Adlerian Psychotherapy approach is active, problem solving, time limited which consists of 20 or less therapy sessions. Because of time limited Adlerian psychologists called Adlerian psychotherapy as a brief psychotherapy. Adlerian therapy depends on client’s strength and client-therapist collaboration. From the first session therapist tries to initiate collaboration by introducing himself as a fellow man to the client.
According to Adler, individuals are aware of their motives, they have control on their own behaviors, and they have a life purpose to reach.
In his treatment, he tried to understand his patients from their perspective. So that being emphatic is one of the most important component of his treatment. Another important component of his treatment is encouraging to patients. Adler believes that every person is able to create their own problems and everyone is able to solve their own problems through their own creativeness. So he means that people are responsible for their psychopathology and its treatment. But this doesn’t mean that he claims heredity and environment do not have any effect on mental health. He claims that there is a “two way interaction process” between heredity and environment but one’s perception of an event is more effective than how an event can affect a person; and this perception makes each individual unique.
He states that all people from infancy follow one main goal which is dealing with weakness and incompleteness because all people want to reach strength and completeness. So everyone needs success. When people try to move on from negative to positive biology and environment are not only determinants, but also success definition for each individual is important to use that environment and biology. For example; intelligence, wealth, and physical strength do not mean anything as long as they are not the way of reaching success.
Adler states that each person has their own life style which is dealing with life based on their perception of reality and which develops during first 5 and 6 years old childhood. Family environment is the first place where people learn how to solve their problems, and he says there are 3 kind of problems that people can face during their lives. These are social problems, occupational problems, and love problems.
Social interest is Adler’s important term. He defines it as a community feeling. Social interest plays role on people’s sense of belonging in the world. And he claims that when there is lack of community feeling, mental illness can appear.
Adler claims that during therapy sessions therapist should help patients to grasp their life style which show us their goal toward which they are striving for, and their mistakes thinking about their life style. And then therapist tries to strengthen patients’ community feelings. Clients can further their social interest with therapist so that they can transfer it to their social context. Every single detail such as tone of voice, posture is so important to understand level of community feeling and degree of inferiority. Birth order, sexual history, childhood life, and the all social context, where patients show their life goals, must be evaluated to have general information. According to Adler, memories from childhood are most helpful memories to get useful information about his/her life style.
Adlerian brief psychotherapy meets the criteria for “HMO Therapy” which set by Austad, DeStafano, and Kisch (1988) which is solving specific problems in a limited time, initiating collaborative relation, making clients active, using time creatively, assuming there is a mutual relation between mental health and physical health, encouraging social interest, keeping client involved and satisfied as priority needs in the treatment.
There are four principles of brief psychotherapy models set by Wells and Gianneetti (1990). And Adler psychotherapy also meets these principles. These are understanding client’s life style by their point of view, considering the client in their social context which starts from their early childhood to the current situation, believing clients are unable to solve their own problems by proving enough courage to them and initiating collaboration relation, following systematic process of understanding life style, making clients realize their mistake, thinking and beliefs about their own life style, strengthening their sense of community through the therapeutic relation.
Referance:
Wood, A. ( 2003 ). Alfred Adler’s Treatment as a Form of Brief Therapy. Journal of Individual psychology. 33, 287-3001
Makaleyi özetleyen: Şeyda Varol
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder