationship due to the therapist’s own bias against such types of relationships. It doesn’t really matter what the therapist wants. All of the decisions should lie with the client- what they want and what behaviors they are comfortable doing to get what they want.
Because reality therapists think that people choose all aspects of their lives, they believe that people choose to be mentally ill. Therefore, a reality therapist will say that a depressed person is “depressing.” Meaning, they are choosing to be depressed. And, just as they are choosing to be depressed, they can chose to not be depressed.
Many therapists take issue with this position. If it is true that people are choosing depression or other mental illnesses, why does medication works? Why is it that for some mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia. medication is the primary, if not only, mode of treatment? Therefore, one major drawback to this theory is that it discounts biological processes.
Yours in the Joy of Knowledge,
Barbara LoFrisco
* source: Current Psychotherapies by Raymond J. Corsini and Danny Wedding
