Reality Therapy
realism, responsibility, and right-and-wrong
This therapy is great at empowering clients and building self-confidence. Reality therapy states that there are 5 basic needs of every person:
1) Power – A sense of winning, or achieving, or a sense of self-worth
2) Love and Belonging – To a family, to a community, or to other loved ones
3) Freedom – To be independent, maintain your own personal space, autonomy
4) Fun – To achieve satisfaction, enjoyment and a sense of pleasure
5) Survival – Basic needs of shelter, survival, food, sexual fulfillment
The fact that everyone is at all times striving to meet these basic needs is at the heart of Reality Therapy.
Clients learn valuable tools and skill sets in the safety of the therapeutic relationship. The therapist helps transformation by guiding the client’s attention to their present behaviors and out of their past. We look at behavior and the effects it has had on a client’s life thus far. This is the first step in mapping out new strategies. With cues and guidance from the therapist, the client will be the architect of their own transformation. From there we build a plan for the journey ahead. Reality therapy doesn’t allow one to give up. The client and therapist agree to stay committed to each other and the goal and work to devise another plan until they find one that can be carried out.
While you read these remember that I do not use any one therapy for any one client, but an accumulation of therapies to best suit the individual’s needs. I am always expanding my knowledge as well and may incorporate different techniques as well.
