Choice theory/Reality therapy - Cognitive Behavioral Approaches Flashcards
Founder:
William Glasser
Key figure:
Robert Wubbolding
Theory
This short-term approach is based on choice theory and focuses on the client assuming responsibility in the present. Through the therapeutic process, the client is able to learn more effective ways of meeting her or his needs.
The basic Philosophies
Based on choice theory, this approach assumes that we need quality relationships to be happy. Psychological problems are the result of our resisting control by others or of our attempt to control others. Choice theory is an explanation of human nature and how to best achieve satisfying interpersonal relationships.
Key Concepts
The basic focus is on what clients are doing and how to get them to evaluate whether their present actions are working for them. People are mainly motivated to satisfy their needs, especially the need for significant relationships. The approach rejects the medical model, the notion of transference, the unconscious, and dwelling on one’s past.
Goals of Therapy
To help people become more effective in meeting all of their psychological needs. To enable clients to get reconnected with the people they have chosen to put into their quality worlds and teach clients choice theory.
The Therapeutic Relationship
A fundamental task is for the therapist to create a good relationship with the client. Therapists are then able to engage clients in an evaluation of all of their relationships with respect to what they want and how effective they are in getting this. Therapists find out what clients want, ask what they are choosing to do, invite them to evaluate present behavior, help them make plans for change, and get them to make a commitment. The therapist is a client’s advocate, as long as the client is willing to attempt to behave responsibly.
Techniques of Therapy
This is an active, directive, and didactic therapy. Skillful questioning is a central technique used for the duration of the therapy process. Various techniques may be used to get clients to evaluate what they are presently doing to see if they are willing to change. If clients decide that their present behavior is not effective, they develop a specific plan for change and make a commitment to follow through.
Applications of the Approaches
Geared to teaching people ways of using choice theory in everyday living to increase effective behaviors. It has been applied to individual counseling with a wide range of clients, group counseling, working with youthful law offenders, and couples and family therapy. In some instances it is well suited to brief therapy and crisis intervention.
Contributions to Multicultural Counseling
Focus is on clients making their own evaluation of behavior (including how they respond to their culture). Through personal assessment clients can determine the degree to which their needs and wants are being satisfied. They can find a balance between retaining their own ethnic identity and integrating some of the values and practices of the dominant society.
Limitations in Multicultural Counseling
This approach stresses taking charge of one’s own life, yet some clients are more interested in changing their external environment. Counselors need to appreciate the role of discrimination and racism and help clients deal with social and political realities.
Contributions of the Approaches
This is a positive approach with an action orientation that relies on simple and clear concepts that are easily grasped in many helping professions. It can be used by teachers, nurses, ministers, educators, social workers, and counselors. Due to the direct methods, it appeals to many clients who are often seen as resistant to therapy. It is a short-term approach that can be applied to a diverse population, and it has been a significant force in challenging the medical model of therapy.
Limitations of the Approaches
Discounts the therapeutic value of exploration of the client’s past, dreams, the unconscious, early childhood experiences, and transference. The approach is limited to less complex problems. It is a problem-solving therapy that tends to discourage exploration of deeper emotional issues.
Applying to Group Therapy
The inherent focus on the need for love and belonging in reality therapy is well-suited to a group therapy setting, providing members with an opportunity to explore new ways of satisfying their needs through the relationships developed with other members. Utilising the WDEP approach, members learn to evaluate their total behaviours and implement new plans to change unsatisfactory aspects of their life with the assistance of the group leader. Members devise and implement their own homework to complete in between sessions that will assist them in achieving their goals. Plans that fail to come to fruition are discussed with the group leader to help members establish what prevented them from doing so—such as unrealistic goals or unwillingness to engage in the steps necessary to implement the plan. From this view, insight alone is not sufficient to implement change, as change requires members to do something different rather than waiting for those around them to change.
Techniques
With the primary aim of reality therapies to assist the client in becoming connected or reconnected to the important people in their lives, the counsellor takes on the role of mentor and advocate to teach their clients how to behave more effectively in satisfying their wants and needs. Clients learn to engage in a process of self-evaluation to reflect on their behaviours and how effective these are in achieving their wants. Rather than provide the evaluation themselves, counsellors challenge their clients with questions, such as “Is what you are choosing to do getting you what you want and need?”, leading the client to re-evaluate their behaviours and implement a plan to achieve the desired changes. Through this process, the client can start to identify their basic needs, discover their quality world, and understand how they have chosen their total behaviours that have resulted in their present symptoms.
Through a supportive yet mildly confronting, i.e. approaching the issue directly, therapeutic relationship, counsellors provide a safe space for their client to identify their ineffective behaviours and implement new strategies to satisfy their wants. Whilst all reality therapy is based on the same principles and ultimately aimed toward developing the client’s sense of connectedness and improving unsatisfying relationships, the actual process may differ depending on the counsellor’s style and personal characteristics, as well as what the client identifies as meaningful. By making clients aware of the control they have over their own behaviours and how their total behaviour may be reflected in the symptoms, feelings etc. that brought them to therapy, reality therapy can instil a greater sense of hope for the future.
