Individual Psychology and Adlerian Therapy Flashcards
Acting as if
Involves having clients pretend they already possess desirable traits they’re striving towards.
Adlerian therapy
A psychoeducational, present/future-oriented, and brief approach. Also insight oriented.
Stages: 1. Forming the therapeutic relationship, 2. Lifestyle assessment and analysis, 3. Interpretation and insight (strong link between insight, motivation and action) 4. Reorientation (action oriented)
Encouragement vs. discouragement
Discouragement: lacking courage to face challenges inherent in the basic life tasks.
Encouragement: affirmation through language or other symbolic representations to install courage, perseverance, confidence, inspiration or hope in a person within the context of addressing a challenging situation or realizing a potential. *Encouragement is key to Adlerian therapy.
Family constellation interview
Obtains pertinent information about childhood experiences. (Birth order is important) Part of the Adlerian process.
Social Interest/Gemeinschaftsgefühl
People are interdependent. A community of equals creating and maintaining social feelings and interests; people working together as equals to better themselves as individuals and as a community. Boils down to “love thy neighbor”
Paradoxical strategies
Prescribing the symptom
Style of life/lifestyle
An individual’s way of seeing and interacting with the world, the self, and the future. (Ex: Ruling type, controlling type) A cognitive schema or map, in contemporary terms. (Adlerians believe style of life is formed by age 5 or 6)
Holism
A unity of thinking, feeling, acting, values, the conscious mind, the unconscious mind and all aspects of human functioning. (People are whole and purposeful.) Adlerian idea
Striving for superiority
Adlerian theoretical principle of excellence. Ideally, individuals strive to overcome their deficiencies with an attitude of social interest to complete themselves.
Soft determinism
Human behavior is a function of multiple interacting factors. The midpoint between determinism (cause and effect thinking) and nondeterminism, which assumes no causal connections.
Fictional finalism
Future-oriented goals that pull an individual’s present behavior toward the future
Basic mistakes
Basic mistakes are beliefs about the self, world, and others that repeatedly cause emotional pain.
Adlerian tasks of life
work, social, love, self, spirituality, parenting
Adler’s view of psychopathology and psychotherapeutic change
Discouragement (lacking courage to face challenges inherent in the basic life tasks) v. Encouragement (affirmation through language or other symbolic representations to install courage, perseverance, confidence, inspiration or hope in a person within the context of addressing a challenging situation or realizing a potential.)
Adlerian therapeutic relationship
egalitarian, friendly, collaborative
