1. Choice Theory & Reality Therapy In Action
Dr. Ali Sahebi (Ph.D)
March 2010

2. EMPHASIS
Choice
Responsibility
Evaluation

3. 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

4. Behaviour contd./…
Originates from within and not form some external stimuli
Emphasis on choice of and responsibility for our behaviour

5. TOTAL BEHAVIOUR (holistic)
Acting
Thinking
Feeling
Physiology
Most of them are choices

6. NEEDS Survival Belonging and Love Power Freedom Fun
A person’s behaviour at any given time is their best effort to meet their needs

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. Freedom Need for Freedom Independence and autonomy
The ability to make choices
To express oneself freely
Freedom
Internal blocks to freedom
External blocks to freedom

11. 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

12. 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?

13. 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

14. 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.

15. Emphasis
An effort to teach, encourage and help clients to take responsibility for their behaviour
Personal responsibility is at the heart of therapeutic change

16. 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

17. 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.

18. 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

19. Contd./…
This extensive collection of pictures or wants is called a ‘mental picture album (Glasser, 1984) and the ‘quality world’ (Glasser, 1990)

20. Quality World
What does it mean when we change what is in our quality world?
Persons
Situations
Believes

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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.

29. 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

30. 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

31. Build Relationship Listen for themes Summarise and focus
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

32. 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

33. WDEP SYSTEM Discuss wants and perceptions
Discuss directions and doings
Self evaluation
Formulate a plan of action

34. 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?

35. 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?

36. 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?”

37. 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)

38. 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?

39. 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

40. Plan of Action Successful planning is SMART:
S: Simple, small and Specific
M: Measurable
A: Aligned with wants
R: Realistic (reasonable and responsible)
T: Time Framed
** Written in the present tense as if it has already occurred

41. 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?

42. 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?

43. 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?

44. 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?

45. 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

46. 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

47. 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

48. MEETING NEEDS NEED HOW DID I MEET IT? Survival Belonging and love
Power
Freedom
Fun

49. MEETING NEEDS HOW DID I FACILIT ATE n.. IN NEED MEETING NEEDS Survival
Belonging and love
Power
Freedom
Fun

50. Contribution Short-term therapy Clients self-evaluation and plan
People are responsible for who they are and who they are becoming
Clients sense of control

51. LIMITATIONS: No focus on the unconscious, dreams, transference
People choose disorders; depressing
Plans for how someone should live their life should be made jointly and not just by the therapist

52. 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

53. 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
Wubbolding, R. (1988) Using Reality Therapy, New York, Harper and Row.

54. Contd./…
Wubbolding, R. and Brickell, J. (1999) Counselling with Reality Therapy. Oxford, Speechmark Publishing