In addition to societal standards, every person is assumed to have a set of personal standards. When a client is operating contrary to personal or societal standards, more effective behaviors must be chosen. Therapy is an exercise aimed at greater fulfillment of the individual's needs. Since the focus is upon helping the client to make more effective behavior choices in the present, reality therapy considers antecedent experiences and outside forces to be of little import.

Eight basic steps of reality therapy:

1. Having established a friendly relationship, the counselor finds out from the client what he/or she wants.

2. Counselor and client determine what the client is doing to achieve the desired end.

3. The counselor helps the client evaluate how effective his/or her behavior is in achieving the goal.

4. The counselor helps the client make a plan to gain effective control over the situation/environment.

5. The counselor exacts a commitment to follow through on the plan.

6. Excuses for failure are not accepted.

7. If possible, the counselor imposes reasonable consequences if the plan is not carried out, such as temporary restrictions of freedom or temporary removal of privileges.

8. The client is not allowed to control the counselor by simply giving up. If one plan does not work, the counselor and client amend it or create another, until the client implements a plan and begins to take control of his/or her life.

Though Glasser conceded that such individual control can take a long time to achieve, he argued that it would succeed because it is the individual who controls the environment, rather than the environment controlling the individual.