Dr. William Glasser is the creator of Reality Therapy and Choice Theory.  He heads up the William Glasser Institute (WGI) in California.

Based on making Correct Personal Choices, taking Personal Responsibility for your life, and generating your own Personal Transformation, Dr. Glasser’s ideas are considered controversial by some, but championed by many.

While mainstream psychology focuses on classifying psychiatric conditions, and treating them with medication, Choice Theory focuses instead on human emotion being behind many mental issues; the cure therefore is within us, and is something we need to take full responsibility for. Continue reading →

Dr Glasser was born in 1925 in Cleveland, Ohio.  Initially a chemical engineer, Dr Glasser moved into Psychiatry and developed Choice Theory.  Dr Glasser has a non-traditional view of mental illness, believing instead that we are all responsible for our own lives through the choices we make.  He dislikes the “labels” associated with mental illness, believing that they support a victim mentality, and allowing people the excuse, “I can’t, because I’m (whatever the mental illness label is).”

Of course, some mental illness is a result of brain damage, but Dr Glasser suggests most mental illness diagnoses become self-fulfilling prophesies.  He goes on to suggest that the quality of our Relationships is the root cause of most mental illness, primarily due to our misguided need to control others.

Dr Glasser’s Choice Theory has been applied in many different areas of life, and the video looks at Choice Theory in Education.  Choice Theory also differs from traditional psychiatry in that it focuses on the “here and now,” rather than an obsession with the past.

We all make choices every day; Dr. Glasser gives advice on moving towards Quality Choices that empower us, and away from Choices that harm our relationships with others.

In this video, Dr. Glasser covers the “Seven Helping Habits” and the “Seven Deadly Habits” as outlined in his book, Choice Theory. He looks at the dangers of using drugs to control behavioural issues, and labelling those behavious as mental illnesses. The suggestion that “You can do nothing to help yourself” and need to rely on drugs and doctors is challenged, in favour of taking full responsibility for your own life. An interesting role play follows, showing the power of “Evaluation Questions.”

One of the simplest, yet most profound, examples of a Choice Theory Strategy.  In this video, Bob Hoglund shows how asking non-critical questions gets better results than telling people in a way that makes a defensive response very probable.  Often, it is not WHAT you say, but HOW you say it.  Watch the video for the secret that puts people on-side, not off-side.

In this video Bob Hoglund presents “The Basic Psychological Needs” based on Dr. William Glasser’s Choice Theory®.  Bob is Senior Faculty Member at the Glasser Institute.  In the video he outlines The Five Basic Needs, their interaction, and how they grow as we grow.