The theories that I chose to integrate are existential and reality models. This is because I think that existential and reality theories can mesh together well, and they are my favorite theories that I learned about this semester. I know that the existential theory is more of a humanistic approach, but at the same time, I think that the existential perspective has many things in common with reality theory as well.
Since the existential point of view has no real techniques involved in the theory, I also think that utilizing some components from the reality model would make the existential model more proactive for clients. Both existential and reality therapies have a focus on self-actualizing and the client’s free will in order to make life decisions and create change, which leads me to believe that they would work well together in practice.
It is important that any therapist try to fit the need of the client and integrating different approaches will increase the likelihood that the clients’ needs are met. The key goal of blending existential and reality theories is to synthesize the best aspects of the two in order to create an outcome that is better than either theory alone. Although one is more humanistic, and the other is more cognitive-behavioral, I believe that the two models can integrate quite easily and seamlessly.
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Throughout the semester, my ideas and perspectives have changed. At first, I thought that it was important to discuss your past in order to discuss present problems or issues. Now, I think, like existential and reality theories suggest, that the past has little to do with what one is doing right now in the present. Like other existentialists and reality therapists, I think that more focus should be on what a client is doing right now and who they are becoming (Corey, 2015). My perspective on death and dying has changed as well.
For me personally, I think that it is important for clients to at least think about the idea in order to fully live in the present, which is an existential idea. I believe that everyone in life has a choice and that people who are making wrong decisions are affected by those decisions that they choose to make. This idea holds true for both existential and reality therapies, which is what got me interested in both theories. I also think that in order to really help a client, one must have a complete and total understanding of the client, their worldviews and values or a phenomenological perspective.
The existential model holds true to this statement and values the subjective experience over objective reality according to Winston (2015). I have also learned that I do not accept the medical model’s notion that clients are diagnosed with a disorder and that is it, which is why a really like the reality model and existential model, which rejects the medical model. Winston (2015) argues that clinical labels are counterproductive, and diagnostics tend to act as self-fulfilling prophecies for clients. In Glasser’s view, diagnoses are merely descriptions of the behaviors that people choose to deal with unsatisfying relationships (Corey, 2015).
But like reality therapists, I think that social connections or relationships are an important aspect of human nature and what drives people to act the way they do. I also think that people always have a perfect reality imagined in their mind, or what they wish their lives were like, which is what Glasser describes in his quality world approach in the reality model. In order to help clients more efficiently, then therapists should be more aware of their clients’ quality world according to Larry (2013).
The existential and reality model fits in nicely with the clinical mental health counseling in a variety of ways. In a therapeutic setting, an integration of both models could work well for clients who are ready and willing to change their present behaviors in order to get the results or lives that they want. The therapists’ relationship with their client in both an existential view as well as reality view is extremely important.
Authentic encounters with clients are very much encouraged and the therapist should be considered an advocate for their clients according to Corey (2015). In both reality and existential therapies, clients are urged to recognize that they themselves are responsible for their own lives and the events that occur in their lives that they can control by making decisions. Existential and reality models both strive to promote and foster emotional growth in order to help clients identify the sources that are blocking their freedom and assist them in meeting all their psychological needs.
The existential side of counseling helps clients focus on the meaning of their lives, confronting meaninglessness and loneliness, and ultimate responsibility (DeRobertis, 2015) while the reality side of counseling helps clients meet their basic human needs and aid them in fully understanding what they want in order for them to change their current ways of being to meet those needs (Miller, Sward, Nielson, and Robertson, 2011). Both therapies would work well in crisis intervention because both are well-suited to help those who are facing concerns such as making choices, finding one’s value in life, and becoming more self-aware.
In existential theory, living authentically contributes greatly to personality development. Since life inevitably ends in death, one must create meaning in life for it to mean anything. One cannot become fully authentic until they have accepted the value in being who they really are as a person. Self-actualizing is an important step in deciding one’s fate. The freedom to choose one’s own fate can create anxiety in a person and in turn cause unwanted tension.
Anxiety is a factor that cannot be avoided but if one can conceptualize anxiety as an “adventure”, then one can reach the desired goal of finding meaning in life (Corey, 2015). The existentialist would postulate that we are all responsible for our choices, but even honest choices will not always be good ones. People will still feel guilt or anxiety over failing to fulfill all the possibilities in their lives. Existential guilt, or existential anxiety is inescapable (DeRobertis, 2015). Reality theory contends that we internally create a picture album for our quality world, or ways in which people try satisfying their wants and desires formed in their “quality world”.
If one has not decided how they are going to effectively perform the behaviors that will get them where they want to be in their own life, then that would be considered a problem in development. When one does not have a healthy connectedness or relationship with the important people in their lives, then they cannot fulfill any of the other basic needs of life. The reality model focuses on what clients are doing now and how to evaluate whether present ways are working for them, which contributes to one’s personality. The main internal goal of every human being is to fulfill the basic needs of life.
People create their own feelings based on the choices they make and their actions. For a reality therapist, a client’s emotional problems are caused by their own flawed belief system according to Miller et. al (2011). When a client exhibits ineffective control of their lives and an inability to self-identify, then problems will arise in one way or another. In order to fully take control of your life, a reality therapist would argue that you would need to take responsibility for your own actions and behaviors.
I think that integrating both existentialism and reality therapies would work well in helping clients become more self-aware in order to make those tough decisions and become more fulfilled. In existential therapy, change can occur once the client understands that what they are doing in the present is not working. Change for both existential and reality therapies, the client must be willing and ready to change before anything can happen.
There are strengths and limitations to both existential and reality theories. For the existential theory, there quite a few major contributions, one of which is the basic idea of a complete view of the human condition and what it really means to be an individual (Corey, 2015). The existential perspective allows for a better understanding of human guilt, anxiety, freedom, responsibility, isolation, commitment, and death.
It is very easily understood just like reality therapy and like existentialism, is a more positive approach to counseling. Reality therapy can be used in a wide variety of settings including schools, hospitals, and churches. Its methods are straight to the point and the therapy is more short-term, which is good for clients who are more resistant to therapy according to Corey (2015). Existential theory has some limitations as well, including the fact that there are no real techniques based from the theory, which could make the concepts more unclear or vague.
Also, like reality therapy, existential therapy only works for clients who are willing to change and who can understand how they contribute to their own problems. It does not work well for clients who are more nonverbal or lower functioning (Corey, 2015). A limitation to reality therapy is disregard of the past as well as the unconscious; the approach could be viewed as being unhelpful to more complex issues. Because it is considered a problem-solving therapy, it may prevent examination of deeper-rooted emotional problems.
