Adlerian Psychotherapy: A Resource for Practitioners and Students

I (LJM) am in the privileged and uncomfortable position of reviewing Adlerian Psychotherapy (2017) by Carlson and Englar-Carlson. An excellent resource, it accomplished the authors' goal to provide "a comprehensive review of modern Adlerian psychotherapy" (p. 9). Shortly after the book was released, Dr. Jon Carlson passed away—thus, my ambivalence about how to critique this work.

Following the structure of the other APA books in the Theories of Psychotherapy series, the seven chapters cover history, basic theory, two in-depth client conceptualizations (including lifestyle summaries) and many key Adlerian interventions to demonstrate the therapy process. The evaluation chapter summarizes research and evidence-based practice. In one of the final chapters, the authors solicited feedback from Adlerian experts to suggest future theory and practice development. Readers will have access to one version of a key Adlerian intervention, the Lifestyle Questionnaire Inventory in the appendix, as well as a glossary of key terms and suggested readings.

The authors could have connected many of the tactics listed more routinely with the specific case conceptualizations. At times, the authors gave other clinical examples in describing these interventions to the reader but failed to associate the strategies to the fully developed case conceptualizations.

But what does the future practitioner think? Since Jon spent his life mentoring students and Matt currently inspires the next generation, here is a student's perspective of this book and the previous APA published book, Adlerian Therapy: Theory and Practice (Carlson, Watts, & Maniacci, 2006).

________

I (DV) think Adlerian Psychotherapy provided an accessible introductory foundation. By consistently weaving in ideas and research developed and furthered by other Adlerians, there is a notion of extending ourselves beyond Adler which impressed me. There was a transparency and realness that I have not often experienced in foundational psychology books. The authors demonstrated a key Adlerian tenet of encouragement by critiquing the theory's shortcomings and what can be done by students to improve it.

The organization of this book provides a nice progressive flow for new learners. It's direct, to the point, and supported by up-to-date research. I connected with the case examples, the strong cultural considerations and applications, and the list of resources. I was left with some questions, though: How do Adlerians view and treat specific types of psychopathology? How do Adlerians compensate given the need for more evidence-based research? Why does this glossary not have more important Adlerian terms like teleology or Weldbilt? Perhaps one book can't do it all, but I want more case studies of different modalities. Last, what about the legacies of Dreikurs and Mosak?

I found Carlson, Watts, and Maniacci's 2006 work to be more technical and naturally required the reader to have a fundamental and rudimentary knowledge of psychology and psychotherapy. Without this knowledge, there may be slight difficulty with synthesizing and conceptualizing Adlerian theory into contemporary practice as well as with multiple different therapy modalities. Carlson and Englar-Carlson's (2017) book is straightforward, succinct, and provides the fundamental blueprint in which it defines Adlerian therapy, its philosophies, and techniques. Meanwhile Carlson, Watts, and Maniacci's (2006) work elevates Adlerian theory to how a clinician can effectively apply it to their existing clients. Nonetheless, both are fine works, and I would recommend reading Carlson and Englar-Carlson's (2017) book first to learn the basics and then to Carlson, Watts, and Maniacci's (2006) for the next steps of Adlerian psychotherapeutic practice.