What Is Reality Therapy?

Reality Therapy is a school of psychological counseling and therapy pioneered by American psychiatrist William Glasser (1925). In 1965, Grasse's "Reality Therapy" was published, marking the official launch of reality therapy. In this book, Grasse criticizes some of the basic concepts of traditional psychotherapy, and systematically illustrates the theory and application of realistic therapy.

Reality Therapy was founded in the 1960s by California psychiatrist William Glaller. This is a kind of psychotherapy based on existential and humanistic views. Due to people's irresponsibility, their central task is to help visitors to take personal responsibility and actively solve real problems ^[1]

From the perspective of basic tendencies, reality therapy belongs to cognitive-behavioral therapy, and therefore has several characteristics of this orientation. Its theory is clear and easy to understand, consistent with common sense; it relies on people's intellectual and logical abilities, focuses on problems, and solves problems in a realistic and reasonable way; it pays attention to thinking and behavior, and less directly targets emotions and emotions. It emphasizes the present and the future, instead of being entangled in the past, and attaches importance to "what to do" instead of "why"; it opposes treating people's psychological difficulties in a medical or "disease" mode, and emphasizes self-reliance, self Responsible for the role of these qualities to oneself; it also values the relationship between the consultant and the visitor, advocating that the consultant should be involved, but it does not allow the consultant to adopt a passive approach like human-centered therapy , Supportive attitude, while allowing consultants to be more proactive and more mentoring.

Because of these characteristics, real-life therapies are easily grasped by a wide variety of human workers, rather than being confined to a few specially trained therapists (Gilliland, 1984). It is widely used in schools, prisons, drug treatment centers, communities and other social services. Especially popular in school counseling and tutoring. In fact, Grasse does a lot of work in school counselling. His "Schools without failure" offers a variety of realistic treatments for the classroom. He also founded training institutions such as the Educator Training Center (ETC), and held workshops and seminars to teach the "Successful School Coaching Program for Everyone" (SWF). Until now, Grasse is held annually in the United States and overseas. Many workshops.

Reality therapy treats these things as the goal of treatment: to help visitors recognize what they really need and why they need them; assist them to analyze and evaluate their current behavior and see if existing behaviors are Useful, effective, and responsible (for meeting their own needs); assisting them in choosing responsible behaviors and developing constructive action plans to make changes and achieve effective control of their lives. Therefore, responsible behavior is the core goal of realistic therapy. Responsible behavior means "meet your own needs, and in doing so do not deprive others of the possibility of meeting their needs" (Glasese).

Reality therapy believes that behavior includes four components: action, thinking, emotional experience, and physiological response. According to Grasse's theory of behavior control, from the perspective of effectiveness or ease of control, it is easier to control action, followed by thinking. Therefore, achieving treatment focuses on the course of actionobservable behavior. It does not completely ignore emotional feelings, but it always talks about emotions from the perspective of the relationship and connection between emotions and actions and thoughts. It is believed that as individuals successfully control their actions, the emotional experience will also improve. "We can't order ourselves to feel better, but we can always order ourselves to do better, and doing better will make us feel better," Grasse said.

Furthermore, the explicit behaviors that real healers focus on are current and future behaviors, not past behaviors. They think that man cannot change his past, and focusing on past failures is a waste of time. Focusing on the present and the future is constructive. Therefore, the real healer always focuses on helping the visitor analyze what he or she is doing and whether his or her behavior can effectively meet personal needs; helping the visitor to design new behaviors, and Immediately put into practice.

Developing mutually-involved consultative relations

Reality treatment also places great emphasis on the personal relationship between the consultant and the client. It calls this relationship mutual "invoIvement". In terms of consultants, he should treat visitors with a personal, sincere and understanding attitude, and create an atmosphere of intimacy and mutual trust. The focus is to make the visitor feel that the consultant trusts him / her to be able to act responsibly, and feel that the consultant accepts and respects him / her, thereby experiencing a sense of self-worth. But this relationship cannot convey to the visitor the feeling that the consultant is responsible to the visitor, and he or she can rely on the consultant instead of relying on himself.

In the initial stage of treatment, it is also necessary for the visitor to consciously recognize their requirements and hopes. Make the visitor clearly aware of what you do nt want (such as anxiety, pain, depression, interpersonal conflicts, etc.) and what you want (such as pleasant and easy, love, money, a good job, good Relationships, etc.).

Explore current behavior

Reality therapists insist on focusing on current behavior. As mentioned earlier, although they also pay attention to emotions, attitudes, etc., in order to start from the more controllable aspects, they always adhere to the behavior-oriented. If the discussion involves emotions, then the real healer always manages to relate them to actions or actions. If the visitor says, "I'm in a bad mood today, I'm uncomfortable and dead", the consultant won't ask, "Can you describe this feeling to me?" You might ask, "What did you do to make yourself so Uncomfortable? "At the same time, consultants try to focus as much as possible on current and future behavior, with less involvement in the past. For the above question, the consultant is more likely to ask, "What can you do to make yourself feel better?" Discussing past behavior is only appropriate in two cases: In order to prove past behavior Ineffective and unhelpful; Find suitable behaviors for the behavior change to be made.

The main purpose of exploring current behavior is to make the visitor aware of what they are doing, to determine whether this behavior can meet their needs, and whether it is a responsible behavior. In most cases, this kind of discussion actually makes the visitor realize that their actions run counter to their needs and are irresponsible actions. This step is difficult to separate from the next step.

Help visitors evaluate their behavior

Helping visitors evaluate their own behavior The criterion for evaluating behavior is to see if the behavior helps meet their needs. Of course, we must also consider whether the behavior hinders the interests of others and society. But the evaluation should not be made by the consultant, but the responsibility of the visitor. The consultant should be as objective as possible, but only encourage and support the visitor to make an evaluation. This is not to say that consultants should be passive. In fact, it is often difficult for visitors to face their unsuitable behavior objectively. They often fail to see the self-destructive nature of those habitual behaviors, and sometimes unconsciously justify unsuitable behaviors, and find excuses to prove that the behavior is necessary . So consultants should act proactively. They often try to force visitors to make objective evaluations in the form of pleadings, in a manner similar to REBT debates. However, it is important to note that consultants always have a sincere and caring attitude when doing so.

Helping visitors choose and design responsible behavior

Help the visitor choose and design responsible behavior. If the visitor definitely realizes that his behavior is inappropriate and irresponsible, the consultant starts to help him or her to reconsider realistic and responsible behavior and formulate a new one. Behavior plan. When doing this work, the consultant should pay attention to the following points: First of all, the consultant cannot choose to act on behalf of the visitor intentionally or unintentionally, and impose on the visitor what he deems appropriate. Secondly, we must closely participate in the selection and evaluation of new behaviors. If the visitor's choice is unreasonable, guide him to recognize this unreasonableness. Third, the new behavioral program must not be too complicated or too difficult. Pay attention to the possibility of its success. Fourth, insist on writing down the behavior plan in writing, and come up with a plan similar to the behavior contract.

Helping visitors commit to fulfilling behavior plans

Help the visitor commit to fulfilling the behavior plan. Make the visitor commit to fulfilling the behavior plan responsibly. This commitment is to him or her, the agreed behavior plan, and the consultant. This usually requires some encouragement and reinforcement to motivate visitors to act. In most cases, consultants ask for commitments to be written into a contract of conduct.

Do not accept any excuses and excuses

When the visitor fails to implement the plan, he does not accept any excuses and excuses. If the visitor fails to act according to the plan, the consultant does not accept any explanations and excuses except that the plan itself is not feasible and needs to be modified. He was very determined on one point. When dealing with such problems, consultants will treat them separately according to different situations, but always pay attention to two points, one is to insist that the plan must be implemented, and the other is to avoid a rigid and aggressive attitude. The consultant rarely discusses why the action failed, but asks, "What do you think you should do next time to succeed?" If the visitor appears to be indifferent to the plan, the consultant will say, "If you are inside I really don't want to do it, then I don't want you to feel that you have to do it for me. I would rather listen to you bluntly, 'I don't want to do it.' "

No punishment

No punishment is used, but the visitor is required to bear the consequences of the behavior. The healer resolutely rejects the use of punishment on the visitor. If the visitor fails to do as planned, he or she will not be censured, despised or any other punishment by the consultant, but he or she should bear the natural result of his irresponsible behavior. Grasse believes that punishment has many disadvantages, the most important of which is to strengthen the visitor's sense of failure, as well as the sense of worthlessness and incompetence, which is exactly what reality treatment seeks to eliminate. The consequences of behavior are different. It is the logical result of behavior and is a natural reality. It made visitors realize the principle of "growing melon and growing melon, and growing beans and beans," and that individuals are responsible for their actions. This knowledge was not instilled in him by outsiders, but was taught to him by reality. Consequences of behavior can also spur and motivate visitors, but there will be no disadvantages of punishment.

never give up

In the course of treatment, when encountering difficulties and resistances, the consultants showed indomitable strength and encouraged the visitors not to give up. Grasse believes that giving up means not only acknowledging failure, but also accepting failure. If a consultant gives up, his role model will infect the visitor, damage the consulting relationship, and increase the sense of worthlessness of the visitor. If the consultant does not give up, he can also infect the visitor through the role model.

If the behavior fails due to poor planning or other insurmountable reasons, the counselor should try to avoid the visitor to blame himself, to prevent him or her from thinking that he is incompetent and bad, and should be objective and calm Find reasons from the plan and external conditions. Neither give up nor insist on improper course of action.

The above eight principles are actually a step-by-step process structure. However, realistic therapies require therapist to be flexible and not to treat these steps as a solidified cookbook. Of these eight principles, the involvement relationship is the most basic principle. All other principles and their derived strategies and methods must be developed and implemented in a sincere and accepted personal involvement relationship.