Reality Therapy in Action

by William Glasser

In Counseling with Choice Theory, Dr. William Glasser takes readers into his consulting room and illustrates, through a series of conversations with his patients, exactly how he puts his popular therapeutic theories into practice. These vivid, almost novelistic case histories bring Dr. Glasser's therapy to life and show readers how to get rid of the controlling, punishing I know what's right for you psychology that crops up in most situations when people face conflict with one another. Practical and readable, Counseling with Choice Theory is Dr. Glasser's most accessible book in years.

Genres: Psychology, Counselling

243 pages, Hardcover

First published December 8, 1999

Reviews

[Valerie McEnroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is absolutely the best psychotherapy book I have ever read. It basically puts ownership and responsibility for a person's state of mind on the choices they make. I'm paraphrasing Glasser, but my interpretation is that we all need relationships to satisfy our basic needs, and when there is a problem in a relationship area we basically fall apart. It could be that you don't have any relationships and want them, you are scared of committing, you never had a secure relationship with a parent or you have harmful people in your life. Once you identify and acknowledge the relationship problem and figure out which needs aren't being met (survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, fun) you can begin to repair your mental health. Part of this is to also acknowledge that you make choices all day long that affect your level of functioning and happiness.

Glasser believes that most of the diagnoses in the psychiatric manual aren't truly mental illness. He also believes that people are over medicated. This is where his ideas are controversial. I personally agree with him but many people don't. He would argue that people don't have the willpower to put the effort in that is required to change. People want the easier and less expensive way which is medication. It's easier to treat something physiological than mental, so people and doctors convince them that their problem is out of their mental control. Glasser would argue that this keeps people on drugs that never fully work or have side effects at the expense of truly helping them change their thinking.

If you are motivated to change your thinking you should read this book. It is full of real accounts of people Glasser has worked with who had diagnoses such as OCD, schizophrenia and alcoholism. These are tough disorders to "cure," but he gives a play by play of actual therapy sessions which makes the therapeutic process easy to grasp.

[Carly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty good. It is a collection of case stories that Glasser, he goes through basically a transcript of each case but stops at points to explain his thoughts and reasons.

There are certain aspects that I REALLY like about choice theory/reality therapy (the belief that we choose everything we do). THe issues that are arising for me stem from the part of choice theory that does not believe in mental illness (and Glasser even says this is the hardest thing for most people to accept). I can believe that doctors are too quick to give out drugs rather than use therapy for patients. Our society is a 'quick fix' one: if there is a problem we want it fixed now. But I have a really hard time believing that there is NO such thing as mental illness.

I have two more books on reality therapy--we'll see if those change my mind.

[Sean Don]

K

[Arlette Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best, most practical books I've ever read on theory and practice.

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've made no secret that I love Dr. Glasser's work. I find Reality Therapy and Choice Theory to be relevant in may aspects of my practice and utilize it regularly. This book gives some real world examples of how Choice Theory and Reality Therapy play together. For those who want to read this book I would recommend reading Choice Theory first ask he references that book with regularity throughout this book. Otherwise, I think the examples he used are relevant today, tomorrow, and probably 50 years from now. This is truly an amazing way to practice therapy and the book is written so even if you are not a clinician you can understand it and operationalize the information. In my opinion, this is a must read for anyone practicing therapy.

[Sašo Vrabič · Rating 5 out of 5]

Življenje v resničnem svetu je veliko bolj otipljivo, kot samo v virtualnem in sploh v sami teoriji. Knjiga je opis terapij iz resničnih seans, ki jih je William Glasser opravil in njegovih razmišljanj med njimi ter smernicami, ki jih sam prakticira. V knjigi približa bralcem probleme, ki jih vsak prinaša k terapevtu v zanimivih dialogih, ter njegovi dve bistveni teoriji, da je izvor vsakega problema, ki nastane pri vsakem posamezniku zunanji nadzor, ter način kako se temu nadzoru zoperstavit v praksi s teorijo izbire. Zalo zanimiva knjiga.

[Missy Bowen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My second fav book of Glasser.