Case Study & Videos
A Reality therapist is a form of counseling that views behaviors as choices. It states that psychological symptoms occur not because of a mental health condition, but due to people choosing behaviors to fulfill their needs.
1) What are your initial reactions, thoughts, and feelings about this situation? How willing would you be to work with Candy as your primary client if she had come in simply because her father said that she needed counseling?
2) Assume that in an individual session with Candy she does open up with you, and you find out that her father’s presentation of the problems is correct. In fact, matters are worse than he imagined. Candy tells you that she had an abortion recently after a short affair with a married man in his early 30s. She also tells you that she has been experimenting with various drugs. How might you proceed in working with her if you found yourself being very concerned over where her behavior might lead her? What might you want to say to her?
3) Your central task as a reality therapist is to guide Candy toward making an honest assessment of her current behavior and to help her evaluate the results of her behavior. Show how you will attempt to do this. How will you respond if she resists looking at her own behavior, insisting that her problems stem from her demanding and moralistic father, who is driving her to rebellion?
4) What are your values regarding drug usage, sexual experimentation, abortion, accepting parental values? Might you attempt to influence her subtly to change her behavior in the way you think she should? Or do you think that you could accept her choices, providing that she made an evaluation of her behavior and decided that she did not really want to change?
5) Assume that you have a session with Candy, her father, and her mother after seeing Candy for three individual sessions. The purpose of this session is to talk about where to go from here and to make recommendations. What would you be inclined to tell the parents? What would you not tell the parents? What specific recommendations might you make?
