Objectives of this Presentation
To know a brief history of the founder, To understand what made him to found a new therapy, To identify the basic concepts of Reality Therapy, Trying to apply in our lives & issues and How to use it to our clients.
William Glasser is the founder
was born in 1925 and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, The US. was initially a Chemical Engineer went into psychiatry when it became apparent to him that this was his real interest in life. During his early years as a psychiatrist, he met Dr. G. L. Harrington, an older psychiatrist and credits him his "mentor." was in private practice from 1957 to 1986. In 1970s, he was influenced by Perceptual Control Theory developed by William T. Powers And named his body of work as “Control Theory” In 1996, he renamed it as Choice Theory, mainly because he wanted to avoid confusion with perceptual control theory.
Dr. Glasser Now
Is 84 years old is semi-retired but is still a much sought-after speaker on Reality Therapy and Choice Theory internationally. Keeps Training in The William Glasser Institute The William Glasser Institute Founded in 1967 Is located in Chatsworth, California, and has branch institutes throughout the world. Over 75,000 people worldwide have taken training to gain knowledge on how to apply his ideas in their professional life.
Two Basic Statements of Reality Therapy
The only available thing in the world that can be controlled by you is “YOURSELF” All we do from birth to death with few exceptions are chosen.
Why mental illness?
We are born with internal purposes; specifically, five genetically encoded needs: Survival Love and Belonging Power Freedom Fun Whenever we feel badly, it means that one or more of these five needs is/are unsatisfied. In most of the cases, unsatisfying relationship is the cause of issues
Behavior: Inseparable but Distinct Components Acting Thinking Feeling The Physiology We can indirectly choose many feelings and some of our physiology through directly choosing Acting & Thinking
Other Important Concepts
External Control Psychology: Common psychology of the world is that almost all people to attempt to control other people.
Quality World: We keep close track of anything we do that feels very good and to store this knowledge in a special place in our brain called our quality world.
To understand: Depression When, using external control thinking, it is as if the "illness" has happened to us; we are not responsible, and we don’t believe we can do much about it. Instead of depression, choice theory would say we are choosing to depress; It offers the concept-“instead of being depressed, we are depressing.” Depressing is the most common way people have discovered to ask for help without begging. Depressing allows us to avoid doing what we are afraid to do. Choose Depression because it is a very effective way of asking others to take care of him/her.
Reality Therapy & Other Therapies
Reality Therapy Vs Psychoanalysis Opposed the Freudian thought of interpreting a person's history & inner turmoil and so people have no responsibility for their behavior. Childhood experiences can affect people one and only if he/she chooses to. Transference was created by Freud to avoid getting personally involved in client’s lives.
Reality Therapy Vs Behaviorism It is applicable only to animals and people who don’t want to change. It has made us the slaves of conditioning principles The idea of change is enough. There is no need of 21 days and all. The duty of the therapist is to give such a motivation and make the people to choose to change.
Reality Therapy Vs Psychiatry Choice theory rejects both the concept of mental illness and the medical model on which it is based. It accepts this model only when there is specific pathology in the brain, such as in Epilepsy or Alzheimer's Disease Psychiatry’s common goal is to diagnose a patient with a mental illness and prescribe medications to treat but in fact, all mental illnesses are manifestations of inner issues.
Reality Therapy Vs Cognitive Therapy Reality Therapy says people can choose both behavior and cognition (If Cognition changes, behavior changes) "If you want to change attitudes, start with a change in behavior“
Reality Therapy Vs/& Person-Centered Therapy Reality Therapy suggests that in case of normal people, Clients should experience some urgency in therapy. Reality Therapist is a person whom clients can't fool, but at the same time is a person who does not punish or withdraw if clients try old irresponsible ways to behave in therapy. If the counselor (or some other responsible person) can't connect with them, there is no possibility of helping them. MANY SIMILARITIES
Reality Therapy Vs/& Gestalt Therapy Reality Therapy conveys the idea that there is hope, no matter how bad things are (Here & Now) Clients will complain forever about their symptoms if the therapist will listen. MANY SIMILARITIES
An Effective Reality Therapist
Be able to feel comfortable with people would not be a part of their lives for which be known much as possible about how human beings function. is usually a person who reads books (fiction, especially), magazines and a daily newspaper, and who keeps in touch with how a wide variety of people are choosing to live their lives. Is a person who knows what life is all about, is successful in dealing with it and are not afraid to discuss any subject with the client. Dr. G.L. Harrington, Dr. Glasser's Mentor for many years was asked by Glasser, What is the most important characteristic of a therapist? Harrington said, to be in better shape than the client, at least in areas where the client is not effective. If the therapist is struggling unsuccessfully with a problem, it is unlikely that he/she can help a client with that problem.
Application with Clients
The therapist's first function is to create a good relationship with the client. From this relationship. From the beginning, the practice of reality therapy takes place in the present. The past is what happened, the future may happen, but what is going on today is the focus of reality therapy. Since almost all of every client’s problems are caused by external control psychology, it will not exist in the counseling situation. Here, it's the clients who make all the choices for themselves and the therapists make all the choices for themselves.
Find the unsatisfied need Teach them the two basic statements through their experiences. Help them to choose the best in the caring, accepting, non coercive choice theory environment If counselors recognize disconnected, pleasure-seeking person, should give up all the usual goals of counseling and focus on just one thing: do whatever is possible to get connected with this person.
Kindly Visit WWW.WGLESSAR.COM for more clarity
Prepared by Karthik Lakshmanan R M, 27th Aug. 2009 for Counseling & Psychotherapy
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