Describe and Review the Concepts of Reality Theory

Case Study of Ana
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Question 1
The concepts of reality theory make it appropriate to help the client to gain a higher level of self-awareness and see connections of issues troubling her. Thus, the concepts of the therapy can enable the client to develop behavioral change that will lead to greater satisfaction for her psychological needs. According to reality theory, symptoms of people who do not fulfill their needs efficiently can be seen by feelings of guilt, shame, anxiety, fear, depression, or discomfort (Murdock, 2013). This theory believes that such individuals should be given reality therapy to help them evaluate/assess whether a behavioral change is possible and desirable to them and the need to make adjustments to demands of real life to satisfy their basic psychological needs. If the client decides that change is important for her, reality therapy will help her to create better choices to increase or maintain her needs fulfillment.
Question 2
I choose Reality theory because it is more relevant to solve psychological problems affecting the client than other theories. Glasser (2010) opines that reality theory concentrates on the current problems affecting the client rather than issues that the client experienced during the past. The theory encourages the client to change behaviors which prevent her from creating solutions to such issues. This theory encourages problem solving because it is based on the idea that the client experiences mental distress when her key psychological needs have not been met. At all times, everybody strives to meet basic psychological needs. When an individual feels distressed, reality theory believes that one of the five basic psychological needs have not been fulfilled (Wubbolding, 2011). Thus, reality theory aims to help people to learn how to become aware of negative actions and thoughts which prevent them from fulfilling their needs. Changing an individual’s action (behavior) may have a positive impact on the way that person feels and her ability to achieve her desires.
Question 3
The goal of counseling (reality therapy) is to rebuild connections, solve issues, and start working towards developing a better future. Because non-existent or unsatisfactory connections with people are the cause of human problems, reality theory aims to help people reconnect (Glasser, 2010). The goal is to help the clients to meet their needs for fun, power, belonging, and freedom, to help them regain control their lives, accept personal responsibility, and to gain psychological strength, to challenge them to examine their feelings, thinking, and behaviors, and to teach them to self-evaluate behavior and decide what they want to change.
Reality therapy does not emphasize on specific intervention strategies. However, the therapy employs some interventions than others. Teaching is an important intervention that therapists use to guide clients, to reject clients’ unrealistic behaviors while not rejecting the clients, and to teach them better methods of fulfilling their needs within limits of their reality. Murdock (2013) views that posititiviness is another intervention that therapists use to reinforce, focus on, and talk abou...