Adlerian Counseling

Introduction to Adlerian counseling And Psychotherapy:  

         Adlerian therapy is a cognitive approach which means that clients are encouraged to look at and understand and possibly change the ideas and beliefs that they hold about themselves, the word and how they will behave in that world. In addition, Adlerian therapist set assignments with their clients that challenge existing ideas and beliefs and which represent changes in their habitual pattern of behavior. The Adlerian approach has an optimistic view that people have created their own personalities and therefore can choose to change. Clients are encouraged to value their strengths and to acknowledge that they are equal members of society who can make a worthwhile.  

Biographical Sketch of Alfred Adler:

          Alfred Adler was born in Vienna in 1870, of Jewish parents. His father was a grain merchant whose work allowed the family to live an affluent, middle-class life. Adler was the third of the seven children, five boys and two girls, of whom the oldest was a boy and the second a girl. As a child, he was delicate and sickly. He had rickets and spasms of the glottis that put him in danger of suffocation.

       During his early schooling, he was a mediocre student. He did so poorly in mathematics that he had to repeat the grade. Adler’s reaction was to work diligently on mathematical problems at home until he had mastered them. He attended the Vienna Medical School, where he studied under a famous internist who stressed that the physician must always treat the whole patient not just the ailment. Once he received his medical degree, Adler established a private practice in a lower- middle class Vienna neighborhood near a famous amusement park.

In 1899 Adler corresponded with Freud him to provide a clinical diagnosis of the difficulties being experienced by a female patient under Adler’s care. Three years later Freud asked Adler to join a weekly discussion group at his home that centered on psychology and neuropathology themes and issues. In 1908, Freud’s Wednesday Psychological Society changed its name to the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. In 1910, on Freud recommendation, the group elected Adler to succeed Freud as its president (Fiebert, 1997, pp. 241-247). In 1911 Adler along with nine other members leave Freud. Soon after, Adler formed a group called the Society for Free Psychoanalytical Research, a title chosen to show his obvious displeasure with what he considered Freud’s dictatorial ways. In 1913, Adler changed the name of association to the Society for Individual psychology, to reflect his concern with understanding the whole personality-the individual as an indivisible entity.

       During World War 1, Adler worked as an army doctor in a Vienna hospital. Witnessing the savage effects of the war on people-effects generated by lack of trust and cooperation on this basis he developed his concept of social interest. He return to his writing and research with renewed purpose, and focused much of his energies on disseminating information to the ordinary person about the need for cooperation, love and respect among people. He was also instrumental in establishing in the Vienna school system some 30 child-guidance clinics that provided counseling for the entire family. By the early 1920s, Adler had gained international recognition and acceptance. In the late 1920s and 1930s, he authored a number of popular books, including The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology (1927), Understanding Human Nature (1927), The Science of Living (1929/1969), the Education of Children (1930a), The Pattern of Life (1930b), What Life Should Mean to You (1931), and Social Interest: A Challenge to Mankind (1933). During the same period, he also accepted invitations to lecture in various European cities and later in the United States. He succumbed to a heart attack while on a European Lecture tour in Aberdeen, Scotland, in May 1937 (Furtmuller, 1973, pp.330-39)         

Individual psychology

       In German, the term Individualpsychologie means the psychology of the unique, indivisible, and undivided person (Davidson 1991, 6). What Adler meant by this is that, first, Individual Psychology is an idiographic science. How an individual develops is unique, creative, and dependent on the subjective interpretations the person gives to life. Second, Adler meant to convey that an individual behaves as a unit in which the thoughts, feelings, actions, dreams, memories, and even physiology all lead in the same direction. The person is a system in which the whole is greater than and different from the sum of its parts. In this whole, Adler saw the unity of the person. In the symphony of a person's behavior, he discerned the consistent melodic theme running throughout. This theme may have many variations in tempo, pitch, or intricacy, but it is nevertheless recognizable. Thus, to understand a person, we must look at the whole person, not at the parts, isolated from one another. After we grasp the guiding theme, however, it is easy to see how each individual part is consistent with the theme.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Key Concepts:

         Adler abandoned Freud’s basic theories because he believed Freud was excessively narrow in his stress on biological and instinctual determination. On many theoretical grounds Adler was in opposition to Freud. According to Adler, for example, humans are motivated primarily by social relatedness rather than by sexual urges; behavior is purposeful and goal directed; and consciousness, more than unconsciousness, is the focus of therapy.

1. View of Human Nature:

          Following are the views that Adlerians express about human nature.

Ø  Influence of person’s perception and interpretation:

                    Adler holds that the individual begins to form an approach to life some where in the first six years of living. Adler’s focus is on how the person’s perception of the past and his or her interpretation of early events have a continuing influence.

Ø  Striving for significance and superiority:

                  Adler stressed choice and responsibility, meaning in life, and the striving for success, completion, and perfection. Adler’s theory focuses on inferiority feeling, which he sees as a normal condition of all people and as a source of all human striving. Rather than being considered a sign of weakness or abnormality, feelings of inferiority can be the well spring of creativity. They motivate us to strive for mastery, success (superiority), and completion. Humans are driven to overcome our sense of inferiority and strive for increasingly higher levels of   development (Schultz & Schultz, 1998). Indeed, at around six years of age our fictional vision of ourselves as perfect or complete begins to form into a life goal. The life goal unifies the personality and becomes the source of human motivation; every striving and every effort to overcome inferiority is now in line with this goal.

Ø  Creative Self:

                   This concept was Adler’s “crowning achievement as a personality theorist” (Hall & Lindzey, 1978, p. 165). It lies at the heart of the Adlerian theory of personality.   From the Adlerian perspective human behavior is not determined solely by heredity and environment. Instead, humans have creative self which is defined as the capacity to interpret, influence, and create events. Adler asserts that what we were born with is not as important as what we do with the abilities we possess. Although Adlerian’s rejected the deterministic stance of Freud, they do not go to the other extreme and maintain that individuals can become whatever they want to be. Adlerian’s recognized that biological and environmental conditions limit our capacity to choose and to create.

“This creative power is a striving power; this creative power can be seen in different views, in the power of evolution, in the power of life, in the power which accomplishes the goal of an ideal completion to overcome the difficulties of life." (From "The General System of Individual Psychology," an unpublished manuscript in the AAISF/ATP Archives.)

2. A Phenomenological Psychology:

       Adlerians attempt to view the world from the client’s subjective frame of reference, an orientation described as Phenomenological. The phenomenological perspective provides an understanding of clients from their internal frame of reference. This subjective reality includes the individual’s perceptions, thoughts, feelings, values, beliefs, convictions, and conclusions. Behavior is understood from the vantage point of this subjective perspective. How life is in realty is less important than how the individuals beliefs life to be. Adler suggested that what individuals perceive is biased according to the past experience (Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1964).He referred to this phenomenon as apperception. A phenomenological perspective is therefore necessary to understand client’s interpretation of their experiences.

3. Unity and Patterns of Human Personality/Holistic Psychology:

A basic premise of Adlerian Individual Psychology is that personality can only be understood   holistically and systematically; that is, the individual seen as an indivisible whole, born, reared, and living in specific familial, social, and cultural contexts. It is therefore holistic psychology that attempts to understand the overall life style as a unified whole. People are social, creative, decision making beings who act with purpose and cannot be fully known outside the context that have meaning in their lives (Sherman & Dinkmeyer, 1987)                        

       The human personality becomes unified through development of a life goal. An individual’s thoughts, feelings, beliefs, convictions, attitudes, character, actions are expressions of his or her uniqueness and all reflect a plan of life that allows for movement towards a self selected life goal. An implication of this holistic view of personality is that the client is an integral part of a social system. There is a more focus on interpersonal relationships than on the individual’s internal psychodynamics.

4. Behavior as purposeful and goal-oriented:

            Individual Psychology assumes that all human behavior has a purpose. Humans set goals for themselves, and behavior becomes unified in the context of these goals. Adler replaced deterministic explanations with teleological (purposive, goal oriented) ones. Basic assumption of the individual psychology is that what we are striving for is crucial. Thus, Adlerians are interested in the future, without minimizing the importance of the past influences. They assume that decisions are based on the person’s experiences, on the present situation, and on the direction in which the person is moving. They look for continuity by paying attention to themes running through a person’s life.

          Adlerians use the term fictional finalism to refer to an imagined central goal that guides a person’s behavior. Adler was influenced by the philosopher Hans Vaihinger (1965) view that people live by fictions (or views of how the world should be). Applied to human motivation, a guiding fiction might be expressed as: “Only when I am perfect can I am secured” or “Only when I am important can I be accepted.” The fictional goal represents an individual’s image of a perfected position, for which he or she strives in any given situation. The term finalism refers to the ultimate nature of person’s goal and the ever-present tendency to move in a certain direction. Because of this ultimate goal person have the creative power to choose what the person will accept as truth, how the person will behave and interpret the event.

5. Birth Order and Sibling Relationship:

         The Adlerian approach is giving special attention to the relationships between siblings and the position in one’s family .Adler identified five psychological positions: oldest, second of only two, middle, youngest, and only. It should be noted that actual birth order itself is less important than individual, s interpretation of his or her place in the family .since Adlerian view human problems as social in nature, they emphasize interfamily relationships.

        Adler (1958) observes that many people wonder why children of the same family often differ so widely. It is a fallacy to assume that children of the same family are formed in the same environment. Although they share aspects in common in the family constellation, the psychological situation of each child is different from that of the others because of the order of their birth. The following description of the influence of birth order is based on Ansbacher and Ansbacher (1964), Dreikurs, (1953), and Adler (1958).

           (A). the oldest child generally receives a good deal of attention, and during the time she is the only child, she is typically somewhat spoiled as the center of attention. He/She tends to be dependable and hard working and strives to keep ahead. When a new brother or sister arrives on the scene, however, he/she finds herself ousted from her favored position. She is no longer unique or special. She may readily believe that the newcomer will rob her of the live to which she is accustomed.

           (B). the second child is in a different position. From the time he/she is born, he shares the attention with another child. The typical second child behaves as if he was in a race and is generally under full steam at all times. It is through this second child were in training to surpass the older brother or sister. This competitive struggle between the two first children influences the later course of their lives. The younger child develops a knack for finding out the elder, child weak spots and proceeds to win praise from both parents and teachers by achieving success where the older sibling has failed. If one is talented in a given area, the other strives for recognition other abilities. The second born is often opposite to the firstborn.

           (C). the middle child often feels squeezed out. She may become convinced of the unfairness of life and feel cheated. This person can assume a “poor me” attitude and can become a problem child. On the other hand, especially in families characterized by conflict, the middle child will become the switchboard and the peacemaker, the person who hold things together.

           (D). the youngest child is always is the baby of the family and tends to be the most pampered one. He has a special role to play, for all other children are ahead of him. Youngest children end to go their own way. They often develop in ways no others in the family have thought about.

          (E). the only child has a problem of his/her own. Although he/she shares some of the characteristics of the oldest child (namely, high achievement drive), he/she may not learn to share or cooperate with other children. He/she will learn to deal with adults well, as they make up their original familial world. Often, the only child is pampered by his/her parents and may become dependently tied to one or both of them. He/she may want to have centre stage all of the time, and if his/her position is challenged, he/she will fell it unfair. 

        Birth order and the interpretation of ones position in the family have a great deal to do with how adults interact in the world. Individuals acquire a certain style of relating to others in childhood and from, a definite picture of themselves that they carry into their adult interactions. In Adlerian therapy, working with family dynamics, especially relationships among siblings, assumes a key role. Although it is important to avoid stereotyping individuals, it does help to see how certain personality trends that began in childhood as a result of sibling rivalry influence individuals throughout life.

6. Social Interest:

         Adler’s term Gemeinschaftsgefuhl has been translated into English as “Social Interest” (Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1964). It refers to an inborn tendency to cooperate and work with others for the common good (Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1964).Alfred relate to this concept to mental health when he observed that social interest is the barometer of mental health (Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1964). Glasser (1965) supports this position when he suggests that all people need love and affection to be fulfilled. Social interest is considered a major motivational force in Adlerian Psychology.

7. The Style of life:

         Hall and Lindzey (1978) suggest that lifestyle became the recurrent theme in Adler’s later writings and the most distinctive feature of his psychology.” The term Life Style refers to the person’s basic orientation to life – the set patterns of recurrent themes that run through his or her existence” (Dinkmeyer & Dinkmeyer, 1985, p. 123).According to Adler, lifestyle is relatively fixed by age 4 or 5. Once established, the individual’s lifestyle guides the assimilation and utilization of future experiences (Hall and Lindzey, 1978).

        “The style of life dominates. The person is cast all of one piece. This you must find again in all its parts. In this self-consistent casting, the striving for fictive superiority is contained. There is no nervous patient who does not attempt to veil through his symptoms the fact that he is worried about his fictive superiority” (From "The Technique of Treatment," in "Superiority and Social Interest," edited by Heinz and Rowena Ansbacher.).

8. Adler’s approach to personality:

       He argued that human personality could be explained teleologically, separate strands dominated by the guiding purpose of the individual's unconscious self ideal to convert feelings of inferiority to superiority (or rather completeness). The desires of the self ideal were countered by social and ethical demands. If the corrective factors were disregarded and the individual over-compensated, then an inferiority complex would occur, fostering the danger of the individual becoming egocentric, power-hungry and aggressive or worse. Common therapeutic tools include the use of humor, historical instances, and paradoxical injunctions.

Types of personality:

       Adler (1956) developed a scheme of the so called personality types. These types emerge from combining degrees of activity with social interest.

• The Getting or Leaning type is those who selfishly take without giving                   back. These people also tend to be anti-social and have low activity levels.
• The Avoiding types are those that hate being defeated. They may be successful, but have not taken any risks getting there. They are likely to have low social contact in fear of rejection or defeat in any way.
• The Ruling or Dominant type strives for power and is willing to manipulate situations and people, anything to get their way. People of this type are also prone to anti-social behavior.

• The Socially Useful types are those who are very outgoing and very active. They have a lot of social contact and strive to make changes for the good.

These 'types' are typically formed in childhood and are expressions of the Style of Life

9. Adler’s view of Psychopathology:

            Adler's view of psychopathology is deceptively simple. He conceived of psychological disturbances generally occurring in the presence of two conditions: an exaggerated inferiority feeling and an insufficiently developed feeling of community. Under these conditions, a person may experience or anticipate failure before a task that appears impossible and may become "discouraged." Adler tended to use this term as opposed to terms such as "pathological" or "sick." When individuals are discouraged, they often resort to fictional means to relieve or mask--rather than overcome--their inferiority feelings. What they are attempting to do is bolster their feelings of self by "tricks," while they avoid actually confronting their seemingly impossible difficulties. These tricks may give them a comforting but fragile feeling of superiority. A woman who was abused by her father as a child may choose to reject and depreciate all men as vile creatures and never engage in a satisfactory love relationship. She may feel lonely, but she can always feel morally superior to all abusive males who are punished by her rejection. She would rather punish all men for the sins of her father, than conquer her fears and develop the ability to love one man.

10. Safe guarding devices:  

         Individuals can use safeguarding devices in attempts both to excuse themselves from failure and depreciate others. Safeguarding devices include symptoms, depreciation, accusations, self-accusations, guilt, and various forms of distancing. Symptoms such as anxiety, phobias, and depression, can all be used as excuses for avoiding the tasks of life and transferring responsibility to others. Depreciation can be used to deflate the value of others, thereby achieving a sense of relative superiority through aggressive criticism or subtle solicitude. Accusations attribute the responsibility for a difficulty or failure to others in an attempt to relieve an individual of the responsibility and to blame others for the failure. Self-accusations can stave off criticisms from others or even elicit comforting protestations of value from them. Guilt may create a feeling of pious superiority over others and clear the way for continuing harmful actions rather than correcting them. Distancing from tasks and people can be done in many ways including procrastination, avoiding commitments, abuse of alcohol and/or drugs, or suicide.  

       These safeguarding devices are largely unconscious and entail very real suffering on the part of individuals who employ them. For them, however, the protection and elevation of the sense of self is paramount, and they prefer to distress themselves or others rather than reveal their hidden exaggerated feeling of inferiority.

Theory of Counseling and Psychotherapy:

        Adlerian counseling and psychotherapy stresses the role of the cognition in psychological functioning. It begins by using the lifestyle analysis to gain an understanding of the client. Through various techniques and procedures such as encouragement and such as acting as-if, clients are helped to reorient themselves toward more positive ways of functioning.

        Adlerians attempt to go beyond overt behavior and understand the motivation behind the behavior (Nystul, 1985). This approach is therefore more concerned with modifying motivation than with modifying behavior.

Sonstegard, Hagerman, and Bitter (1975) elaborate on this position:

            The Adlerian counselor is not preoccupied with changing behavior; rather he is concerned with understanding the individual’s subjective frame of reference and the identification of the individual’s mistaken notion or goal within that frame work. Indeed, the behavior of an individual is only understood when the goals are identified…. (p.17)

Mosak (2005) summarizes the major goals of Adlerian Psychotherapy as the following:

• Increasing client’s social interest
• Helping clients overcome feelings of discouragement and reducing inferiority feelings
• Modifying client’s views and goals and changing their life scripts
• Changing faulty motivation
• Helping clients feel a sense of equality with others
• Assisting clients to become contributing members of society

             The counseling process is educationally oriented, providing information, guiding and attempting to encourage discouraged clients. The approach attempt to reeducate clients so they can live in society as equals, both giving and receiving from others (Mosak, 2005).

          The counseling process is based on equality. Adlerians avoid placing the clients in a subservient position as in a doctor-patient relationship. They consider a sense of mutual respect to be vital to all relationships, including the counseling relationships.

          Dinkmeyer and Dinkmeyer (1985) identify four stages of Adlerian psychotherapy:

Establishing the relationship, performing analysis and assessment, promoting insight, and reorientation. The authors observe that these stages are not intended to be separate or distinct processes but instead tend to overlap and blend in clinical practice. This can be especially true in the process of establishing a positive relationship. Adlerians believe it is important to maintain a positive relationship throughout the counseling process.

The Therapeutic Process:

The Therapeutic Goals:

       Adlerian counseling rests on a collaborative arrangement between the client and the counselor. In general, the therapeutic process includes forming a relationship based on mutual respect and identifying, exploring, and   disclosing mistaken goals and faulty assumptions within the person’s style living. This is followed by a reeducation of the client toward the useful side of life. His main aim of therapy is to develop the client’s sense of belonging and to assist in the adoption of behaviors and processes characterized by community feelings and social interest. This is accomplished by increasing the client’s self awareness and challenging and modifying his or her fundamental premises, life goals, and basic concepts (Dreikurs, 1967, 1997).

        Adlerian don’t see clients as being “sick” and in need of being “cured”. Rather, the goal is to reeducate client so that they can live in society as equals, both giving to society and receiving from others (Mosak, 1995). Therefore the counseling process focuses on providing information, teaching, guiding, and offering encouragement to discouraged clients.

       Adlerian counselors educate clients in new ways of looking at themselves, others and life. Through the process of providing clients with a new “cognitive map”, a fundamental understanding of the purpose of their behavior, counselors assist them in changing their perceptions.

Mosak (1995) lists these goals for the educational process of therapy:

• Fostering social interest
• Helping clients overcome feelings of discouragement and inferiority
• Modifying client’s views and goals that is changing their lifestyle
• Changing faulty motivation
• Assisting clients to feel a sense of equality with others
• Helping clients become contributing members of society

Therapist’s Function and Role:

       Adlerian counselors realize that clients can become discouraged and function ineffectively because of mistaken beliefs, faulty values, and goals in the useless side of life. They operate on the assumption that client s will feel and behave better if they discover and correct their basic mistakes. Therapists tend to look for major mistakes in thinking and valuing such as mistrust, selfishness, unrealistic ambitions, and lack of confidence.

       A major function of e therapist is to make a comprehensive assessment of the clients functioning. Therapists gather information on the client’s family constellation, which includes parents, siblings and others living in the home, by means of a questionnaire. When summarized and interpreted, this questionnaire gives a picture of the individual’s early social world. From this information the therapist is able to get a perspective on the client’s major areas of success and failure and on the critical influences that have had a bearing on the role the client has decided to assume in the world. The counselor also uses early recollections as a diagnostic tool. These recollections are of single incidents from childhood that we are able to re experience. They reflect our current convictions, evaluations, attitudes, and biases (Griffith, powers, 1984). These memories provide a brief picture of how we see ourselves and others and what we anticipate for our future. After these early recollections are summarized and interpreted, the therapist identifies some of the major success and mistakes in the client’s life. The aim is to provide a point of departure for the therapeutic venture. This process is called a lifestyle assessment. When this process is completed, the counselor and the client have targets for therapy.

Client’s Experience in Therapy:

How do clients maintain their lifestyle, and why do they resist changing it? Generally, people fail to change because they don’t recognize the errors in their thinking or the purposes of their behaviors, don’t know what to do differently, and are fearful of leaving old patterns for new and unpredictable outcomes. Thus, even though their ways of thinking and behaving are not successful, they tend to cling to the familiar patterns (Manaster, corsini, 1982; Sweeney, 1998). Clients in Adlerian counseling focus their work on desired outcomes and lifestyle, which will provide a blueprint for their actions.

In therapy clients explore what Adlerian call private logic, the concepts about self,                others and life that constitute the philosophy on which an individual’s lifestyle is based. Client’s problems arise because the conclusions based on their private logic often don’t confirm to the requirements of social living. The core of the therapy experience consists of client’s discovering the purpose of behavior or symptoms and the basic mistakes associated with their coping. Learning how to correct faulty assumptions and conclusions is central to therapy.

To provide a concrete example, think of a chronically depressed middle aged man who begins therapy. After a lifestyle assessment is completed, these basic mistakes are identified:

·         He has convinced himself that nobody could really care about him.

·         He rejects people before they have a chance to reject him.

·         He is harshly critical of himself, expecting perfection.

·         He has expectations that things will rarely work out well.

·         He burdens himself with guilt because he is convinced he is letting everyone down.

Even though this man may have developed these mistaken ideas about life when he was young, he is still clinging to them as rules for living. His expectations, most of which are pessimistic, tend to be fulfilled because on some level he is seeking to validate his beliefs. Indeed, his depression will eventually serve the purpose of helping him avoid contact with others, a life task at which he expects to fail. In therapy this man will learn how to challenge the structure of his private logic. In this case the syllogism goes as follows:

·         “I am basically unlovable”

·         “The world is filled with people who are likely to be rejecting.”

·         “Therefore, I must keep to myself so I won’t be hurt.”

        This person has held onto several basic mistakes. His private logic declares a psychological focus for him. Mosak (1997) would say that there are central themes and convictions in this client’s life, some of which may be: “I must get what I want in life.” “I must control everything in my life.” “I must know everything there is to know, and a mistake would be catastrophic.” “I must be perfect in everything I do.”

         It is easy to see how depression might follow from this thinking, but Adlerian also know that the depression serves as an excuse for this man’s retreat from life. It is important for the therapist to listen for the underlying purposes of this client’s behavior. Adlerians see feelings as being aligned with thinking and as the fuel for behaving. First we think, then feel, and then act. Because cognitions and emotions serve a purpose and aim at a goal, much therapy time is spent discovering and understanding that purpose and reorienting the client in a useful way. Because the client is not perceived by the therapist to be “sick”, but as mainly discouraged, the therapist will give the client much encouragement that change is possible. Through the therapeutic process, the client will discover that he has resources and options to draw on in dealings with significant life issues and life tasks.

 Relationship between Therapist and Client:

       Adlerians consider a good client/therapist relationship to be one between equals that is based on cooperation, mutual trust, respect, confidence, and alignment of goals. They pay special value on the counselor’s modeling of communication and acting in good faith. From the beginning of therapy the relationship is a collaborative one, characterized by two persons working equally toward specific, agreed on goals. Dinkmeyer, Dinkmeyer, and Sperry (1987) maintain that at the outset of counseling clients should begin to formulate a plan, or a contract, detailing what they want, how they plan to get where they are heading, what is preventing them from successfully attaining their goals, how they can change nonproductive behavior into constructive behavior, and how they can make full use of their assets in achieving their purposes. This therapeutic contract sets forth the goals of the counseling process and specifies the responsibilities of both therapist and client. Developing a contract is not a requirement of Adlerian therapy, but it brings a tight focus to therapy.

        Clients are not viewed as passive recipients; rather, they are active parties in a relationship between equals. Through this collaborative partnership, clients recognize that they are responsible for their behavior. Although Adlerians view the quality of therapeutic relationship as relevant to the outcomes of the therapy, they don’t assume that this relationship alone will bring about change. However, without initial trust and rapport, the difficult work of changing one’s style of living is not likely to occur.

Adlerian counseling stages and Techniques:

1. Establishing the Relationship:

     Hallmark of the Adlerian relationship is its equalitarian quality. The counselor is likely to dispel any notions of superiority by showing a genuine; non possessive care for the individual, not unlike a friend. Early in counseling, the counseling will ask the client to discuss his or her reason for seeking assistance. Adlerians establish agreements concerning the goals of counseling. An understanding of what the individual hopes to attain is established, including some indication of his or her expectations for the counselor's role. Rapport is established and nurtured throughout the counseling relationship on the basis of mutual respect, cooperation, and desire to achieve agreed upon goals. Adlerians utilize many techniques to establish a positive relationship. Three of these techniques are

·         Using of listening Skills:

           Dinkmeyer and Sperry (2000) note that effective listening skills are necessary to promote mutual trust and mutual respect which are two essential elements of the Adlerian counseling relationship.

·         Winning Respect and offering hope:

           Nystul (1985) suggests that a counselor can increase the client’s motivation for becoming involved in counseling by winning the client’s respect and offering hope.

·         Encouragement:

          Encouragement communicates a sense of support and can also help client’s learn to believe in themselves. Dinkmeyer and Losoney (1980) identified important skills that are involved in the encouragement process. Some of these skills are focusing on progress, assets, and strengths; helping clients see the humor in life experiences; communicating respect and confidence; being enthusiastic, helping the client become aware of choices; combating self-defeating, discouraging processes; and promoting self-encouragement.

2. Psychological Investigation (Performing Analysis and Assessment):

        Adlerians typically do an in-depth analysis and assessment as early as the first session. This usually involves conducting a life style analysis to explore how early life experiences can contribute to the adult personality.

       Dream analysis can be a part of the life style analysis (Mosak, 2005). Adlerians do not attempt to analyze dreams in terms of their symbolic content, as do Freudians. Instead, they see dreams in an attempt to deal with the difficulties and challenges applied. In this sense, dreams become a problem-solving activity, allowing the person a chance to rehearse for some future actions (Mosak, 2005). The life style analysis can also be used to identify the client’s strengths or assets that can be used to overcome the client’s problem. It can also be used to identify faulty or irrational views that may interfere with the client’s growth. These are referred to as basic mistakes, and the following description of these statements by Mosak (2005) are listed with examples.

·         Overgeneralization: “People cannot be trusted”.

·         False or impossible goals of security: “I must please every body”.

·         Misrepresentation of life and life’s demands: “I never get any breaks”.

·         Minimization or Denial of one’s worth: “I am dumb”.

·         Faulty values: “It doesn’t matter how you plan the game as long as you win”

3. Promoting Insight:

        Adlerians believe that insight is an important prerequisite to a long term change. Insight allows clients to understand the dynamics of self-defeating patterns so they can be corrected during the re-orientation process. The major tool for providing insight is interpretation which focuses on creating awareness of basic mistakes that are impeding the client’s growth. Counselor can use confrontation technique during the insight process if they encounter resistance from client’s client. Shulman (1973) notes that confrontation can challenge a client to make an immediate response or change or to examine some issue. It can also foster immediacy in the relationship by enabling a client to know how the counselor is experiencing the client at the moment (Dinkmeyer & Dinkmeyer, 1985). The following techniques can be used in this phase.

• Socratic Questioning.

                 The Socratic method of leading an individual to insight through a series of questions lies at the heart of Adlerian practice (Stein 1990; Stein 1991). It embodies the relationship of equals searching for knowledge and insight in a gentle, diplomatic, and respectful style, consistent with Adler's philosophy. In the early stages of psychotherapy, the therapist uses questions to gather relevant information, clarify meaning, and verify feelings. Then, in the middle stages of therapy, more penetrating, leading questions uncover the deeper structures of private logic, hidden feelings, and unconscious goals. The therapist also explores the personal and social implications of the client's thinking, feeling, and acting, in both their short and long term consequences. Throughout, new options are generated dialectically, examined, and evaluated to help the client take steps in a different direction of her own choosing. The results of these new steps are constantly reviewed. In the latter stages of therapy, the Socratic Method is used to evaluate the impact of the client's new direction and to contemplate a new philosophy of life. The Socratic style places the responsibility for conclusions and decisions in the lap of the client. The role of the therapist is that of a "co-thinker," not the role of a superior expert. Just as Socrates was the "midwife" attending the birth of new ideas, the Adlerian therapist can serve as "midwife" to the birth of a new way of living for a client.

·   Guided and Eidetic Imagery.

              For many clients, cognitive insight and new behavior lead to different feelings. Some clients need additional specific interventions to access, stimulate, or change feelings. Guided and eidetic imagery, used in an Adlerian way, can lead to emotional breakthroughs especially when the client reaches an impasse. Eidetic imagery can be used diagnostically to access vivid symbolic mental pictures of significant people and situations that are often charged with emotion. Guided imagery can be used therapeutically to change the negative imprints of childhood family members that weigh heavily on a client and often ignite chronic feelings of guilt, fear, and resentment. These techniques are typically used in the middle stages of therapy. Alexander Müller recommended the use of imagery when a client knew that a change in behavior was sensible, but still didn't take action (Müller 1937). Some clients need a vivid image of themselves as happier in the future than they presently are, before they journey in a new direction that they know is healthier.

4. Re-Orientation:

        The final phase of Adlerian psychotherapy involves putting insight into actions. Clients are encouraged to make necessary changes in their life as they develop more functional beliefs and behaviors. Counselors can use the following techniques during the orientation phase.

• Spitting in the client’s soup:

               This technique can be used when clients engage in manipulative games such as acting like a martyr. Spitting in their soup involves determining the payoff of the games and interpreting it to the client. For instance, a client may say, “My husband is such a drunk; I don’t know why I put with him.” The counselor could response by saying, “You must gat a lot of sympathy from others because you have to put up with so much. As this client will realize that someone is aware of the payoffs she is receiving from her martyr syndrome, the game may seem less enjoyable.

• The push-button technique: 

             This technique is based on Ellis’s (1962) rational emotive therapy. It involves having clients concentrate on pleasant and unpleasant experiences and the feelings they generate (Dinkmeyer & Dinkmeyer, 1985). When clients discover that their thoughts influence their emotions, they recognize that they can take control of their emotional responses. The push-button concept symbolizes the amount of control clients can exert when they “push the button” and put a stop to self-defeating processes. They can then create a constructive way of reacting to their situation, producing a more positive a more positive emotional response. 

• Catching oneself: 

          Clients can use this technique to avoid old self-defeating patterns. Initially, clients may catch themselves in the process of self-defeating behaviors, such as playing a manipulative game. Eventually, they can catch themselves just before they start playing a manipulative game. Eventually, they can catch themselves just before they start playing the game. Clients can be encouraged to use humor when they catch themselves, learning to laugh at low ridiculous their self-defeating tendencies are.

• Acting as-if:

          This technique involves clients acting as if they could do whatever they would like to do, such as being more confident or being a better listener. The technique promotes a positive a positive “can-do” spirit and a self-fulfilling prophecy, which can help clients experience success.

Areas of Application:

Individual psychology is based on a growth model ,not a medical model, it is applicable to such varied spheres of life as child guidance, parent/child counseling, marital counseling, family therapy, group counseling, individual counseling with children, adolescents, and adults, cultural conflicts, correlation  and rehabilitation counseling, and mental health institution Its principles have been widely applied to substance abuse programs, social problems to comate poverty and crime, problems of the aged , school system , religion, and business.

Application to Education:

       Adler had a keen interest to applying his ideas in education, especially in findings ways to remedy faulty lifestyle of school children. He initiated a process to work with students in groups and to educate parents and teachers. By providing teachers with ways to prevent and correct basic mistakes of children, he sought to promote social interests and mental health. Besides Adler, the main proponent of Individual Psychology as a foundation for the teaching /learning process was Dreikurs (1968).Major teacher education models are based on Adlerian /Dreikursian principles.

Application to Parent education:

       Parent education to improve the relationship between parent and child by promoting greater understanding and acceptance has been a major Adlerian contribution. Parents are taught simple Adlerian principles of behavior that can be applied in the home. Initial topics include understanding the purpose of child’s misbehavior, learning to listen, helping children accept the consequences of their behavior, applying emotion coaching, holding family meeting, and using encouragement. The book considered to be the mainstays of many Adlerian parent study groups is Children: The Challenge, by Dreikurs and Soltz (1964).Other books that present Adlerian parent education materials are Step: The parent Handbook (Dinkmeyere, McKay, Dinkmeyere, and Mckay, 1987) and Active Parenting Today (Popkin, 1993)

Application To Marriage Counseling:

      Adlerian marital therapy is designed to assess a couples, s beliefs and behavior while educating them in more effective ways of meeting their goals. Clair Hawes has developed an approach to couples counseling within the Adlerian brief therapy model. In addition to addressing the compatibility of lifestyles, Hawes looks at the early recollections of the marriage and each partners, s relationship to a broad set of life tasks, including occupation , social relationships, intimate relationship, kin keeping, spiritually, self care, and self worth(Bitter et al,1998,Hawses, 1993,Hawes & Blanchared.1993)

        The full range of techniques applicable to other form of counseling can be used in working with couples. In marriage counseling and marriage education and, couples are taught specific techniques that enhance communication and cooperation. Some of these techniques are listening, paraphrasing, giving feed back, having marriage conferences, listening expectations, doing home work and enacting problem solving.

              Adlerians will see sometimes married peoples as a couple, sometimes individually, and then alternately as a couple and as individuals. Rather than looking for who is at fault in the relationship , the therapist considers  the lifestyle of the partners and the interaction of the two lifestyles .Emphasis given to helping them decide if they want to maintain their marriage and , if so, what changes they are willing to make.

Application to family counseling:

With its emphasis on the family constellation, holism, and the freedom of the therapist to improvise, Adler’s approach contributed to the foundation of the family therapy perspective.

Adlerians working with families focus on the family atmosphere, the family constellation and the interactive goals of each member. The family atmosphere is the climate characterizing the relationship between the parents and their attitude toward life, sex roles, decision making, and competition, cooperation, dealing with conflicts, responsibility and so forth. This atmosphere, including the roles of models the parents provide, influences the children as they grow up. The therapeutic processes seek to increase awareness of the interaction of the individuals within the family system. Those who practice Adlerian family therapy strives to understand the goals, beliefs, and behaviors of each family members and family as an entity in its own right.

Application to Group Work:

Adler and coworkers used a group approach in their child guidance centers in Vienna as 1921 (Dreikurs.1969), a colleague, extended and popularized Adler’s work with groups and used group psychotherapy[y in his private practice for 40 years. Although he introduced group psychotherapy into his psychiatric practice as a way to save time, he quickly discovered some unique characteristics of groups that made them am effective way of helping people change. Dreikurs,(1969)rationale for groups is as follows: ”Since man ,s problems and conflicts are recognized in their social nature, the group is ideally suited not only to highlight and reveal the nature of a person’s conflicts and maladjustments but to offer corrective influences”(p.43.Inferiority feelings can be challenged and counteracted effectively in groups and the mistaken concepts and values that are at root of social and emotional problems can be deeply influenced because the group is a value forming agent (Sonstegared ,1998a).

              The group provides the social context in which members can develop a sense of belonging and a sense of community. Sonstegared (1998b) writes that group participants come to see that many of their problems are interpersonal in nature, that their behavior has social meaning, and that the goals can best be understood in the framework of social purposes.Loading...

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Contributions of Adlerian Counseling:

      One important function of this useful theory is to generate research, and on this criterion this theory rated a little above average. Much of the research suggested by individual psychology has investigated early recollections and style gives Adlerian theory a moderate to high rating on its ability to generate research.

      Adlerian therapy is diverse, both in practice and in theory. This flexibility is seen by many as one of its greatest strengths. Because of its emphasis on goals, the social learning of Adlerian therapy is greatly beneficial to couples, Families, and groups.

     Individual psychology is sufficiently broad to encompass possible explanation for much of what is know about human behavior and development. Adler’s practical view of life’s problems allows us to rate his theory high on its ability to make sense out of what about human behavior.

     Adlerian therapy focuses on applications in individual psychology with intent to provide prevention services designed to assist during growth. This educational focus is utilized with teachers and parent to identify the importance of social interaction and the development of social interests. Further, parents are taught the importance of the family relationships and the legacy that is passed between generation through birth order and individual personality.

         In the use of group work, Adlerian therapy works to develop group cohesion, which mirrors healthy functioning in social settings. Members of the group are able to develop a sense of belonging and community that may be unavailable in their present situation. Due to the flexibility and integrative nature of this theory, individual, families, and groups are

helped with the tools of this approach.

        Adler addressed a wide rang of the phenomena involved in disorder behavior. He discussed at length the etiology and curve of many different kinds of neurosis and psychosis. But Adler also sought to understand the ways in which political, educational and religious institution affect personality development. He tried not only to assess the impact of the destructive elements of the institution on the individual but also to outline the ways in which they could be restructured to promote psychological health and well being.

        Adlerian theory rate high to guide action. The theory serves the psychotherapist, the teachers, and the parent with the guide lines for the solutions to practical problems in a variety of settings.

        Adlerian parishioners gather information through reports on birth order, dreams, early recollections, childhood difficulties, and organ deficiencies. They then use this will both increase that person, s individual apply those specific techniques that will both increase that person, individual responsibility and broaden his or her freedom of choice.

Another important aspect of this theory is simplicity, or parsimony. On this standard we rate individual psychology about average.

       Individual psychology is based on a growth model and is applicable to many areas: child guidance, parent child counseling, marital counseling, family therapy, group counseling, individual counseling, cultural conflicts, correction and rehabilitation counseling, substance abuse program, combating poverty and crime.

Clearly the chief contribution of the Adler’s theory is the number of subsequent investigators of human personality who have been influenced by it. Adler, s position has contributed to the theory in the areas of existential theory and psychiatry, Neo-Freudian psychoanalysis, personality diagnosis including dream interpretation, the practice of psychotherapy and the theory of positive mental health. Adlerian has directly influenced such prominent psychologist and psychiatrist as Albert Ellis, Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow, and has had considerable impact on the experimental work   of Jullian Rotter.

Limitations Of Adlerian Counseling: 

        Adler was a more effective speaker than writer. His often incoherent writings detracted from his ability to effectively communicate his theories through the written word.

       Individual psychology continues to fall short on some of the criteria of a useful theory, especially its ability to be falsified. Adler produced many concepts that don’t easy lend themselves to either verification or falsification e.g. results don’t verify Adler’s notion that present style of life shapes one’s early recollections.

       Adlerian theory is a model for self consistency; it suffers from a lack of precise operational definitions. Terms such as goal of superiority and creative power have no scientific definition. The terms creative power is an especially illusory one.

       Adlerian therapy is frequently criticized for its lack of depth. Seen by many as somewhat superficial, it  lacks the  constitution necessary to fully deal with the vast array of the psychological issues clients bring to the counseling room. While its flexibility is wide in scope, its fortitude is frail, and many see it as a therapy that is akin to one who dabbles in everything but masters in nothing. Through its emphasis on the birth orders and early recollections, UN testable assumptions are made that many psychologists see as placing undue weight on concepts not critical to human growth.

       Adlerian theory is not acknowledged as scientific in an empirical sense, but rather a reflection of his personal views.

       It does not provide immediate solutions to client problems with more of a long term focus. With less of a simplistic approach, this therapy is suited more for individual who are prepared to taken to understand family of origin issues.