William Glasser's Reality Therapy In Group Counseling

943 Words4 Pages

1. What is Reality Therapy in Group Counseling
1.1 Historical background
William Glasser was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1925, where he spent all of his childhood and adolescent years. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, masters in clinical psychology. He was married while still in college. In 1957, he completed his psychiatry residency. He spent the last year of his residency at the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration Hospital (Howatt, 2001).
William Glasser discovered Reality Theory (R/T) after studying the Freudian approach and was left with many questions. He wrote the book Reality Theory (1965), and a couple years later Schools Without Failure (1969). His approach to dealing with problem behaviors is to satisfy the five needs that a person has and after that the person will not have behavior problems. The genetically encoded needs that Glasser (1998) highlighted is: Survival, Love and belonging, Power or achievement, Freedom or independence, and Fun that drive us all in our lives.
In the 1980's Dr. Glasser found in the ideas of Control Theory an excellent explanation of the underlying processes of human behavior and the procedures of therapy and …show more content…

He has adjusted the original theory so much by incorporating the ideas of basic needs, quality world and creativity amongst others. Choice Theory explains in precise detail how we make our choices as we attempt to balance our needs and has a very broad area of possible applications. By using Choice Theory, we help people learn that what we do is not determined by external causes, but by what goes on inside of us. Since all that is taught by the William Glasser Institute (counseling, education and managing) is based upon this theory, teaching Choice Theory in great detail is an integral part of all programs offered or approved by the