Choice Theory & Reality Therapy In
ActionDr. Ali Sahebi (Ph.D)
March 2010
EMPHASIS
Choice
Responsibility
Evaluation
BEHAVIOUR
We choose our behaviours to satisfy our needs at any given time
A person’s behaviour at any given time is their best effort to meet their needs
Behaviour is holistic/total – acting- thinking – feeling – physiology, and most of these are choices
Behaviour contd./…
Originates from within and not form some external stimuli
Emphasis on choice of and responsibility for our behaviour
TOTAL BEHAVIOUR (holistic)
Acting Thinking Feeling Physiology
Most of them are choices
NEEDS
Survival Belonging and Love Power Freedom Fun A person’s behaviour at any given
time is their best effort to meet their needs
Survival
To survive as individuals and as a species
Physical needs for food, water, air, safety, shelter,
Need for a sense of security in respect of the on-going provision of basic needs
Love and Belonging Need to love and care for others To believe that we are loved and cared for Unsatisfactory or non-existent ‘connections’
with people are the major source of all almost all long-term human problems (Glasser ,1998)
Whatever the presenting problem disconnectedness according to Glasser will be the underlying cause or issue
Power/Self-Worth
Need for a sense of empowerment, worthiness, self-efficacy and achievement
Need to be able and capable It implies a sense of achievement,
accomplishment, pride, importance and self-esteem
Freedom
Need for Independence and autonomy The ability to make choices To express oneself freely
Freedom Internal blocks to freedom External blocks to freedom
Fun
The desire to enjoy school (a job) To have a sense of humour To engage in a hobby To have a feeling of excitement about
a work project or a leisure time activity
Fun is the internal payoff for learning Important in relationships
NEEDS - WANTS Needs genetic instructions’ are
common to all people Wants are the way we meet our
needs If a person’s behaviour is their best
way of meeting their needs What needs is the behaviour meeting? Are there more effective ways of meeting the
need? Can we engage in a collaborative effort to find
better ways of meeting this need?
SPECIFIC WANTS
Human beings develop specific wants Each person, as they grow and
interacting with family and culture develop specific and unique wants as to how needs are to be met
We have wants related to each need These are analogous to pictures in
that each one is specific
Responsibility
By helping clients to take responsibility for their behavioural choices rather than accepting that they are victims of their own impulses, past history, other people or present circumstances they are able to make dramatic chances.
We are influenced by the past but not controlled by it.
Emphasis
An effort to teach, encourage and help clients to take responsibility for their behaviour
Personal responsibility is at the heart of therapeutic change
OUR QUALITY WORLD
The people we want to be with The things we most want to own or
experience The ideas or systems of beliefs that
govern our behaviour Our assumptions
PICTURE ALBUM
Contains pictures that meet a specific need
Love
Are the pictures realistic? Do they need to be changed? Am I prepared to change them? In conflict, compromise is necessary.
PICTURE ALBUMS
We control our mental images or pictures
Put them in, exchange them or throw them out
We always have the option of choosing some more positive behaviour
Contd./…
This extensive collection of pictures or wants is called a ‘mental picture album (Glasser, 1984) and the ‘quality world’ (Glasser, 1990)
Quality World
What does it mean when we change what is in our quality world? Persons Situations Believes
BELIEF SYSTEM
Much of my behaviour is a response to external signals
Other people can control how I think, feel and act
I have a right to punish others who do not do what I want them to do
SUCCESS IDENTITY
Effective and need fulfilling behaviour Able to give and receive love Experience a sense of self worth Involved with others in a caring way Meet their needs in ways that are not
at the expense of others
FAILURE IDENTITY
See themselves as unloved, unwanted, rejected
Unable to become intimately involved with others
Unable to make and stick with commitments
Are generally helpless
THEORY
Discounts the concept of mental illness
Focuses on moral issues Past is largely ignored in favour of the
present Does not recognise transference Unconscious is largely ignored
CHOICES - Depression
Continue to depress yourself Change what you are doing to get
what you want Change what you want Change both what you want and what
you are doing to get what you want
We can even choose misery
Why is depression a choice? Why would a person choose to be
depressed? What are the advantages/gains of
being depressed? We should always look at secondary
gains in relation to choice
Reasons for choosing misery
To keep angering under control To attract help To excuse not taking action To control others Never let anyone control you by the
pain and misery (s)he chooses for themselves
Counselling - School For a successful counselling
relationship (therapeutic alliance) the counsellor should be in the client’s quality world
School should be in the client’s quality world
We can change what is in our quality world, put new persons/things in and take persons/things that are already there out.
Goals of Reality Therapy
Teach choice theory for understanding behaviour
Raise awareness of choosing misery Increase client’s sense of
responsibility Assist clients to have realistic pictures
in their albums to meet their needs Assist in implementing new
behaviours
Practice of Reality Therapy
Building an appropriate relationship Evaluate present behaviour Look at possible alternatives for
getting what the client wants out of life
Selecting alternative for reaching goals
Develop a behavioural plan Not giving up
Build Relationship Use attending
behaviours Suspend judgement Do the unexpected Use humour Establish boundaries Share self Listen for metaphors
Listen for themes Summarise and
focus Allow
consequences Allow silence Show empathy Be ethical Create anticipation
and communicate hope
Contd./… Don’t argue Don’t boss manage Don’t criticise or
coerce Don’t demean Don’t encourage
excuses
Don’t instil fear Don’t give up
easily
WDEP SYSTEM
Discuss wants and perceptions Discuss directions and doings Self evaluation Formulate a plan of action
Discuss Wants & Perception
Wants Questions
Ask clients what they want? Ask what they want to avoid? Ask what they want regarding needs? Ask who they want to be? Ask how they see (perceive) their control,
themselves and the others?
Discussion of Direction
Ask Clients About Their Overall Direction. Where is the accumulation of your
current choices taking you? Are you headed in a direction where
you want to be in a month, a year, 2 years?
As Glasser stated, “ Ask client…about the direction they would like to take their lives?
Self Evaluation
Self Evaluation is the heart, the essence, the most important component, the quintessential segment of the delivery system.
Glasser (1972) described SE as “the basis for Change”
“If there is a specific time in Reality Therapy when people begin to change, it is when the client evaluates what he or she is doing and begins to answer the question, “Is it helping?”
Self Evaluation contd./…
People do not change until they decide that what they are doing does not help them accomplish what they want (Glasser, 1980).
Self Evaluation is the keystone in the arch of procedure. It holds the other together, and if it is to removed, the arch crumbles (Wubbolding, 1990, 1991)
Self-evaluation Questions
Self-evaluation Questions
Is your overall behaviour taking you where you want to go?
Is this specific action to your best advantage?
Is what you tell yourself really helping you?
Is what you want realistically attainable?
Plan of Action
Ask Clients to make plans to more effectively fulfill their wants and needs without infringing on the rights of others to do the same
Plan of Action
Successful planning is SMART:S: Simple, small and SpecificM: MeasurableA: Aligned with wants R: Realistic (reasonable and responsible)T: Time Framed** Written in the present tense as if it has already
occurred
Plan of Action Questions
Plan of Action Questions
What else can you Do?
What (action) steps will you need to accomplish your goal?
What resources do you need?
What knowledge or skills you need to accomplish this goal?
How will you know if the plan is successful?
Questions
What do you want? What are you doing? Is what you are doing getting you
what you want? If not are there other thing you could
do? Which of these would you like to try
first? When?
APPROACH
Let’s begin by talking about what you have been doing to solve the problem In what way is it helping? Is your behaviour in touch with reality? Is what you are doing the responsible thing to
do? Is your behaviour effective? If your behaviour is not getting you what you
want, what would you like to do differently? Will we make a plan?
CENTRAL TAKS
To assist clients in evaluating their behaviour in the context of meeting their needs. What do you really want? Is what you are doing getting you what
you really want? Are there other better ways of getting
what you want? What are some of these other ways?
Format
What did you do? What is our agreement about that What were you supposed to do? What are you going to do next time? Do you want to write out the plan or
will I do it for you Let’s check tomorrow (next week) on
the plan
Basic Steps
Establish a relationship Identify the problem Evaluate present behaviour Develop a plan that will help to
resolve the problem Obtain commitment for the plan Structure for evaluation of the plan
DEVELOPING AN ACTION PLAN
The ‘action stage’ of the ‘Egan Model’ will be helpful here:
Goal setting and scenario setting Balance sheet Brainstorming and selection Shaping a plan Forced field analysis
MEETING NEEDS
NEED HOW DID I MEET IT?
Survival
Belonging and love
Power
Freedom
Fun
MEETING NEEDS
NEED
HOW DID I FACILIT
ATE n.. IN
MEETING NEEDS
Survival
Belonging and love
Power
Freedom
Fun
Contribution
Short-term therapyShort-term therapy Clients self-evaluation and planClients self-evaluation and plan People are responsible for who they People are responsible for who they
are and who they are becomingare and who they are becoming Clients sense of controlClients sense of control
LIMITATIONS:LIMITATIONS:
No focus on the unconscious, dreams, No focus on the unconscious, dreams, transferencetransference
People choose disorders; depressingPeople choose disorders; depressing
Plans for how someone should live their life Plans for how someone should live their life should be made jointly and not just by the should be made jointly and not just by the therapisttherapist
READING Glasser, W. (1986) Choice Theory in the
Classroom New York, Harper Collins Glasser, W. (1992) The Quality School , New
York, Harper Collins Glasser, W. (1993) The Quality School
Teacher,New York, Harper Collins Glasser, W. (1998) Choice Theory,New York,
Harper Collins
Cont’d./… Glasser, W. (2006) Every Student Can
Succeed, Chatsworth, CA, Wikkiam Glasser Inc.
Nelson-Jones, R. (1995) The Theory and Practice of Counselling, New York, Cassell.
pp 92-109 Wubbolding, R. (1988) Using Reality
Therapy, New York, Harper and Row.
Contd./…
Wubbolding, R. and Brickell, J. (1999) Counselling with Reality Therapy. Oxford, Speechmark Publishing