ABSTRACT
Reality Therapy has been used extensively in addictions treatment since the early 1970s. This chapter provides an overview of a Choice Theory understanding of addiction and the Reality Therapy approach to counselling in addictions treatment. It gives a good understanding of how the six stages of recovery apply to the WDEP system of Reality Therapy. Reality Therapy as a method of counselling is certainly applicable to all of the stages, but it needs to be applied differently in the earlier stages than it does in the later stages. An overriding principle in using Reality Therapy in the early stages of recovery, when the client deals with sobriety issues and daily living, is that the counsellor should be very specific in helping clients to evaluate their behavioural direction and in making plans. In the later stages, the reality therapist asks more 'open' self-evaluation questions and helps the client to begin rebuilding their life, without the preoccupation with addictive behaviours.
