Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy

1. Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy Psych422 Chapter 5: Adlerian Therapy Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 5

2. Questions • What do you think about Alderian approach? • What do you know about Alderian approach?

3. View of Human Nature • Stress choice and responsibility, meaning in life, and the striving for success, completion, and perfection. • Focuson inferiority feelings---motivate to strive for success (superiority) • Focus on subjective experiences Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 5

4. Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology • 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

5. The Phenomenological Approach • Adlerians attempt to view the world from the client’s subjectiveframe of reference • 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

6. Social Interest • Adler’s most significant and distinctive concept • 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

7. Birth Order • What are the unique characteristics of each birth order? 1) Oldest child – 2) Second of only two – 3) Middle – 4) Youngest – 5) Only child –

8. Birth Order • 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

9. Therapeutic Goals • Collaborative relationship • Develop a sense of belonging. • 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 Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 5

10. Therapist’s function and role • Help to identify major mistakes • Lack of confidence, mistrust…. • Gathering information through family constellation, early recollections, or lifestyle assessment. • Understanding, challenging, and changing their life story and develop an alternative story Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy - Chapter 5

11. Client’s Experience in Therapy • Do not recognize the basic mistake or private logic • 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

12. Relationship b/w Therapist and Client • Cooperation, mutual trust, respect • Making a contract with clients • 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

13. Therapeutic Techniques and Procedures • 1. Establishing the relationship • 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

14. Therapeutic Techniques and Procedures • 2. Exploring the individual’s dynamics • 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

15. Family constellation • 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?

16. Early recollections • 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?

17. Personality priorities • Superiority (or significance) • Control • Comfort • Pleasing

18. Integration and summary • Five basic mistake • Overgeneralizations • Impossible goals • Misperceptions of life and life’s demands • Minimization or denial of one’s basic worth • Faulty values

19. Therapeutic Techniques and Procedures • 3. Encouraging self-understanding and insight • Insight: an understanding of motivations that operate in a client’s life • Disclosure and interpretations are techniques that facilitate the process of gaining insight.

20. Therapeutic Techniques and Procedures • 4. Helping with reorientation • Putting insights into practice • Useful side of life • Sense of belonging and being valued • Useless side of life • Withdrawal from life tasks or self-protection

21. Therapeutic Techniques and Procedures • 4. Helping with reorientation • Encouragement • No intervention is more important than encouragement • Help clients identify self-defeating patterns • Make use of assets, strengths, and resources • Search for new possibilities • Making a difference

22. Areas of implications • Education • Parent education • Marriage counseling • Family counseling • Group work

23. Adlerian therapy From multicultural perspectives • Contributions to multicultural counseling • 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)

24. Adlerian therapy From multicultural perspectives • Limitations to multicultural counseling • 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

25. Summary and evaluation • Contributions of Adlerian approach • Limitations of Adlerian approach