I am a psych grad student who will begin field placement/supervised counselling in January. I wish to counsel from a CT/RT perspective. I know the best way to prepare onself for this is to earn the 18-month RT certification. However, that isn't possible for me right now. I have read all of Dr. Glasser's most recent books as well as "Reality Therapy for the 21st Century." I have been attempting to use CT in my daily life and in my relationships. I have also used CT to assess and develop treatment plans for the case studies I encounter in grad school. I want to use CT/RT as competently as possible when I begin my supervised counselling. What else can I do to prepare myself? Regarding the practicality of training options, I live in San Jose, California, about an hour's drive south of San Francisco and about eight hours north of Los Angeles. Many thanks.

-- Tom Cheney (tcheney@pacbell.net), April 25, 2003

Answers

Tom, at this point in our school year, our 3rd through 5th grade social skills students are studying Total Behavior. Within this area, they are being taught that our Total Behavior will either get us what we want (Quality World) or keep us from getting what we want. One example used concerned a young student athlete participating in our annual four square tournament. This student was a very able athlete and was a favorite in the tournament to take one of the top places. However, he was predisposed to argue when he was "out," and bully other players by taking "cuts" and calling "re-do's." At any rate, he was able to make it through the first and second rounds of play to advance to the final round of play. When a student makes it this far, they are assured of winning a ball, a certificate, and having their picture in the local paper; in the final round, they merely play to see who is the best player on campus. During the final round, he chose to argue with the student judges, use profanity, and show disrespect to a teacher who was watching the students play. After two warnings, he was disqualified, written-up, and, due the step on our discipline procedure, was suspended through the end of the school year.

In short, he wanted to win or do well in the annual tournament, but his Total Behavior did not allow this to happen. Tom, encourage student/ clients to maintain and train a coordinated Total Behavior when seeking what is wanted. During my Advanced Week, I was able to do much Total Behavior study with Barnes Boffey (Northeast Region). If you have a line to him or would care to try to locate him, he would probably be more than willing to help. Later, TD

-- Ted Donato (tdonato@toppenish.wednet.edu), April 30, 2003.

Tom, By now you have had some real experiences using RT/CT and I am hoping you will continue to interact with the Q and A site about your experiences. You are right to note that the best way to learn to integrate it all is to take the Institute's course of study and guided practicum. Call Linda Harshman at the home institute in Chatham, California and explain your dilemma to her. There may be an excellent therapist in your area who is willing to coach or supervise your work. Your careful reading of the texts and your own thoughtfulness and creativity will be valuable. There are also training tapes to watch. Thirty years ago when I was learning about Glasserian psychology, I would listen to Bill Glasser on tape constantly. It helped habituate the thinking for me (and countered some of the stuff I was "learning" in graduate school). There are no doubt superb consultants for you in California and Linda Harshman will know how to advise you.

-- suzy hallock-bannigan (suzyatdonegal@aol.com), August 12, 2003.