Question

What is the overall goal of reality therapy? What is the focus of this approach? What are the main tasks of the reality therapist? What are clients expected to do in therapy?

Answer 1

• The primary goal of reality therapy is to help clients find better ways to fulfill their needs. You could think of reality therapy as a mentoring process where the counselor is the teacher and the client is the student.
• Reality therapy is a client-centered form of cognitive behavioral psychotherapy that focuses on improving present relationships and circumstances, while avoiding discussion of past events.
• This approach is based on the idea that our most important need is to be loved, to feel that we belong, and that all other basic needs can be satisfied only by building strong connections with others.
• Reality therapy teaches that while we cannot control how we feel, we can control how we think and behave. The goal of reality therapy is to help people take control of improving their own lives by learning to make better choices.
• Reality therapy focuses on present issues and current behavior as they affect you now and will affect your future. Little or no time is spent delving into the past.
• Since reality therapy is solution-oriented, you will examine how your behavior is interfering with your ability to form stronger relationships and figure out what kind of changes you can make in your behavior to get what you want out of life.
• You can learn how to reconnect with people from whom you have become disconnected and how to make new connections.
• If you try to make excuses or blame someone else for your behavior, the therapist will show you how that kind of thinking results in behavior that prevents you from improving relationships and reaching your goals.
• You have the opportunity to learn and practice new behavior and techniques in the privacy of the therapist’s office before you employ them in your life outside of therapy.
• Reality therapy first assesses what the clients' needs are and what they want from therapy. The therapist conducts an assessment to help clients determine how effective their behaviors have been in fulfilling their needs and then works with clients to determine a plan for more effective action.
• Because reality therapy seeks to treat individuals who experience difficulty in their relationships with others, forming a connection with the therapist is an important beginning in reality therapy.
• This connection is considered by reality therapists to be the most important dynamic in facilitating healing. Once this relationship is stable, it can be used as a model to form fulfilling connections outside of the therapeutic environment.
• Those in therapy can learn how to best strengthen relationships outside of therapy while in the “safe” therapeutic relationship and as a result, be able to more easily expand on those methods in daily life.
• Reality therapists hold that when a person in therapy can employ the behaviors, actions, and methods developed through therapy in life successfully, they will often be able to improve external relationships and experience a more fulfilling life.
• Creating and committing to a plan of action is a major part of reality therapy. The plan of action that’s mapped out in therapy occurs once the client agrees that current choices are unacceptable or ineffective.
• Some therapists may have their clients sign a written contract (as opposed to a verbal commitment) to the plan they’ve co-developed in therapy. This helps make the process more tangible and real, and fosters accountability on the part of the client.
• The therapist must be non-judgmental, and guide rather than push or force the client; punitive or rejecting behavior on the part of the therapist (e.g. if the client doesn’t do his or part, such as completely an assignment) will hinder progress and damage the therapeutic relationship.