How to Use Adlerian Therapy for Mental Health
Alfred Adler is one of psychology's grandfathers next to Sigmund Freud. His contributions can be traced to many of today's widely used therapeutic methods. Alfred Adler was a major contributor to the psychodynamic approach that relied on shared goals between client and counselor.
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Instructions
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Determine if the client can benefit from the use of Adlerian therapy. Ascertain whether it would be the best course of treatment or if something more rigorous or hands on would be appropriate.
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Learn as much about the process of Adlerian therapy as possible before attempting to facilitate it. Watch a colleague use Adlerian techniques. Take extensive notes during the process so that you are comfortable and understand it.
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Set goals with your client for recovery about issues the client needs to work on. Collaborate with your client and identify faulty assumptions and mistaken goals.
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Listen to your client's story with empathy and compassion. Educate your client on new ways of looking at yourself, others and life. Try to foster social interest, overcome feelings of discouragement/inferiority and change faulty motivation and valued societal contributors.
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Encourage insight in your client, being supportive but also confront her. Use interpretation of her distorted thinking and behavior to help reframe it to work with her value systems more effectively.
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Reorient his behavior as well as his thinking. Offer possible cognitive changes that need to be made, like taking calculated healthy risks and self reflective homework assignments. Guide the client without offering straightforward advice. Allow him to find the solution by challenging distortions.
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Tips & Warnings
This method is mostly suited toward the individual. However, counselors should be aware of the individual's community and cultural application since it will change various aspects of the "sense of self" that the client has.
Close your sessions with the ability for the client to explore things and think about open ended questions until they see you next time. Answering these questions helps her foster a sense of accomplishment in her own therapeutic process.
Transference and countertransference are very common and expected in this form of therapy. Beware of the possibility of dependency and codependency.
