Reality Therapy

Reality therapy is a system of psychotherapy founded in the early to mid-1960s by William Glasser and his supervisor G. L. Harrington. When implementing reality therapy, the therapist focuses primarily on current actions and their accompanying self-talk and feelings, rather than on past conflicts and problems, and treats actions as choices. The therapist does not imply blame or criticism, guiding the client instead to accept the inner belief that more effective choices are available. Glasser first implemented this system at the Ventura School for Girls, a California correctional institution, and in the Veterans Administration Hospital at the University of California, Los Angeles, with long-term hospitalized psychotic patients with paranoid schizophrenia, catatonic schizophrenia, and undifferentiated schizophrenia. Originally focused on treating individuals with mental health disorders, its ...