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Example Of Adlerian Group Therapy

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Adlerian Theory and Therapy Before Adler’s theory about the psychology of growth in the 1920’s one widely accepted form of therapy was Freud’s psychoanalytic approach that posited physiological chemistry and sexual repression were the causes of neurosis. Freud’s psychoanalytic methodology was long and tedious, and focused more on the person as an individual outside and apart from society rather than being within it. Conversely, Adler contended that all people are born into a group (family) and therefore should be treated accordingly. Moreover, Adler postulated “that fundamentally humans all have a need to belong” (Ferguson, 2010, p. 1). This led to developing an approach that dealt with people on a holistic level which included not only treating the person as an individual, but to treat them as members of something greater than themselves (society). Adler’s group approach is utilized in “both prison and child guidance populations” (Gladding, 2016, p. 382), the workplace (Ferguson, 2006a, p. 80), schools, and with families. The effectiveness from Adlerian group therapy derives from the social identifiable conflicts that all people endure. Moreover, in a group setting the individual is faced with multiple interactions among other group members concerning their behavior and thought process via feedback and by being challenged publicly to identify and adjust any illogical or irrational thoughts and beliefs. Naturally, Adlerian group therapy operates from the

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