Welcome to our License your Exams podcast . I'm Eric and today we'll be taking a close look at a theoretical approach that you might want to be familiar with for your licensing exam . As requested by a podcast listener , here is a podcast on reality therapy . If you have any suggestions , let us know in the fan mail section .
In the fan mail section , rejecting the concept of mental illness , reality therapists do not bill using the DSM because they don't believe in the pathology model , as might be inferred from the name . Reality therapy .
This approach encourages the client to face reality without excuses or explanations , with the view that individuals have psychopathology because they cannot control their environments in ways that satisfy their basic needs for survival , belonging power , fun and freedom .
Followers of Glasser see people as possessing two psychological needs the need to love and to be loved and the need to feel worthwhile to themselves and others . Reality therapy proceeds on the theory that the brain functions as a system to control behavior by fulfilling needs created by the environment .
When an individual is unable to control or effectively act on such environmentally based needs , problems result . Reality therapy seeks to help clients choose actions that satisfy their basic needs . In this model , behavior is an integration of a person's feelings , thoughts and actions Relating personal needs to behaviors of others .
Actions come from within and are dependent upon the needs they mean to satisfy . In addition to societal standards , every person is assumed to have a set of personal standards . When a client is operating contrary to personal or societal standards , more effective behaviors must be chosen . Therapy is an exercise aimed at greater fulfillment of the individual's needs .
Since focus is upon helping the client make more effective behavior choices in the present reality , therapy considers antecedent experiences and outside forces to be of little importance . The eight basic steps of reality therapy are 1 . Having established a friendly relationship , the counselor finds out from the client what he or she wants . 2 .
The counselor and client determine what the client is doing to achieve the desired end . 3 . The counselor helps the client evaluate how effective his or her behavior is in achieving the goal . Effective his or her behavior is in achieving the goal . 4 . The counselor helps the client make a plan to gain effective control over the situation and the environment . 5 .
The counselor exacts a commitment to follow through on the plan . 6 . Excuses for failure are not accepted . 7 . If possible , the counselor imposes reasonable consequences if the plan is not carried out , such as temporary restrictions of freedom or temporary removal of privileges . And eight , the client is not allowed to control the counselor by simply giving up .
If one plan does not work , the counselor and the client amend it to create another , until the client implements a plan and begins to take control of his or her life .
Though Glasser conceded that such individual control can take a long time to achieve , he argued that it would succeed in that it is the individual who controls the environment , rather than the other way around . Other terms to know are positive addiction , that is , activities that take a person to a positive mental state .
Failure identity , which is the result of an inability to meet the need to be loved and valued . Success identity is a result of an attainment to meet the need to be loved and valued . No excuses , whether legitimate or not . Excuses get in the way of relationships and contracting , the act of a client committing to a plan of action for self-improvement .
It's in there . You can do it .