Reality And Person-Centred Therapy Essay

The person-centred therapy is an effective positive approach to managing crises in a client’s life. It manages to positively manage the crisis in a client’s life because it has its roots from the concepts of humanistic psychology. According to humanistic psychology, individuals are perceived to being capable and autonomous, and possess the ability to effectively resolve their conflicts, realize their potential, and also be able to change their lives in a positive way (Corey 115). The person-centred therapy was designed to specifically focus on the client being in charge of the therapy session, thus developing a greater understanding of oneself, improved self-concepts and self-exploration. Later modifications on the person-centred therapy led to a shift in focus to the client’s core conditions and frame of reference such as ensuring that the therapist is able to demonstrate a high level of emphatic understanding in a non-judgemental approach. Therefore, it becomes evident that the person-centred therapy is one of the best tactics to solving the client’s crisis.
There exists various concepts of the Reality Therapy (RT), which is also an effective psychotherapy and counselling approach. Unlike many other psychological therapies, reality therapy mostly focuses on what William Glasser referred to as the psychiatry 3 R’s: Realism, right-and –wrong, and responsibility (Corey 71), rather than focusing on the symptoms of mental disorder. The concepts that are attributable to this form of therapy is action, behaviour and control. In regard to the concept of action, Glasser claims that there are only five things that human beings require: Love, survival, power, freedom and fun. According to this therapy, psychological distress largely emanates from the irresponsible actions of an individual. The concept of behaviour comes in because it is through our behaviours that dictates how we are doing the things we do and if we are happy with whatever is happening in our lives. Lastly, the concept of control is one of the key issues in the reality therapy. Glasser clearly stated that, human beings need control so as to be able to meet their needs. Control is achieved through acquiring higher positions, money (Corey 73).
Arguably, individual behaviour is best explained using the choice theory. Choice theory claims that, the only person whose behaviour we can effectively control is our own (Corey 117). It argues that, we cannot control other people, the only role we play is giving them information in regard to the issues surrounding their lives. This theory provides great insights in the explanation of individual behaviour. It clearly states that, all types of behaviour, are made up of four distinct components: Feelings, acting, thinking and physiology. All the total individual behaviour is normally chosen; nonetheless, we possess direct control to the aspects of thinking and acting only. Choice theory manages to explain individual behaviour because it is categorical about what motivates us both externally and internally.
In conclusion, it becomes apparent that the reality and person-centred therapies are effective psychotherapy approaches to empower the client by providing explanations on how their problems can be handled. Nonetheless, all these therapies appear to reach a common ground that suggests that all the human beings are always presented with a choice about how to behave, think and act. They are also designed to raise or create a sense of self-awareness and self-esteem to an individual. Generally, this paper suggests that, when all these theories are combined, they can provide effective tools that would be used to counselling and treating various individual problems such as alcoholism, anxiety disorders, depression, interpersonal difficulties among many more others. Works Cited
Corey, Gerald. Theory and practice of counselling and psychotherapy. Cengage Learning,
2012.