Counseling Psychology: The Adlerian Approach in Therapy

Counseling Session (Project)

Adlerian Approach

The Adlerian approach in therapy differs from all other approaches in its perception of human emotions and strivings. As the other theories solely focused on the past of humans and their unconscious minds, Adler and his followers stressed more on social interest and community feeling, even though they don’t ignore other factors such as one’s childhood events. The latter believed than people have an innate sense of inferiority that will make them pursue happiness, success as well as fulfill their ambitions. In other words, Adlerians tend to help clients in therapy sessions to become more aware of these free privileges that they can have access to. Hence, the therapy journey is characterized by four main phases through which the therapist hope to achieve his goals in accordance with the client’s case. First of all, the therapist will begin by establishing a healthy relationship with the client. Therefore he creates a secure environment for the client to let him feel that he can open up and describe his experiences without having to worry about being judged. The therapist will also set his goals clear, share them with the client, and provide him with important information about his rights (Corey, 2009). The second phase will focus then on exploring the client’s psychological dynamics and general information about the person’s lifestyle. The exploration takes place in two parts: the objective interview and the subjective interview. In the subjective interview, the therapist will assist the client in exploring persistent habits and patterns in his daily life. Whereas the objective interview will tackle more general ideas about the client’s medical and social history that may help identi...

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...chieving his ambitions and that there’s always a shining sun that lightens the path of our destiny even in the darkest times.

Hopefully, after achieving the last phase of the Adlerian therapy and with the help of the daily tasks, the client will be able to move on in his life with a better perspective on his emotions and a better tolerance of others’ opinions. He shall stop thinking for others which leads to self defeating purposes.

References

Ansbacher, H., & Ansbacher, R. (1956). The individual psychology of Alfred Adler. New York: Basic Books.

Corey, G. (2009). Adlerian therapy. In Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (pp. 96-129). Belmont, USA: Brooks/Cole.

Watts, R., & Pietrzak, D. (Fall 2000). Adlerian "encouragement " and the therapeutic process of solution-focused brief therapy. Journal of Counseling & Development, 442-447.