| The goal of this paper was to begin the process of a collaborative dialogue between Adlerian Therapy and Gestalt Therapy in the service of clients so that each approach can increase their understanding of the other approach, can better understand what each has to offer to the other, and how to go about being "critical collaborators" (Mansager, 2001) with individual and couple therapy. Critical collaborators here is used to mean two approaches which engage in a respectful attempt to understand each other and look critically at each approach to see what can be incorporated or shared in the service of their ultimate concern, helping clients move toward wellness.;This dissertation came out of the discovery that there was a gap in the literature regarding such critical collaboration between Adlerian Therapy and Gestalt Therapy. The interest was founded in the belief that Adlerian Therapy's broad framework that looks at direction of movement, lifestyle, and social interest incorporating past, present and future might serve to guide Gestalt Therapy's therapeutic process and interventions. Conversely, Gestalt Therapy's present-centered focus and experiential implementation of Gestalt Psychology, Existentialism, Freud, and Eastern Religion might serve to guide Adlerian Therapy's in-session experiential interventions.;The methodology of this dissertation involved the following steps: (1) identifying source material to be reviewed; (2) identifying type of information to be extracted from source material; (3) searching source material for relevant information; (4) summarizing information; (5) identifying interest expressed between Adlerian and Gestalt therapies; (6) finding a case study used by both Gestalt and Adlerian therapies; (7) comparing and contrasting findings; (8) identifying possible enhancements; and (9) illustrating with case study example. The type of information extracted from the literature identified in step two which was compared and contrasted in step seven was limited to the following: nature of human person, principal motives, causes of illness, what is illness, personality, theory of change, goal of therapy, assessment, relationship to DSM-IV-TR, therapeutic process for individuals and couples to cover situation of one or more individuals in therapy, and what it is to be an Adlerian or Gestaltist.;This was a theory-based, qualitative, and discovery-oriented dissertation with the aim of informing Adlerians and Gestaltists about each other and leading to hypotheses regarding what each approach can offer the other and how this could be implemented. |
