Adlerian Therapy Approach

Alfred Adler used a therapy technique which is a solution-oriented and positive psychodynamic approach. As he mostly mentioned in his theory, while dealing with the feelings of inferiority of the person in his therapy, he mentioned that this feeling can have neurotic dimensions, and also emphasized that with a more positive approach, this feeling can create a source of motivation to succeed. Adler has worked on encouraging his clients in his therapies, because the feeling of appreciation and satisfaction that we experience individually is also related to social interest. As he mentioned in his theory, he also tried to approach the person from the perspective of both individual and interaction with other people. So, we can say that the aim of Adlerian therapy is to make the client feel optimistic and satiated with social interest, cooperation, and overcoming feelings of inferiority. What we are talking about is pretty much in line with his theory. Adler’s therapy also includes an open approach to making a person think and learn different things, because he cares about individual’s development as he focuses too much on the development of the individual in his theory.
Alfred Adler, who we know as a student of Freud, does not neglect the importance of childhood experiences and uses the idea of birth order in his therapy, examining the experience of which sibling we are in childhood. He firstly mentioned the first-born child. In his theory, first-born child has all the attention of her/his parents, she/he feels safe and special, but things change when her/his younger brother or sister is born. He/she begins to have responsibilities towards his/her brother and he/she no longer has the attention. Consequently, these first-born childs are grown as intellectually good and interested in authority in their lifes. On the other hand, the second-born child experiences less attention and anxious by her/his parents and feels more free in her/his life. Their advantage is having an older model to learn how to behave, think and perceive life in their own lifes. But, second-born childs may be subjected to feelings of inferiority by their older siblings which Adler experienced in his own life and this affects them throughout their lives according to Adler. They also have an ambitious personality due to their efforts to be better than their older siblings. In addition, the youngest siblings are always the smallest and pupil one, and they always stay that way no matter how old they get. Lastly, the only child always has the attention of her/his parents and she/he usually does not learn behaviors that require social interaction such as sharing, competing, being jealous. In their later life, they are disappointed when they are not put at the center of something.
Adler uses all these birth order ideas as a guide in his therapies. During therapy, he asks his clients about their birth order, if the client has a sibling, he tracks down how she/he communicates with her/his sibling, how often they fight, and how she/he feels towards her/his. Adler also argues that punishment does not work in sibling relationships, too. Therefore, it pays attention to how clients approach their siblings, and if this approach is not an effective strategy, it allows the client to look from a different perspective and also discover new insights.
We mentioned that in his theory, he emphasizes that our early memories play a huge role in determining our lifestyle. In this manner, Adler focuses and works on how the client develops self-beliefs under the early recollections. Although he is trying to understand situations at an early age in his theory, he is also trying to build new effective ways for client in his therapies. In this context, Adler helps clients create a new adaptive lifestyle and that is training side of his therapy. So that Adler’s approach lays the foundation for solution-oriented therapies such as cognitive therapy today.
To sum up all Adlerian approach, we can put Adlerian therapy together in four steps.
1) Engagement : The client and the therapist agree to work on the problem together.
2) Assessment: The therapist tries to understand the client’s birth order, early childhood experiences, and the clues about how the clients perceive themselves.
3) Insight: This is the point we define as the place where the therapist helps the client to look from different points.
4) Reorientation: In the final stage, the therapist gives the client small activities to practice, and these activities reinforce the insight we developed in the previous stage.
All these steps are what we briefly explained in Adler’s approach. It is important to emphasize that Adlerian therapy has been tested and proven to work any type of mental disorder.

Source:

· Adlerian Therapy. (n.d.). APA Dictionary of Psychology. https://dictionary.apa.org/adlerian-therapy

· Alfred Adler: Theory and Application. (n.d.). Adler Graduate School. https://alfredadler.edu/about/alfred-adler-theory-application

· Adleryan Terapi Çerçevesinde Psikolojik Danışma Oturumu. (2021, June 11). [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmg0M3VF5MI&ab_channel=Dergip.Dr.

· What Did Alfred Adler Do for Psychology? (2020, September 24). Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/alfred-adler-2795502