New Beginnings

This blog is dedicated to the concepts of Choice Theory and Reality Therapy developed by Dr. William Glasser.

Dr. Glasser is an internationally recognized psychiatrist who is best known as the author of Reality Therapy and Choice Theory; a method of psychotherapy he created in 1965.

This blog is dedicated to all things focused on Choice Theory and Reality Therapy.

What this blog is intended to do is to share the power of Choice Theory and Reality Therapy for individuals, systems, schools, relationships and self. We welcome personal stories and antidotes’ on the use of Choice Theory and Reality Therapy in counseling, in relationships, in schools and in personal situations. How has Choice Theory and Reality Therapy changed you for the better? Let us know! We would love to share your stories through this blog!

To contribute to this blog please send entries to  maryamandagraham@hotmail.com

The following is information taken from http://www.wglasser.com

Check it out for a new beginning and a new perspective in life!

The 1998 book, Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom, is the primary text for all that is taught by The William Glasser Institute. Choice theory states that:

All we do is behave

That almost all behavior is chosen, and

That we are driven by our gense to satisfy five basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom and fun

In practice, the most important need is love and belonging, as closeness and connectedness with the people we care about is a requisite for satisfying all of the needs.

Choice theory, with the Seven Caring Habits, replaces external control psychology and the Seven Deadly Habits. External control, the present psychology of almost all people in the world, is destructive to relationships. When used, it will destroy the ability of one or both to find satisfaction in that relationship and will result in a disconnection from each other. Being disconnected is the source of almost all human problems such as what is called mental illness, drug addiction, violence, crime, school failure, spousal abuse, to mention a few.

Relationships and our Habits

Seven Caring Habits		Seven Deadly Habits
1.	Supporting	1.	Criticizing
2.	Encouraging	2.	Blaming
3.	Listening	3.	Complaining
4.	Accepting	4.	Nagging
5.	Trusting	5.	Threatening
6.	Respecting	6.	Punishing
7.	Negotiating differences	7.	Bribing, rewarding to control

The Ten Axioms of Choice Theory

1.    The only person whose behavior we can control is our own.

2.    All we can give another person is information.

3.    All long-lasting psychological problems are relationship problems.

4.    The problem relationship is always part of our present life.

5.    What happened in the past has everything to do with what we are today, but we can only satisfy our basic needs right now and plan to continue satisfying them in the future.

6.    We can only satisfy our needs by satisfying the pictures in our Quality World.

7.    All we do is behave.

8.    All behavior is Total Behavior and is made up of four components: acting, thinking, feeling and physiology.

9.    All Total Behavior is chosen, but we only have direct control over the acting and thinking components. We can only control our feeling and physiology indirectly through how we choose to act and think.

10.  All Total Behavior is designated by verbs and named by the part that is the most recognizable