Two Approaches To Adlerian Brief Therapy - Buncombe County ...

Two Approaches To Adlerian Brief Therapy - Buncombe County ... Two Approaches To Adlerian Brief Therapy - Buncombe County ...

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Adlerian Brief Therapy 12 eliminating alternative positions (Foucault, 1980). Similarly, client symptoms and life problems are often enacted as rituals, making their power and necessity seem overwhelming. In Adlerian Brief Therapy, new behaviors or rituals are additive. While “prescribed” behaviors or rituals are most often developed collaboratively with the client, we want them to (a) directly impact the client’s underlying rules and (b) enhance the individual’s ability to act with social interest and in socially useful ways. To continue with the example above: Therapist: What would you be doing if you were demonstrating your determination not to get angry when provoked? Client: Well, I just wouldn’t do anything. Therapist: Yes, but what would you be doing instead. Client: Smiling at them, I guess. Therapist: As if to say . . . Client: Nice try, but you don’t get me this time. Therapist: Yes, “nice try.” It’s a perfect internal response. Here is a summary of how PACE and BURP can be used in therapy:

Place Table 1 About Here Adlerian Brief Therapy 13 When we consider these two foci together, they form a relationship – intervention continuum that can be displayed as follows: Place Figure 1 About Here While any of the considerations and interventions on the continuum might be used at any time in therapy, purpose and behavioral descriptions tend to be early considerations, and they have a recursive relationship with each other. Similarly, considerations and interventions around awareness, contact, and the understanding and reorientation of underlying rules tend to happen in the middle of therapy. We also try to create or co-create new experiences in therapy as a foundation for reorientation and new behavioral rituals. Such experiences may include experiments or enactments integrated from other models. A Case Example The following session is a typescript of a taped demonstration of Adlerian Brief Therapy conducted at a national convention (Bitter, 2002)—with a signed release by the client. It has been edited for grammar and clarity of content. Names and places have been changed to provide some degree of anonymity.

<strong>Adlerian</strong> <strong>Brief</strong> <strong>Therapy</strong> 12<br />

eliminating alternative positions (Foucault, 1980). Similarly, client symptoms<br />

and life problems are often enacted as rituals, making their power and necessity<br />

seem overwhelming. In <strong>Adlerian</strong> <strong>Brief</strong> <strong>Therapy</strong>, new behaviors or rituals are<br />

additive. While “prescribed” behaviors or rituals are most often developed<br />

collaboratively with the client, we want them to (a) directly impact the client’s<br />

underlying rules and (b) enhance the individual’s ability to act with social<br />

interest and in socially useful ways.<br />

<strong>To</strong> continue with the example above:<br />

Therapist: What would you be doing if you were demonstrating your<br />

determination not to get angry when provoked?<br />

Client: Well, I just wouldn’t do anything.<br />

Therapist: Yes, but what would you be doing instead.<br />

Client: Smiling at them, I guess.<br />

Therapist: As if to say . . .<br />

Client: Nice try, but you don’t get me this time.<br />

Therapist: Yes, “nice try.” It’s a perfect internal response.<br />

Here is a summary of how PACE and BURP can be used in therapy:

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