Adlerian Therapy (Alfred Adler 1870 - 1937)

Introduction 

• Alfred Adler grew up in Vienna family of 6 boys and 2 girls
• His early childhood was not happy, because sickly and at age 4 almost died of pneumonia
• He developed a trusting relationship with his father, but did not feel very close to his mother
• He was extremely jealous with his brother, Sigmund Freud
• Adler's early childhood experiences had an impact on the formation of his theory, Adler is an example of a person who shaped his own life as opposed to having it determined by fate. His teacher advised his father to prepare Adler as a shoemaker, not much else.
• Adler had a passionate concern for the common person and was outspoken about child-rearing resulted in conflict
• Understanding Human Nature was the first major psychology book to sell hundreds of thousands of copies in the United States
• Adler was a pioneer of the psychodynamic therapy

Key Concepts

• His theory starts with a consideration of inferiority feelings, which he saw as a normal condition of all people and as a source of all human striving, >>> inferiority feelings can be striving creativity.
• Subjective Perception of Reality
• Social interest and Community Feeling
• Birth order and Sibling Relationships

Subjective Perception of Reality

• Adlerian attempt to view the world from the client's subjective perspective frame of reference an orientation described as phenomenological. 
• Objective reality is less important than how we interpret reality and the meanings we attach to what we experience, and it's called "subjective perception", includes the individual's perceptions, thoughts, feelings, values, beliefs, convictions, and conclusions

Unity And Pattern of Human Personality

• Adler chose the name individual psychology because he wanted to avoid reductionism, he emphasised the unity and indivisibility of the person and stressed understanding the whole person in the context of his or her life
• The holistic concept implies that we cannot be understood in parts >> the focus is on understanding whole persons within their socially embedded contexts (family, culture and work) >>> the client is an integral part of a social system.
• Individual psychology assumes that all human behaviour has a purpose >> basic assumptions that we can think, feel and act in relationship to our goal , we can be fully understood only in light of knowing the purposes and goals toward which we are striving. Although Adlerians are interested in the future, they do not minimise the importance of past influences.
• Many Adlerians use the term fictional finalism to refer to an imagined life goal that guides a person's behaviour, and replaced it with "guiding self-ideal" and "goal of perfection" to account for our striving towards superiority or perfection
• The recognition of inferiority feelings and the consequents striving for perfection - they are 2 sides of the same coin
• This inferiority is not a negative factor in life
• Individual's lifestyle : The movement from a felt minus to a desired plus results in the development of a life goal, which in turn unifies the personality and the individual's core beliefs and assumptions >>> connecting themes and rules of interaction that give meaning to our action

Social Interest and Community Feeling

• Social interest is the action line of one's community feeling, and it involves being as concerned about others as one is about oneself >> is the central indicator of mental health. As social interest develops, feelings of inferiority and alienation diminish.
• Community feeling embodies the feeling of being connected to all of humanity - past, present, and future - and to being involved in making the world a better place. If our senses of belonging is not fulfilled, anxiety is the result
• These terms refer to individual's awareness of being part of the human community and to individuals attitudes in dealing with the social world
• We must successfully 3 universal life tasks : building friendships (social task), establishing intimacy (love - marriage task), Contributing to society (occupational task) >>> requires the development of psychological capacities for friendship and belonging, for contribution and self-worth, and for cooperation.
• The aim of therapy is to assist clients in modifying their lifestyle so they can more effectively navigate each of these tasks

Birth Order and Sibling Relationships

• The Adlerian approach is unique in giving special attention to the relationships between siblings and the psychological birth position in one's family
• Birth order is not a deterministic concept but does increase an individual's probability of having a certain set of experiences
• Actual birth order is less important than the individual's interpretation of his or her place in the family
• Birth order and the interpretation of one's position in the family have a great deal to do with how adults interact in the world

1. oldest child ; becoming model child, bossing younger children, exhibiting a high achievement drive
2. second child ; she or he in a race and generally under full steam at all times
3. middle child ; often feel squeezed out
4. youngest child ; always the baby of the family and tends to be the most pampered one
5. The only child ; she or he may not learn to share or cooperate with other children

Assumptions

• Adler stresses the unity of personality, all aspects of ourselves must be understood in relationship
• Non pathological perspective, don't label clients with pathological diagnoses
• Don't view clients as being "sick"
• The recognition of inferiority feelings and the consequent striving for perfection or mastery are innate - they are 2 sides of the same coin
• The inferiority is not a negative factor in life

Therapeutic Goals

• The main aim of the therapy is develop the client's sense of belonging and to assist in the adoption of behaviours and processes characterised by community feeling and social interest
• In general , the therapeutic process includes : forming a relationship based on mutual respect, a holistic psychological investigation or lifestyle assessment, disclosing mistaken goals and faulty assumptions within the person's style of living >> reeducation or reorientation of the client toward the useful side of life
• To assist clients to understand their unique style, and don't view clients as being "sick" 
• The counselling process focuses on providing information, teaching, guiding, and offering encouragement to discouraged clients >> the most powerful method available for changing a person's beliefs, to build self confidence and stimulates courage
• Courage : willingness to act even when fearful in ways that are consistent with social interest >> fear and courage go hand in hand >> without fear, there would be no need for courage >> the loss of courage results in mistaken and dysfunctional behaviour
• Providing clients with a new "cognitive map" >> assist them in changing their perceptions >> educate clients in new ways of looking at themselves, others, and life

Therapist's Function and Role

• When individuals develop a life story that they find limiting and problem saturated, the goal is to free them from that story in favour of a preferred and equally viable alternative story
• Adlerian counselors realise that clients can become discouraged and function ineffectively because mistaken beliefs, faulty value and useless or self-absorbed goals
• Therapist tend to look for major mistakes in thinking and valuing such as mistrust, selfishness, unrealistic ambitions, and lack of confidence
• A major function : to make a comprehensive assessment of the client's functioning >> gather information about style of living by means of a questionnaire on the client's family constellation (includes parents, siblings, and other living in the home, life tasks and early recollection)
• Early recollection are defined as stories of events that a person says occurred (one time) before he or she was 10 years of age >> specific incidents that clients recall, along with the feelings and thoughts that accompanied these childhood incidents
• The process of gathering early memories is part of what is called a "lifestyle assessment", which involves learning to understand the goals and motivations of the client >> viewed dreams as a rehearsal for possible future actions
• In interpreting dreams, the therapist considers their purpose function >> dreams serve as weather vanes for treatment, bringing problems to the surface and pointing to the patient's movement

Client's Experience in Therapy

• People fail to change because they do not recognize the errors in their thinking or the purpose their behaviours, do not know what to do differently, and are fearful of leaving old patterns for new and unpredictable outcomes
• Private logic >> the concepts about self, others and life that constitute the philosophy on which an individual's life style is based >> clients problems arise because the conclusions based on their private logic often do not conform to the requirements of social living
• The heart of the therapy is helping clients to discover the purpose of behaviours or symptoms and the basic mistakes associated with their personal coping
• Learning how to correct faulty assumptions and conclusions is central to therapy
• Adlerian see feelings as being aligned with thinking and as the fuel for behaving. 
• Through the therapeutic process, the client will discover that he or she has resources and options to draw on in dealing with significant life issues and life tasks

Relationship Between Therapist and Client

• Adlerian consider a good client - therapist relationship to be one between equals that is based on cooperation, mutual trust, respect, confidence, collaboration, and alignment of goals
• Adlerian therapists strive to establish and maintain an egalitarian therapeutic alliance and a person-to person relationship with their clients
• Developing a strong therapeutic relationship is essential to successful outcomes
• Developing a contract is not a requirement of Adlerian Therapy, but a contract can bring a tight focus to therapy >> begin to formulate a plan, or contract, detailing them from successfully attaining their goals, how they can change nonproductive behaviour into constructive behaviour, and how they can make full use of their assets in achieving their purposes. 

The Process of Therapy ( Phase 1 : Establish The Relationship)

• Focus on making person to person with clients rather than starting with the problem
• Focus on objective experiences of the clients with the main techniques are attending and listening with empathy
• Provide a wide-angle perspective that will eventually help the client view his or her world differently

The Process of Therapy ( Phase 2 : Explore The Individual's Psychological Dynamics )

• The aim of this phase : to get a deeper understanding of an individual's social and cultural context
• Integrated summaries from "Subjective and objective Interviews" with the clients
• Assist client to identify and examine some of their common fears

The Process of Therapy (Phase 3 : Encourage Self- Understanding and Insight)

• Promoting self understanding and insight
• Insight : understanding translated into constructive action
• Interpretation deals with clients underlying motives for behaving the way they do in the here and now
• Helps the client understand the limitations of the style of life the clients has chosen

The Process of Therapy (Phase 4 : Reorientation and Reeducation)

• Focuses on helping clients discover a new and more functional perspective
• Reorientation : involves shifting rules of interaction, process and motivation
• Encouragement is the central to all phases and counselling therapy
• Adlerian practitioners focus on motivation modification more than behaviour change and encourage clients to make holistic change on the useful side of living

Areas Application

• Education : advocated training both teachers-parents in effective practices that foster the child interest and result in a sense of competence and self-worth
• Parent Education : to improve the relationship between parent - child by promoting greater understanding and acceptance
• Couple Counseling : to assist a couple's beliefs and behaviours while educating them in more effective ways of meeting their relational goals
• Family Counseling : contributed to the foundation of the family therapy perspective
• Group Counseling : inferiority feelings can be challenged and counteracted effectively in groups

The Strength of Adlerian Therapy

• Adlerian approach is flexibility and integrative nature
• Quickly establishing a strong therapeutic alliance
• Make a clear problem focus and goal alignment
• Rapid assessment and application to treatment
• Bringing a time limitation therapy, so that change will occur in a short period
• Focus on clients strengths, abilities and an optimistic expectation of change

Limitations of Adlerian Therapy

• His written presentation are often difficult to follow, because he placed practicing and teaching before organising and presenting a well- defined and systematic theory

Summary

• Individual Psychology assume that people are motivated by social factors
• The therapeutic process helps individual becomes aware of their patterns and make some basic changes in their of living >> lead to changes feel and behave
• Therapy is cooperative venture that challenges clients to translate their insight into action in the real world

References :
Corey, G. 2013. Theory and Practice of Counselling and Psychotherapy. 9th Edition. Singapore