After undergoing this technique, the patient or client is often able to see that the thoughts they have been experiencing are, in fact, not valid or based on reality, and should therefore not be used as the basis for life decisions.
[2] Reality testing can be used in this way to help facilitate corrective emotional experiences by disconfirming and altering previously held negative or unrealistic expectations in favor of more adaptive functions.
Constant and prolonged exposure to a multitude of corrective experiences can lead clients to form their own internal and enduring changes in thoughts, expectations, feelings, and behavior.
People exhibiting limited reality testing might lack the insight and ability to distinguish between the external and internal world as a factor of psychosis.
Emphasizing ongoing reality testing in the client's life has been demonstrated to be among the principles of change that can be used to explain and account for the underlying effectiveness of therapeutic counseling techniques, regardless of theoretical ideals.