Therapy Approaches
Reality Therapy in Edmond, Oklahoma
Understand what you need. Choose what is workable now.
Reality Therapy is a collaborative, present-focused approach grounded in Choice Theory. It can help you clarify what matters, evaluate whether current actions are helping, and create practical plans that support your needs, relationships, and goals.
Understanding Reality Therapy
Insight becomes useful when it supports what you do next.
Reality Therapy was developed by psychiatrist William Glasser and is based on Choice Theory. The approach considers how needs, relationships, perceptions, and current behavior connect.
Sessions often stay close to the present. Your history still matters, but the work emphasizes how understanding a pattern can help you respond differently now.
A practical conversation
Four questions can bring a situation into clearer focus.
These are not a test or a rigid script. They offer a collaborative way to understand what matters, evaluate what is happening, and identify a next step.
What do you want?
Clarify the relationships, experiences, or changes that matter to you rather than starting with what someone else thinks you should want.
What are you doing now?
Notice the actions, thoughts, and patterns that are shaping the situation in the present.
Is it helping?
Evaluate with curiosity whether current choices are moving you closer to or farther from what matters.
What will you try next?
Develop a specific, realistic plan that stays within your control and can be adjusted as you learn.
Needs and relationships
Behavior often makes more sense when we understand what it is trying to protect.
Choice Theory describes needs related to survival and well-being, love and belonging, competence and significance, freedom, and enjoyment. Therapy can explore how you are trying to meet those needs and whether another response could serve you more effectively.
Strengthen relationships that support belonging and trust
Notice the need beneath a pattern or reaction
Choose actions that are both realistic and respectful
Choice is not blame
Focus on your influence without denying what is outside your control.
Trauma, discrimination, health conditions, loss, financial pressure, and other people’s decisions are not simply choices and are not your fault. Reality Therapy should not minimize those realities. The work focuses on identifying where you do have options, support, or influence while respecting the barriers and context affecting your life.
Reality Therapy may support
More clarity about what matters and what comes next.
Insurance Plans We Accept
Care that feels supportive from the very first step.
Acuity Counseling is in-network with several major insurance plans, helping make quality mental health care more accessible.
Book an Appointment
Choose who feels right for you.
Our therapists blend compassion with real, evidence-based tools to help you feel seen, supported, and empowered to grow.
Online across Oklahoma · In person in Edmond
Select a therapist to view appointment times
Whitney Hake
Owner and Clinical Supervisor
MCP, LPC-S, NCC
- In person
- Online
- Insurance accepted
Julie Siberts
Therapist
M.Ed., LPC-Candidate, NCC
- In person
- Online
- Insurance accepted
Breanna Shellhorse
Therapist
MCMHC, LPC-Candidate
- In person
- Online
- Accepting new clients
Sloan Huffine
Therapist
M.Ed., LPC-Candidate
- In person
- Online
- Accepting new clients
Not sure who to choose? The booking window can help you compare availability. You can also contact Acuity directly.
Reality Therapy FAQs
Questions about needs, choices, and practical change
What is Reality Therapy?
Reality Therapy is a present-focused, collaborative counseling approach developed by psychiatrist William Glasser and grounded in Choice Theory. It helps you clarify what you want, consider how current actions are working, and develop practical plans that better support your needs, relationships, and goals.
Does Reality Therapy mean everything is my choice?
No. Many circumstances, including trauma, discrimination, health conditions, loss, and other people’s decisions, are outside your control and are not your fault. Reality Therapy focuses on the responses and options that are available to you now without minimizing the context or barriers affecting your life.
Does Reality Therapy focus only on the present?
Reality Therapy is primarily present-focused, but your history still matters. Past experiences can help explain current needs, relationships, and patterns. The approach usually emphasizes how that understanding can inform the choices and support you need today.
What happens during a Reality Therapy session?
You and your therapist may explore what you want, what you are doing now, whether those actions are helping, and what realistic step you might try next. The process is collaborative and should remain responsive to your culture, circumstances, readiness, and goals.
Who may benefit from Reality Therapy?
Reality Therapy may be useful for teens and adults navigating life transitions, relationship concerns, feeling stuck, decision-making, motivation, boundaries, school or work stress, and other situations where greater clarity and practical movement would be helpful. Your therapist will determine whether it fits your individualized care.
Can Reality Therapy be provided online?
Yes. Acuity may use Reality Therapy during in-person sessions in Edmond or online therapy when you are physically located in Oklahoma. Your therapist will help determine whether the approach fits your needs.
