What is Adlerian Psychotherapy?
Adlerian Psychology is unique in its style of psychotherapy: it maintains that human beings are naturally goal-oriented and choice-making, and are not inherently victims of instinct, drives, and environment. As social beings, our basic, fundamental, goal is to belong. Although heredity and environment have strong influences, Adlerian Psychology suggests that to a large extent, we make our own choices of how to belong.
Adlerian Psychology has a strong emphasis on prevention of mental health problems and social distress through education and parenting. A large amount of Adler’s original work was with teachers and parents who wanted to replace traditional authoritarian styles of parenting and teaching children with more democratic—but not permissive—methods.
What does an Adlerian Psychotherapy in a session look like?
In Adlerian Psychotherapy, therapists assist clients in identifying the thoughts, behaviours, and emotions influencing your lifestyle. An Adlerian therapist will assist you in acquiring a more positive and productive way of life by providing you with new insights, skills, and behaviours. Typically, the therapist will help identify targets for therapy, major successes and problems, and will typically acquire early reflections regarding your childhood experiences. Clients are encouraged to think about their private logic, their concepts about themselves and others and the philosophy that their lifestyle is based on. Clients are encouraged to discover the purposes of behaviour and symptoms and their basic mistakes associated with coping.
The primary goal of therapy is to teach clients how to correct faulty assumptions and conclusions about themselves and their lives. Our wonderful team of therapists at Mind + Zest do this by using a subjective interview technique and by encouraging self-understanding and insight.
Research has demonstrated that one of the most important predictors of obtaining success in therapy and counselling is the relationship between you and your therapist. At Mind + Zest, we take this research to heart. Our counselors will collaborate with you to develop a therapeutic plan that is tailored to your strengths, goals, and desired areas of change. Typically, most clients will have a sense of when their counselling goals have been reached. This sense of success typically emerges when you have overcome significant issues in your life and notice new feelings and changes in your behaviours. You may notice an increase in energy, mood, enthusiasm, motivation, general well-being, and interest, and you will gain the confidence to tackle new challenges on your own.
Successful counselling also depends on sustaining contact and momentum with your counselor. By regularly attending sessions, progression and healing is attained more quickly than when sessions are spread far apart or occur irregularly. Most of our clients find weekly sessions the most productive, while some individuals find bi-weekly or twice-a-week sessions as most effective.
If you or someone you know is struggling, don't hesitate to reach out. The Mind + Zest team here to help. Click below, and get connected to a therapist as quickly as today!
