Reality Therapy

This past week in my theories course we studied reality therapy. Each week in my theories course we answer questions about the current theoretical orientation that we are studying questions such as: what would be the goal with yourself as the client in (insert therapy orientation here). We basically apply the principles of the various types of therapies that we are learning about to our own life/self in an effort to show that we understand how to apply them to various issues. I can see the benefit to this but I also wish we had to apply and come up ways to work with clients with a variety of presenting issues using the current therapy techniques we're learning about possibly using case studies to do this and come up with how we would approach working with that client.

Even with this though I find myself being drawn to reality therapy and I agree with the basic principles behind it. You might be thinking that reality therapy is basically just bringing people back to reality, and in some ways it is but in other ways along with most other modalities of therapy using these techniques is an art form. Reality therapy tries to figure out exactly what it is that you want from your life, exactly what your doing to try to get there and exactly what you could change and do instead of get the real results that you wish to have. It looks something like this:

Reality therapist are concerned with helping you to understand how the current choices and behaviors you have made or are making are creating the current issues within your life. One of the goals of this type of therapy (and all others really) is to help you take responsibility for your own actions and to learn that the only person you can control is yourself. Reality therapy also helps you define your needs and I found this illustration online to show you what is considered basic needs for everyone:
Once you accept responsibility for your part in your life you can begin to work towards making changes in your life to move you toward the life you really want to have. You have to focus on the present in order to get there and this type of therapy really doesn't advocate hanging on to your past which most of us tend to want to do. Our past only defines our future if we allow it. And with that I leave you to ponder.

What do you want from life and what are you doing to get it?


Source 1, 2,3