ALDERIAN COUNSELING

Adler focused much of his research on feelings of inferiority

versus superiority, discouragement, and a sense of belonging in
the context of one’s community and society at large. According to
Adler, feelings of inferiority can result in neurotic behavior but, in
the right setting, can also be used as motivation to strive for
greater success. Adlerian therapy focuses on the development of
individual personality while understanding and accepting the
interconnectedness of all humans. This approach was also known
as INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY.
Adlerian therapy proceeds in four stages:

• Engagement, or creating a collaborative relationship with your therapist

• Assessment of your personal history, with an emphasis on birth order and

early childhood memories

• Insight, wherein the therapist helps you view your situation from a different
perspective

• Reorientation, wherein the therapist suggests active steps you can take
outside of therapy to reinforce newly developed insights and perhaps learn
even more about yourself and your capabilities

Overall, the focus is on reframing the attitudes, beliefs, and lifestyle choices
that block success, so that you are more effective at reaching your desired goals
 Impact of Birth Order

Adler’s five psychological positions:

Oldest child favored, spoiled, center of attention, pseudo-
parent, high achiever

Second of two behaves as if in a race, often opposite to first

child (rivalry)

Middle often feels squeezed out

Youngest the baby (more pampered), creative,

rebellious, revolutionary, avant-garde

Only may not learn to share or cooperate with

other children, learns to deal with adults
 The Phenomenological Approach
1.Adlerians attempt to view the world from the client’s subjective
frame of reference
 Reality is less important than how the individual perceives and
believes life to be
 It is not the childhood experiences that are crucial ~ It is our
present interpretation of these events
2. Unconscious instincts and our past do not determine our behavior
 It is not genes
 It is not environment
 It is not genes and environment
 It is how we choose to respond to our genes and environment
 Social Interest
Gemeinshaftsgefuhl – the state of social connectedness and
interest in the well-being of others that characterizes
psychological health.
 Adler’s most significant and distinctive concept
 Refers to an individual’s attitude toward and awareness of
being a part of the human community
 Mental health is measured by the degree to which we
successfully share with others and are concerned with their
welfare
 Happiness and success are largely related to social
connectedness
 Encouragement

Encouragement is the most powerful method available for

changing a person’s beliefs
• 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
 Nature of maladjustment

 A person has a mistaken opinion of self and world

 Inferiority complex: Individual overwhelmed by inadequacy, hopelessness
 Superiority Complex: Individual’s very high opinion of self lead him/her to
insist that personal solutions to problems are best
 A person engages in neurotic behavior to protect own opinion of self (e.g.,
when threatened with failure and insecurity)
 The person becomes self-centered rather than other-centered
 Conflict: “one step forward and one step backward movement” which has the
net effect of maintaining an individual at a “dead center” point
• People experience themselves as “stuck” but actually create the antagonistic
feelings, ideas, and values, because they are unwilling to change (if-only…)
• Safeguarding: Symptoms developed to safeguard the fictional goal (e.g., It’s my
job to keep the peace in the family)
 Family constellation: birth order mediates genetic and constitutional factors
 The individual may be unconscious of these events
 ADVANTAGES

 Applicable to diverse populations and presenting issues

 Does not consider people to be predisposed to anything
 Phenomenological
 Context-focused
 Empowering
 DISADVANTAGES
 Difficult to learn (e.g., making dream interpretations)
 Works best with highly verbal and intelligent clients.
(potentially leaves out many people who do not fit this
category)
 Might be too lengthy for managed care
 Adlerians do not like to make diagnoses
• Not compatible with managed care
• Difficult to systematically measure efficacy
• Challenging to develop problem-specific treatments