Adlerian Therapy, Theory and Practice

Adlerian therapy,
Theory and practice

By
Muhammad Mustabeen
(Bs psychology)
Origin of adlerian therapy
● Adlerian psychotherapy was developed by Alfred Adler who
was an influential psychiatrist.
● In 20th century he tried to focus the attention of
philosophical world on a fact that it is important to become
familiar with a person’s birth order, life style and parental
education.
● Adler was inspired by Freudian psychoanalysis but he didn't
accept some of his important concepts like sexual trauma
instead he anticipated elements of humanistic, cognitive
and systematic approaches.
● He tried to overcome the superiority of the therapist in his
approach.
● Alfred Adler was also inspired by his own life because he
was raised by a middle class family, was very close to his
father, 2nd of 6 children and was not a healthy child. He
developed several concepts of his approach on the basis of
his own life experiences.
● Adler was a pioneer in the area of holistic theory on
personality, psychotherapy and psychopathology.
What is adlerian therapy and
theory?
Definition and explanation
“Adlerian therapy is a brief, goal oriented, humanistic and psycho
educational approach that emphasizes the individual's striving for
success, connectedness with others, and contributions to society as
being hallmarks of mental health.”
Adlerian approach focuses on various aspects of human nature:
Phenomenology: Adler believed that our perceptions are based on

our view of reality and we construct our reality according to
Our own way of looking at the world.
Holistic perspective: Adler suggested that every individual must be

seen from a holistic perspective because dividing individual into
parts or forces minimize the individual essence of an individual.
Teleological perspective: Adler believed that human behavior is

goal oriented and people move towards self selected goals. So
understanding the goals to which the person is directed is more
important than the causes of behavior.
Determinism: Adler believed that as individual moves through life,
he is confronted with many alternatives and individual being creative
and self determined decision maker is free to choose the goals he
wants to pursue.
Consciousness and unconsciousness: Adler believed that people use

both consciousness and unconsciousness to pursue their personal
goals.
Early recollection: Early recollections are the memories of actual

incidents from a person's childhood which are used by therapist to
form inferences about current behavior of a person.
Core concepts of Adlerian
approach
Style of life: According to Adler, individuals use their own patterns
of beliefs, cognitive styles and behaviors as a way of expressing his
style of life and mostly use this style to overcome the feeling of
inferiority. Areas of life style are self-concept( who am I?), Self-ideal(
what I should be?), Picture of the world, ethical convictions( right or
wrong sense).
Social interest: The care and concern for the welfare of others can
serve to guide people's behavior throughout their lives. It is a sense
of being a part of the society and taking responsibility to improve it.
Superiority vs. inferiority: Superiority is a drive to become superior
that allows people to become skilled, competent and creative where
inferiority is the feeling of inadequacy and incompetence that
develop during infancy and serve as the basis to strive for superiority.
Superiority complex is the means of overcoming the feeling of
inferiority by being boastful, self-centered and arrogant where
inferiority complex is a belief that one is not as good as other people
and leads toward defensiveness and anxiousness.
Birth Order: Birth order of a person can have impact on a person's

later personality and functioning (elder, middle and the youngest).
Theoretical assumptions
● All behaviors have a social meaning or occur in a social
environment.
● The goal of belonging is fundamental to human nature.
● The human personality has unity and guiding themes.
● All behaviors are purposeful.
● Behavior is a function of subjective perception.
● Striving for significance explains a person's motivation.
● Individuals have freedom of choice.
● Living life demands courage.
Elements/Stages of adlerian
therapy
An Adlerian therapist assists individuals by understanding the
thoughts, drives, and emotions that influence their lifestyles.
People in therapy are also encouraged to acquire a more positive
and productive way of life by developing new insights, skills, and
behaviors. These goals are achieved through the four stages of
Adlerian therapy,
Engagement: A trusting therapeutic relationship is built between

the therapist and the person in therapy and they agree to work
together to effectively address the problem.
Assessment: The therapist invites the individual to speak about his
or her personal history, family history, early recollections, beliefs,
feelings, and motives. This helps to reveal the person's overall
lifestyle pattern, including factors that might initially be thought of
as insignificant or irrelevant by the person in therapy.
Insight: The person in therapy is helped to develop new ways of

thinking about his or her situation.
Reorientation: The therapist encourages the individual to engage in

satisfying and effective actions that reinforce this new insight.
Techniques of adlerian therapy
Life tasks: According to adlerian approach, there are five basic life
tasks or opportunities which are occupation, society, love, self-
development and spiritual development. In this technique, a person is
analyzed on the basis of these five tasks and therapist determines that
in which task the client is not doing well. So therapeutic goals are
determined on this analysis.
Immediacy: In this technique, the therapist immediately asks a

question about the nonverbal behavior of the client and try to
differentiate between client’s verbal behavior and non verbal
behavior by telling him that what his nonverbal behavior indicates.
Encouragement: In this technique, therapist try to motivate and
encourage the client to change his beliefs. Encouragement helps to
develop a strong relationship between therapist and client. It moves
the client towards behavioral and beliefs change.
Acting as if: In this technique, the client is asked to “act as if” a

behavior will be effective when they will try it. Client is encouraged to
try the new role or behavior as they try new clothes.
Catching oneself: In this technique, clients learn to observe that they

are performing behaviors which they want to change. When clients
catch themselves, they may have an “aha” response.
Avoiding the tar baby: Avoiding the tar baby means “avoid getting
stuck in the client’s perception of the problem”. Client sometimes
makes faulty assumptions about the problem and try to influence the
perception of the therapist. Therapist encourages a new behavior and
avoids the tar baby.
Spitting in the client's soup: In this technique, the therapist makes

comments about the behavior of a client to make that behavior less
attractive for the client.
Homework: The therapist also asks the client to perform specific

behavior or activities at home.
Creating images: In this technique, clients are encouraged to create
mental images of doing a specific behavior. This also help a person
to change or modify his behavior. Adler believed that a mental
image of doing something has an important impact.
Push-button technique: In this technique, the clients are asked to

remember a pleasant incident that they have experienced and
become aware of the feelings associated with that experience. Then
they are asked to remember an unpleasant incident and become
aware of that feelings. The purpose behind this technique is to
teach clients that they can create feelings they want to feel.
Paradoxical intentions: In this technique, the clients are asked to
engage and exaggerate the behaviors that they want to change. By
prescribing the symptoms, the therapist makes clients more aware
of their situation and help them to seek change.
Example: If a person is afraid of mice, the therapist will ask him to

exaggerate this behavior to the extent where life become difficult
due to fear. In this way, the person will become more aware of his
situation and will change his behavior.
Thank
you

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Adlerian therapy,

Theory and practice

Adlerian approach focuses on various aspects of human nature:

Phenomenology: Adler believed that our perceptions are based on

Holistic perspective: Adler suggested that every individual must be

Teleological perspective: Adler believed that human behavior is

Consciousness and unconsciousness: Adler believed that people use

Early recollection: Early recollections are the memories of actual

Birth Order: Birth order of a person can have impact on a person's

Engagement: A trusting therapeutic relationship is built between

Insight: The person in therapy is helped to develop new ways of

Reorientation: The therapist encourages the individual to engage in

Immediacy: In this technique, the therapist immediately asks a

Acting as if: In this technique, the client is asked to “act as if” a

Catching oneself: In this technique, clients learn to observe that they

Spitting in the client's soup: In this technique, the therapist makes

Homework: The therapist also asks the client to perform specific

Push-button technique: In this technique, the clients are asked to

Example: If a person is afraid of mice, the therapist will ask him to

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