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Theory Review
Adlerian Therapy
Alfred Adler
Dean Owen, Ph.D., LPCC
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Alfred Adler
a. trained as physician with a medical
degree from the University of Vienna
and initially practicing in opthamalogy.
b. Invited to join the Wednesday Society
(Mittwochsgesellschaft) discussion
groups with S. Freud, he later separated
to begin his own “school” of
psychotherapy.
c. Suffered from rickets and did not learn
to walk until the age of 4 years.
d. Born the third child and second son of a
Jewish grain merchant in Vienna, birth
order and inferiority were to become
principle ideas in his theory.
Alfred Adler (1870-1937)
Adlerian Therapy
Key Figure and Major Focus: Alfred Adler:
Significant developer: Rudolf Dreikurs.
Individual Psychology (a term Adler used to
describe his emphasis on the uniqueness and
unity of the individual) began in Europe during
The early 1900’s under Adler’s leadership.
Dreikurs was the main figure responsible for
bringing this form of therapy to America,
Especially applying these principles to
education, child guidance, and group work.
Adlerian Therapy
Philosophy and Basic Assumptions: Adler stresses social psychology
and a positive view of human nature. He views human beings as being
influenced more by social than by biological forces. People are in control of
their fate, not victims of it. Individuals create a distinctive lifestyle at an early
age, rather than being merely shaped by childhood experiences. This
lifestyle tends to remain relatively constant and defines one’s beliefs about
life and ways of dealing with tasks.
Lifestyle:
An individual’s core beliefs and assumptions
The aggregate of our one’s perceptions about self, others, and the world.
One’s way of thinking, acting, feeling, living, and striving toward goals…
It contains much of what we now call “one’s personality”…..
Adlerian Therapy
Key Concepts:
Consciousness, not unconsciousness, is the center for personality.
The Adlerian approach, based on a growth model, stresses the individual’s
positive capacities to live fully in society. It is characterized by seeing
unity in the personality, understanding a person’s world from a subjective
vantage point, and stressing life goals that give direction to behavior.
Humans are motivated by social interest, or a sense of belonging and
having a significant place in society.
Feelings of inferiority often serve as the wellspring of creativity, motivating
people to strive for mastery, superiority, and perfection.
Subjective vantage point: Adler was among the first to argue the importance
of viewing the world through the “spectacles” of the client.
Adlerian Therapy
Therapeutic Goals: Adlerians are mainly concerned with helping clients
identify and change their mistaken beliefs about self, others, and life.
Working cooperatively with clients, therapists provide encouragement so
that clients can develop socially useful goals.
Some specific goals include fostering social interest, helping clients
overcome feelings of discouragement
changing faulty motivation
restructuring mistaken assumptions and assisting clients to feel a sense of
equality with others.
Adlerians focus on reeducating individuals and reshaping society.
Adlerian Therapy
Therapeutic Relationship
Client-therapist relationship is based on mutual respect
Both client and counselor are active.
Clients are not viewed as passive recipients; rather, they
are active parties in a relationship between equals.
The focus is on examining the client’s lifestyle, which is
expressed in everything that the client does. Therapists
frequently interpret this lifestyle by demonstrating a
connection between the past, the present, and the
client’s future strivings. Without initial trust and rapport,
and sustained attention on the quality of the therapeutic
relationship, the difficult work of changing one’s style of
living is not likely to occur.
Adlerian Therapy
Therapeutic Process
1. Form the therapeutic alliance
2. Lifestyle assessment (understanding dynamics)
3. Identification of mistaken goals or assumptions
4. Re-education of the client toward a useful life.
Adlerian Therapy
Techniques and Procedures:
Practitioners typically begin the counseling process with a lifestyle
assessment, which focuses on the family constellation and early
recollections. Information gained from this comprehensive assessment
guide the therapy process.
A strength of Adlerian therapy is the variety of cognitive, behavioral, and
experiential techniques that can be applied to a diverse range of clients in a
variety of settings and formats. Therapists are not bound to follow a specific
set of procedures; rather, they can tap their creativity by applying those
techniques that they think are most appropriate for each client.
Some of the specific techniques include empathic attending,
encouragement, confrontation, the question, summarizing, interpretation of
the family constellations, exploration of early recollections, suggestion, and
homework assignments.
Adlerian Therapy
Applications: As a growth model, Adlerian theory is concerned with helping
people reach their full potential. Its principles have been applied to a broad
range of human problems and to alleviating social conditions that interfere
with growth. The theory has been applied in areas including education,
parent education, couples counseling, family counseling, and to group
therapy. Since it is grounded in principles of social psychology it is ideally
suited for work with groups, couples and families.
A time limited framework can be applied to all forms of Adlerian therapy.
Adlerian Therapy
Applications: Characteristics associated with Adlerian brief group
counseling include initial establishment of a therapeutic alliance,
identifying target problems, and goal alignment, rapid assessment, active
and directive inventions, a focus on strengths of groups members and an
emphasis of both the past and the present. This time limited framework
conveys the expectation to group members that change will occur in a
short period of time. Groups provide an ideal context for member to
explore how their family-of-origin experiences have current influences on
their lives.
Adlerian Therapy
Contributions: Adler founded one of the major humanistic approaches to
psychology and his ideas have been integrated into many other forms of
therapy. The model is a forerunner of most current counseling approaches.
Adlerian therapy has a psycho-educational focus, a present and future
orientation, and is a brief and time limited approach. Adler’s influence has
extended to the community mental health movement.
Adlerian Therapy
Some questions…
How does one create the proper therapeutic
relationship?
How would assess a client’s lifetyle?? What things
would you include in the discussion?
What role does insight play in therapy?
How would you go about re-educating or re-orienting
a client????