Reality therapy focuses on helping clients take responsibility for their behavior and achieve life goals. It was developed by William Glasser to address delinquent, unsuccessful, and emotionally troubled individuals. The approach challenges clients to examine how their current behaviors obstruct goal achievement and work to change behaviors. Key components involve building rapport, evaluating current behaviors, planning new effective behaviors, committing to the plan, and stressing no excuses in moving forward.

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Reality Therapy
Definition
Reality therapy is devised by William Glaser in 1965 which focuses on the
person’s behavior and how that behavior keeps him or her from achieving life
goals. The approach was developed while Glaser is working with persons with
delinquent behavior, unsuccessful school performance and emotional
problems. This therapy is considered a cognitive-behavioral approach to
treatment.
Approach of Reality Therapy
William Glaser believed that people who are unsuccessful often blame their
problems on other people, the system or the society. It is Glaser’s belief that
these types of people can only find their own identities through a responsible
behavior. The focus of approach of counseling and problem solving in reality
therapy focuses on the here-and-now of the client and how to create a better
future.
In this therapy, the individual is challenged to examine himself for ways in
which his own behavior obstructs his attempts of achieving his life goal. The
focus of Reality Therapy is to help counselees take ownership of their
behavior and responsibility for the direction their lives take.
With reality therapy, whatever happened in our lives or what has been done in
the past, the person can still choose behavior that will help him meet his
needs more effectively in the future. It is believed that these needs that a
person has to effectively meet are the following:
1. Power – this includes a person’s achievement and feeling worthwhile. Winning
is also included here.
2. Love and belonging – this includes families, loved ones, relatives and groups.
3. Freedom – independence, autonomy, personal “space”
4. Fun – pleasure and enjoyment
5. Survival – nourishment, shelter
Process Involved in Reality Therapy
In practicing reality therapy, two major components should be considered:

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 A trusting environment should be created.
 Therapeutic techniques should be utilized to help a person discover what they
really WANT, reflect on their current activities and behavior and devise a new
plan to fulfill that WANT effectively in the future.
The processes taking place in reality therapy are:
1. Developing a good RAPPORT with the client. To make the entire process
effective, trust and rapport should be built at the beginning.
2. The current behavior (not the previous one) should be examined and
evaluated by the client with the help of a psychotherapist. The therapist will
ask the client to make a value judgment about his current behavior.
3. Help the client plan a new behavior that can be possibly done that works
better than the current one.
4. The participant must make a commitment to carry out the plan.
5. There should be no punishment to be implemented. The therapist however,
should stress to the client that there are no excuses and to never give up.
Summary of Facts about Reality Therapy
Focus of Reality Therapy: Help counselees take ownership of their behavior
and responsibility for the direction their lives take.
Basic Premise of Reality Therapy: Regardless of what has happened to us
in our lives, or what we have done in the past, we are living and making
choices here and now.