I am in the processing of choosing a counseling theory which will be my focus. I would like to become a college judicial affairs officer upon my completion of grad school.

My question: Would reality therapy work with college students within the judicial setting and if so why. Plus are there any articles of which you have seen which support the use of choice theory/reality therapy within student affairs?

-- Carol Millie (acmillie@yahoo.com), April 20, 2000

Answers

Carol if you look at the WGII site you will find a page containing titles of all articles from the Journal of Reality Therapy and there are references to articles dealing with student affairs in general. (Site is http://indigo.ie/~irti)

Glasser's focus on individual responsibility does have a lot of implications for the way we interpret the law. His approach would be slow to agree with "guilty but insane" plea. His Basic Needs theory is one he has always defined in the context of respecting other people's needs and that too would have relevance to a judicial setting. In any relationship there is the "my needs" component, the "your needs" component and the "our needs" component. If people want the relationship to survive then the "our needs" area requires some thought and care. Glasser describes this (in "Choice Theory") in terms of "solving circles".

Maybe there is some expert on judicial matters out there who can throw more light on your interesting question.

-- Brian Lennon (blennon@indigo.ie), April 21, 2000.