Psychoanalytic Therapy and Adlerian Therapy

Psychoanalytic Therapy

       The approach, Psychoanalytic therapy, was founded by Sigmund Freud who had the idea that most problems in your personality stemmed from effects from your childhood. He believed that it occured between the ages of birth to six years old. The goals of this approach was to get the client to talk about their thoughts that included fantasies and dreams from their subconscious thoughts. The therapist then analyzes these thoughts and explores their unconscious thoughts to see what conflicts they are having with their basic character flaws. These flaws are basically affecting their day to day functioning. The information that the therapist gets from their client helps them to shed some light on solutions for the character problems. The therapist then guides the client to confront those problems and figure out a way to deal with them hoping to come to some sort of resolution to the problems that stem from their childhood. 

          The techniques used are to get the client to recognize a conflict from their childhood, repeat the sequence of events leading up to the conflict, remember how this conflict made them feel and then work through those feelings.

Suggested Links;

American psychoanalytic association. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.apsa.org/

Brenner, A. (1964). Psychoanalytic concepts and the structural theory. New York: International Universities Press.

Adlerian Therapy

          The Adlerian approach was founded by Alfred Adler but Rudolph Dreikurs made this therapy popular in the United States. The goals of this approach was to get the client to assume responsiblity in their life and to help them develope their own purpose-filled life. One of the key concepts would be to get the client to start thinking of changes they can make in their life that makes it more meaningful. Get the client to say; how would life be different if I ...

          There are four stages in this counseling method that the couselor should address. First the counselor should establish a good working relationship with their client and maintain it. Then next the counselor would explore the clients dynamics while helping them to develope insight and understanding to their own personality. The next step would be to get the client to think about their choices, chose different choices and new alternatives. They need to think about their present life style, assess it, and then explore new relationships. The client now needs to identify mistakes and choose to make better ones.

Suggested Link;

Sweeney, T. J., Myers, J. E., & Stephan, J. B. (2006). integrating developmental counseling and therapy assessment with alderian early recollections. the journal of individual psychology, 62(3),