Adlerian Therapy Flashcards
It is a constructivist approach that
emphasizes encouragement and
focuses on prevention rather than
remediation.
Adlerian Therapy
Adlerian Therapy is also known as?
Individual Psychology
Pioneer of Adlerian Therapy
Alfred Adler
Adler’s theory starts with a
consideration of _________,
which he saw as a normal condition
of all people and as a source of all
human striving
Inferiority feelings
Term of Adler for community feeling
Gemeinschaftsgefühl
10 theoretical principles in Adlerian Therapy
Holism
Superiority striving
Purpose
Social interest and community
feeling
An idiographic approach
Phenomenology
Soft determinism
Freedom to choose
Lifestyle
Optimism
Theoretical principle:
Humans must be treated as
a single unit rather than divided into separate parts
Holism
Theoretical principle:
Despite obstacles, we naturally strive (actively and creatively) toward excellence and task completion.
Superiority striving
Theoretical principle:
Humans work toward specific goals in life, driven by future hopes rather than past experiences.
Purpose
Theoretical principle:
We strive to connect socially at an individual and community level. The absence of community would lead to arrogance and selfishness.
Social interest and community
feeling
Theoretical principle:
While generalizations can be helpful, every human must be considered unique.
An idiographic approach
Theoretical principle:
Everyone creates their own reality; experiences are based on individual perceptions and subjectivity.
Phenomenology
Theoretical principle:
Biology and environment influence, but do not determine, behavior.
Soft determinism
Theoretical principle:
We are responsible for choosing our behavior from a limited number of
options. Yet, we often make poor
choices because of a lack of
knowledge or education.
Freedom to choose
Theoretical principle:
The schemas used for directing ourselves through our lives are established during childhood but
can be changed later through
education and therapy
Lifestyle
Theoretical principle:
Adler was “hopeful that the pull toward social interest and community feeling and the drive
toward completeness would help
individuals live together peacefully
and happily”
Optimism
People strive for superiority or
success as a means of compensation for feelings of inferiority or weakness.
The Striving Force as Compensation
Some people strive for superiority with little or no concern for others.
Striving for Personal Superiority
These healthy individuals are concerned with goals beyond themselves, are capable of helping
others without demanding or expecting a personal payoff and able to see others not as opponents but as people with whom they
can cooperate for social benefits.
Striving for Success
Subjective Perception:
Our personal important fiction is the goal of superiority or success, a goal we created early in life and
may not clearly understand.
Fictionalism
The whole person strives in self-
consistent fashion toward a single goal and all separate actions and functions can be understood only as parts of this goal.
Organ Dialect
Understood and regarded by the individual as thoughts that are helpful in striving for success.
Conscious
Thoughts that are not helpful.
Unconscious
It is rooted as potentiality in everyone, but it must be developed before it can contribute to a useful style of life. It originates from the
mother-child relationship during the early months of infancy.
Social Interest
Refer to the flavor of a person’s life
including a person’s goal, self-
concept, feelings for others and
attitude toward the world.
STYLE OF LIFE
Places them in control of their own
lives, is responsible for their final
goal, determines their method of
striving for the goal and “contributes to the development of social interest.
Creative Power
Exaggeration of contextual truths into global all or nothing truths.
Overgeneralization
Try to remove all risk from life.
Making unreasonable demands on others.
False or impossible goals of
security
Sense of personal inferiority and deny intrinsic worth
Minimization or denial of one’s
basic worth
Not understanding the inescapable rule of life.
Misperceptions of life and life’s
demands
Development of Maladaptive Behavior in Adlerian Therapy (4)
Overgeneralization
False or impossible goals of security
Minimization or denial of one’s
basic worth
Misperceptions of life and life’s
demands
TECHNIQUES/INTERVENTIONS in Adlerian Therapy:
➢ It is essential when working with
children. It strengthens the ability to deal with life tasks.
➢ Adler asserted that motivation is
necessary to develop healthily,
combat discouragement, and work
toward personal goals. Children
become what they are encouraged
to become.
Offering Encouragement
TECHNIQUES/INTERVENTIONS in Adlerian Therapy:
Therapists ask a variation of the
question that Adler developed: “How would your life be distinct if you no longer had this issue?” Such
questions help patients understand
what they want to see changed in
their lives.
Asking “The Question”
TECHNIQUES/INTERVENTIONS in Adlerian Therapy:
- This approach aims to sidestep the possible modification resistance by
counteracting some perceived risks - In the traditional approach, this is a therapeutic technique in which the clinician asks the patient to act “as if” there were no barriers to achieving his or her goal.
- They are instructed to behave “as if” they possess a particular conduct and are encouraged to try new demeanors and roles.
Acting “As If”
TECHNIQUES/INTERVENTIONS in Adlerian Therapy:
Most of the time, patients are unaware of their unpleasant feelings. This technique aims to help patients become aware of their role in maintaining or creating unpleasant feelings.
Using Push Button Technique
TECHNIQUES/INTERVENTIONS in Adlerian Therapy:
- This technique involves encouraging patients to catch themselves in the act of performing the presenting problem.
- This involves assisting
patients in identifying the signals or
triggers associated with one’s
problematic behavior or emotions.
Catching Oneself
TECHNIQUES/INTERVENTIONS in Adlerian Therapy:
- This technique typically includes an interview that leads to a formulation or summary of the patient’s style of life.
- Based on patients’ memories of their family of origin, these interviews give the therapist information about the patient’s perceived ordinal position, family constellation, and family atmosphere.
Style-of-Life Analysis
TECHNIQUES/INTERVENTIONS in Adlerian Therapy:
The purpose is to explain to the
patient when more than one
justification exists for his or her
behavior.
- This technique will help the
therapist know if his or her
interpretations are correct.
Hypothesis Interpretation
TECHNIQUES/INTERVENTIONS in Adlerian Therapy:
Adlerian therapists give task
assignments so patients can
practice a different manner of
conducting themselves, which can
lead to a distinct perspective.
- Using this technique, the patient
finds threatening situations less and less frightening.
Task Setting
TECHNIQUES/INTERVENTIONS in Adlerian Therapy:
After helping the patient identify
misconceptions in thinking, Adlerian therapists brainstorm with the patient’s alternative hypotheses and beliefs.
- Instead of saying, “I never get what I want,” a patient can substitute with “Sometimes I get what I want.” The last conviction promotes healthy development.
Brainstorming
The 4 Phases of Adlerian Psychotherapy
Establishing the Therapeutic
Relationship
Uncovering the Patients’ Dynamics or Assessment
Patient Insight and Self-Understanding
Reorientation
Adlerian Psychotherapy:
- This stage is the first and
most meaningful - The therapeutic process
should be a harmonious
partnership established on
respect and trust. - Adlerian therapists strive to
create a supportive and
encouraging therapeutic
alliance. - Adlerian therapists are
empathic and caring, but
they confront patients with
their basic errors, misplaced
objectives, and self-defeating
conduct.
Establishing the Therapeutic
Relationship
Adlerian Psychotherapy:
- The second stage is the psychological inquiry of the
process. - This methodology will vary according to the nature of the problem, psychological inventories,
tests, case histories, and family. - It gets divided into the patient’s lifestyle and early recollections.
Uncovering the Patients’ Dynamics or Assessment
Adlerian Psychotherapy:
- Insight represents the patient’s understanding of the purposive nature of their behavior and the mistaken beliefs that sustained it.
- A proper interpretation provides clues regarding the purpose of a patient’s behavior. From his
perspective, insight alone was insufficient for successful therapy
Patient Insight and Self-Understanding
Adlerian Psychotherapy:
- The final stage of an Adlerian
intervention depends on the
patient’s desire to institute a
change. - This phase of therapy aims to help the patient recover the courage
to confront life’s challenges. - As a result, the patient decides what behaviors stay to reach unique purposes and what behaviors get discarded
- During this phase, the therapist encourages the patient to develop more social interests.
- Throughout this phase of psychotherapy, the dominant technique used is motivation
Reorientation
