Goals of counseling may include changing a lifestyle, confronting superiority, and cultivating social interests. These are typical goals in

• A. Transactional Analysis
• B. Gestalt Therapy
• C. Rational-Emotive Therapy
• D. Adlerian Therapy

Answer: (D)

Adlerian therapy centers on how a person’s lifestyle—a unique, organized pattern of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors—shapes his or her actions. A core aim is to address feelings of inferiority and the drive toward superiority, which can show up as striving to outdo others or seek control. At the same time, Adlerian therapy places strong emphasis on social interest or community feeling—the sense of belonging and contributing to the welfare of others. Because of these focus areas, changing a lifestyle to be more constructive, confronting unhealthy superiority striving, and cultivating social interests are hallmark goals of Adlerian therapy. Other approaches emphasize different constructs (for example, ego states in transactional analysis, present-mocused awareness in gestalt, or disputing irrational beliefs in rational-emotive therapy), so the described goals fit Adlerian therapy best.