Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom - William Glasser M.D. 1998

The William Glasser Institute
Appendix

IN 1967, I FOUNDED the Institute for Reality Therapy for the purpose of teaching that therapy. The institute is a nonprofit, charitable foundation. Neither my wife, Carleen, nor I take any salary for our work at the institute. Since its inception, I have greatly expanded my thinking with the addition of choice theory and have applied that theory to almost every aspect of reality therapy. I have also extended the use of choice theory into the schools, as exemplified by the quality school, and into managing for quality in all other areas in which people are managed. In this book I have taken the further step of trying to apply choice theory to an entire community.

With all these expansions and applications, I have gone so far beyond reality therapy that, for accuracy, I was encouraged to change the name of the institute to the William Glasser Institute. I made the change so anyone who is interested in any of my ideas or my applications of these ideas can easily contact us. Over the years, as our teaching and training have expanded, satellite institutes have been set up in many countries around the world.

The institute serves the public through its membership and benefits its members in many ways. Membership is an acknowledgment of a commitment to the principles and practices of reality therapy, lead management, and choice theory psychology. The institute coordinates and monitors all training programs and serves as an information clearing house. My latest thinking is often made available through audiotapes, videotapes, and publications to the members. As a networking center, people can exchange ideas through the institute’s newsletter and connect through international conventions and regional meetings. The institute lends support to its members in their work with individuals, agencies, and communities. The Journal of Reality Therapy is a vehicle through which members can publish their works on new ways of using and teaching reality therapy. The institute also provides a voice for the membership through regional representatives and international liaisons.

The basic effort of the William Glasser Institute centers on an intensive three-week training program for individual professionals who want to use reality therapy in every area of counseling. (I use the terms counselor and therapist interchangeably.) There are five parts to this training, which takes a minimum of eighteen months to complete. First, we offer a Basic Intensive Week, which is available to small groups, with no more than thirteen participants per instructor. After this first week, those who wish to go on may enroll in the Basic Practicum group for a minimum of thirty hours. After they successfully finishing the Basic Practicum, they may enroll in the Advanced Intensive Week with a different instructor and, following that, the Advanced Practicum.

Finally, at the recommendation of the supervisor of the Advanced Practicum, a trainee is invited to a Certification Week in which the trainee demonstrates what he or she has learned. For this demonstration, we give a certificate of completion. This certificate is not a professional, legal license to practice, but the training is often used for college credit and continuing education units. Right now there are more than 5,000 certificate holders worldwide.

After obtaining their certificates, some trainees opt to go on with training and become instructors in our organization. There are four levels of instructors: the basic-practicum supervisor, who can teach a Basic Practicum; the advanced-practicum supervisor, who can teach both Basic and Advanced Practica; the basic-week instructor, who can teach both practica, as well as the Basic Intensive Week; and the advanced-week instructor, who can teach all four phases. Fees for the various phases of training vary. For the Basic and Advanced Intensive Weeks, the fees are dependent on whether the group members have contracted individually for the week or have contracted as a group.

For schools that are interested in becoming recognized as quality schools, such as Huntington Woods, the institute has a new program based on almost ten years of experience with this process. Contact the institute for the details. At the completion of this program, each staff member receives a specialist certificate stating that he or she has demonstrated competence as a quality school classroom teacher. The principal receives a similar specialist certificate stating that he or she has demonstrated competence as a quality school administrator. Their school is then recognized as a quality school. Before starting, the principals are strongly encouraged to take a one-week Administrator’s Program offered by the institute with instructors who have had a great deal of experience teaching the quality school ideas.

Fees for this training are paid by the schools, but schools that don’t have the funding usually apply and get funding from a variety of sources. Since a quality school is a drug-free school, federal and state grants may be available through drug-prevention funds. If a committed school puts effort into it, the funding can usually be obtained. Each phase is funded separately, so the initial outlay may be within the training budget of many schools. This book is the foundation of all we teach. Reading and discussing it is a requirement for phase one.

All our instruction in both programs is by explanation and demonstration. These are hands-on programs. It is our hope that people will contact the William Glasser Institute and find out how we can help anyone, any group, any school, or any community to pursue these ideas.

For people who live in southern California and are interested in these ideas, I present them at the institute in Chatsworth (when I am in town) on the last Sunday of every month from 4:30 to 6:30 P.M. There is no charge, and we welcome all who are interested. We give some priority to counselors, since I mostly teach counseling during these sessions, but if you wish to come, call, fax, or E-mail the institute to reserve a place.

The institute employs user-friendly, choice-theory-trained people, so if you contact us, you can be sure of a courteous response. It is my vision to teach choice theory to the world. I invite you to join me in this effort.