ABSTRACT
Chapter 10 addresses one of the most challenging and, consequently, potentially most satisfying areas of counseling practice: couples counseling. Adler wrote that love is both an antecedent and product of an intimate relationship. Couples may or may not be of the same gender or legally partnered. They may have only met a short time or lived intimately for years. Children and in-laws may or may not live with them. Love is an incredibly compelling and at times seemingly irrational human emotion. Dreikurs noted that “unbelievable as it sounds, everyone gets from his mate just the treatment that he unconsciously expected in the beginning!” Assessing a couple’s readiness for entering or continuing the most satisfying or most discouraging enterprise of their present lives is a challenge to helper and couples alike. As a consequence, the sociological perspective on the uncoupling process is explained in relation to its usefulness for assessment of the likely success of the counseling process. Both the philosophical and psychological foundations of Adlerian practice are presented. Then a step-by-step case example is presented including specific techniques and methods potentially useful in facilitating the goals of counseling.
