Cognitive Behavioral & Reality Theory - Case Study Example

He formulated the concept ‘automatic thoughts’ to define emotional thought processes that may spontaneously occur. iv. Reality theory claims that individuals view the world through their fundamental human needs along with their view of reality. William Glasser describes such fundamental needs as “belonging, power, freedom, fun, and physiological survival” (Weinstein, 2001, 75). The behavior of individuals is an effort to exercise control over the outside world in order to fulfill their fundamental needs.

Glasser thinks that people try to control the outside world or manipulate it based on their inner beliefs of what the world ought to be (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2012). Since people determine and control their own worlds, they have the capacity to change. i. This theory is inappropriate for populations who do not suffer from particular behavioral problem and whose objectives for seeking therapeutic help are to understand the past (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2012). i. The therapist plays the role of a supervisor and mentor.

Even though REBT counselors are able to form trusting, open-minded relationships with patients, REBT is an instructive model. Therapists promote modifications in thought processes, identify and explain irrational ideas, exercise logic to convince, and determine the unhelpful outcomes of irrational thoughts (Weinstein, 2001, 76). ii. REBT counselors give lessons, activities, and assignments for exercising new cognitive patterns. Essentially, REBT is an instructive or educational model with the objective of reforming cognitive processes; when individuals think differently they act or behave differently (Sommers-Flanagan & Sommers-Flanagan, 2012). iii. Reality therapists assume a collaborative function rooted in trust.

They work as a mentor, director, observer, and adviser. Reality therapists recognize that every behavior is a truthful effort to fulfill needs, but