Theory and Practice of
Counseling and Psychotherapy
Psych422
Chapter 5: Adlerian Therapy
Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 5
Questions
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What do you think about Alderian
approach?
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What do you know about Alderian
approach?
View of Human Nature
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Stress choice and responsibility, meaning in
life, and the striving for success, completion,
and perfection.
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Focuson inferiority feelings---motivate to
strive for success (superiority)
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Focus on subjective experiences
Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 5
Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology
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A phenomenological approach
Social interest is stressed
Birth order and sibling relationships
Therapy as teaching, informing and encouraging
Basic mistakes in the client’s private logic
The therapeutic relationship — a collaborative
partnership
Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 5
The Phenomenological Approach
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Adlerians attempt to view the world from
the client’s subjective frame of reference
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How life is in reality is less important than
how the individual believes life to be
It is not the childhood experiences that are
crucial – it is our present interpretation of
these events
Unconscious instincts and our past do not
determine our behavior
Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 5
Social Interest
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Adler’s most significant and distinctive concept
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Social interest: a sense of identification and empathy
with others.
Community feeling: a sense of social connectedness
Happiness and success are largely related to social
connectedness
Many problems are related to the fear of not being
accepted by the groups we values. Then, anxiety is
the result.
Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 5
Birth Order
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What are the unique characteristics of each
birth order?
1) Oldest child –
2) Second of only two –
3) Middle –
4) Youngest –
5) Only child –
Birth Order
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Adler’s five psychological positions:
1) Oldest child – receives more attention, spoiled,
center of attention
2) Second of only two – behaves as if in a race, often
opposite to first child
3) Middle – often feels squeezed out
4) Youngest – the baby
5) Only – does not learn to share or cooperate with other
children, learns to deal with adults
Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 5
Therapeutic Goals
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Collaborative relationship
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Develop a sense of belonging.
Encouragement is the most powerful method
available for changing a person’s beliefs
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Helps build self-confidence and stimulates courage
Discouragement is the basic condition that prevents
people from functioning
Clients are encouraged to recognize that they have
the power to choose and to act differently
Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 5
Therapist’s function and role
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Help to identify major mistakes
 Lack of confidence, mistrust….
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Gathering information through family
constellation, early recollections, or lifestyle
assessment.
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Understanding, challenging, and changing their
life story and develop an alternative story
Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 5
Client’s Experience in Therapy
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Do not recognize the basic mistake or private logic
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Views of self, others, and life based on a person’s
lifestyle
Help to discover the motivation of basic mistake
Do not know what to do differently
Fear of letting go the old patterns for unpredictable
new alternative options
Cling to old patterns even though it is unsuccessful
Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 5
Relationship b/w Therapist and
Client
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Cooperation, mutual trust, respect
Making a contract with clients
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Detail what they (clients) want
How they plan
What is preventing them from reaching goals
How to change unproductive behavior into
constructive behavior
How to make use of their strengths
Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 5
Therapeutic Techniques and
Procedures
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1. Establishing the relationship
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Collaborative relationship, deep caring and
involvement
Identity personal issues
Focus on person not the problem
Increase the awareness of strengths
Focus on subjective experiences and core
patterns
Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 5
Therapeutic Techniques and
Procedures
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2. Exploring the individual’s dynamics
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Client tells his or her story; clients as experts
The motivation behind coping strategies
Therapist is like a “lifestyle investigator”
Family Constellation
Early Recollections
Personality priorities
Integration and summary
Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 5
Family constellation
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Who are the favorite child?
What was your father’s relationship with thie children?
Your mother’s?
Which child was most life your father? Your mother? In
what respects?
Who among the siblings was most different from you? In
What ways?
Who among the siblings was most like you? In what ways?
What were you like as child?
How did your parents get along? In what did they both
agree? How did they handle disagreements? How did they
discipline the children?
Early recollections
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Three earliest memory
What part does the person take in the memory? Is the
person an observer or a participant?
Who else is in the memory? What position do others take
in relation to the person?
What are the dominant themes and overall patterns of the
memories?
What feelings are expressed in the memories?
Why does the person choose to remember this event?
What is the person trying to convey?
Personality priorities
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Superiority (or significance)
Control
Comfort
Pleasing
Integration and summary
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Five basic mistake
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Overgeneralizations
Impossible goals
Misperceptions of life and life’s demands
Minimization or denial of one’s basic worth
Faulty values
Therapeutic Techniques and
Procedures
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3. Encouraging self-understanding and
insight
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Insight: an understanding of motivations that
operate in a client’s life
Disclosure and interpretations are techniques
that facilitate the process of gaining insight.
Therapeutic Techniques and
Procedures
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4. Helping with reorientation
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Putting insights into practice
Useful side of life
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Sense of belonging and being valued
Useless side of life
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Withdrawal from life tasks or self-protection
Therapeutic Techniques and
Procedures
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4. Helping with reorientation
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Encouragement
No intervention is more important than
encouragement
 Help clients identify self-defeating patterns
 Make use of assets, strengths, and resources
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Search for new possibilities
Making a difference
Areas of implications
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Education
Parent education
Marriage counseling
Family counseling
Group work
Adlerian therapy From
multicultural perspectives
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Contributions to multicultural counseling
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Social equality, sensitive to cultural and
gender issues
Focus on a person in a social context
Social interests, sense of belonging,
cooperation (instead of competition)
Focus on family
Subjective experience (unique world of a
person)
Adlerian therapy From
multicultural perspectives
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Limitations to multicultural counseling
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Self as the locus of change and responsibility
may be problematic for some clients
Detailed explorations of one’s early family
experiences may violate some cultural value
Some clients may expect therapists to provide
them with solutions to the problems
Summary and evaluation
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Contributions of Adlerian approach
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Limitations of Adlerian approach