Welcome to The Connection,
NASAP’s Online Newsletter
November 2026 Issue
Dear Fellow Adlerians,
As I write this, I am researching Maryland down-ballot candidates for the upcoming election and wondering what this November’s midterms will portend for the future of the United States, our North American neighbors, and, indeed, the world. It strikes me that social interest and civic responsibility are deeply intwined, with the exercise of our right to vote representing a true expression of Gemeinschaftsgefühl. I believe Adler would agree.
I have read varying accounts of Adler’s political inclinations and activities, with authors reporting that the founder of Individual Psychology was either a confirmed socialist or at least strongly leaned toward European socialism. His wife Raissa, who was far more politically active, supported causes such as women's education, emancipation, reproductive and maternal issues, and women's status within marriage and society. She also associated closely with Vienna’s Russian revolutionary émigré community. The Adlers tragically made the ultimate sacrifice when their eldest daughter, Valentina, was jailed and died in Russia, likely due to Raissa’s involvement with Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky.
In this time when American citizens, our immigrant neighbors, and our international allies are being aggressively persecuted, I encourage the U.S. readers of The Connection to express your social interest and vote by this November 3.
Sincerely,
Ellen Alderton, Editor
President’s Message
Ben Rader, Psy.D.
It Is Our Job to Support the Work of Others
August News from the Office
By Susan Belangee, Ph.D., NASAP Executive Director
Thank you,
Susan
Earn Free Continuing Education Credits
To access the free article, go to the NASAP Thinkific site - https://nasap.thinkific.com/. If you have made an account in Thinkific already, then log in and you will find the article is featured on the front page. If you are new to Thinkific, the directions for making an account are located on the following NASAP website page - https://www.alfredadler.org/thinkific.
Offer to Donate 44 Years of JIP Journals
Bryna Gamson would generously like to donate her collection of NASAP’s Journal of Individual Psychology from Vol. 38, No. 4 (December 1982) to the present (missing Vol. 68, No. 1, 2012). She is especially hoping a library or professor would like to have them. Contact Bryna at ParentEd@comcast.net.
NASAP Sections Update
Education Section
Healing Holistically from the Heart: The Heart Code and Adlerian Psychology
By Dr. Bradley Nelson and Jean Nelson
Adlerian psychology emphasizes a holistic, purpose-driven view of human behavior, helping people recognize their strengths and potential to restore meaning, connection, and purposeful direction in their lives. These same principles guide our work helping people identify and release unseen emotional baggage that can harm their health, relationships, and potential.
At the heart of both Adlerian psychology and our work is the principle of holism. People are integrated beings with our mental, emotional, and physical health deeply intertwined. Emotions are unseen yet powerful forces that shape our thoughts, behaviors, and experiences. They are our body’s response to the world around and within us.
When people experience intense emotions such as grief, fear, shame, or betrayal, these energies may become lodged in the body, damaging their health and relationships long after the events that triggered them have passed. These “trapped emotions,” as we describe them, subtly shape how people perceive the world and themselves. When these emotions are released, people often report feeling like a heavy weight has been lifted, allowing them to embrace life with a renewed sense of joy and freedom.
Adlerian psychology teaches that all behavior is purposeful, even when those purposes are outside conscious awareness. One of the most significant examples we see is what we call the “Heart-Wall”—a subconscious barrier formed during times of emotional distress to shield the heart from further pain. Created by the subconscious as a protective mechanism, Heart-Walls can deepen feelings of loneliness, isolation, and sadness; prevent people from freely giving and receiving love; and sabotage efforts to achieve fulfillment and success.
Our energy-healing practitioners work with clients in person, over the phone, by video-sharing platform, or even via email to help them identify and release trapped emotions and dismantle Heart-Walls. The Adlerian concept of phenomenology—understanding a person’s subjective experience—aligns with our approach, as the way each person experiences and stores emotional energy is shaped by his or her personal history.
We rely on the subconscious mind to help identify and release trapped emotions. This mirrors the Adlerian approach of seeing the world through the client’s perspective and honoring the individual’s internal experience rather than imposing external assumptions.
Alerian psychology also emphasizes soft determinism, the idea that while early experiences influence us, they do not define our future. We have the capacity to choose new paths. We see this capacity each time we help a person release trapped emotions and tear down their Heart-Wall.
Many people carry emotional burdens from childhood or past trauma, often without realizing how these experiences shape their present lives. When these emotional energies are identified and released, people often experience a profound shift. They describe feeling lighter, more open, and more capable of making new choices. Patterns that once felt automatic begin to loosen. This process reflects the Adlerian view that change is always possible. The past may inform us, but it does not confine us.
Finally, both Adlerian psychology and our work highlight the importance of social interest, or a sense of belonging and contribution. Emotional wellbeing largely determines each individual’s ability to connect with others, to give and receive love, and to feel part of a larger community.
The Heart-Wall can interfere significantly with this capacity. Common signs include struggling to trust, communicate openly, or fully engage in relationships. When Heart-Walls are removed, many people report feeling renewed connection with loved ones and their own sense of purpose.
This restoration reflects the essence of social interest. When people open their hearts, they are better able to contribute to others and to experience the fulfillment that comes from meaningful relationships.
In both Adlerian psychology and our work, the ultimate goal is to help people live with greater joy, purpose, and connection. This transformation reflects a shared vision: True well-being comes when people are freed from the weight of their past.
Holistic physician and USA Today bestselling author Bradley Nelson has penned The Emotion Code, The Body Code, and The Heart Code. His wife Jean Nelson is the co-author of The Heart Code and an integral part of the development and sharing of this healing work.
The History of the Adlerian Network
By Susan Pye Brokaw
After I left the Adler Graduate School of Minnesota, where I was a founder and core faculty member, I founded the Adlerian Network in 2016. I did so because I was concerned that although students were well trained in the principles of Adlerian psychology, they struggled with how to apply these principles in their counseling with clients.
The Adlerian Network meets on the first Saturday of each month from 10-12 noon CST on Zoom. We met in person until Covid hit. After transitioning to Zoom, we started attracting people from throughout the United States. We feature presenters who are seasoned Adlerians and who talk about topics involving the application of Adlerian psychology in their work.
A few years ago, we started to offer our brown bag lunch series twice a year in October and April. A speaker gives four presentations on a topic over a four-week period. There is a charge of $40 for the series and all proceeds go to scholarships for individuals who wish to pursue further Adlerian training. Our organization aims to continue with the programs we offer now. We hope we will continue to add attendees who want additional education to enhance their professional skills.
When Care Sounds Like Correction: Practicing Encouragement in Chinese Homes and Classrooms
By Wang Yang
“Are you ready yet? We're going to be late.”
“I can't find my workbook.”
“What were you doing last night? I kept telling you to pack your bag, but you just wouldn't do it.”
“I'm too tired. I don't want to look for it.”
“Go and find it now. You'll be punished again if you're late. I'm only doing this for your own good, but you never listen.”
This is not a carefully reasoned parenting conversation. It is an ordinary morning. time is running out, something is missing, and anxiety fills the room.
The parent is trying to prevent real consequences. The child may be late and face consequences at school; the parent may also be late for work. In that moment, reminders, correction, and urgency feel like responsibility. In many Chinese families, care means anticipating problems: reminding a child what to bring, noticing what remains undone, and pushing the child to improve before consequences become more serious.
The intention is protection. But the child may hear, “You always get things wrong. Without me, you cannot manage yourself.” Even “I'm doing this for your own good” can limit the conversation, because it defines the parent's intention while leaving little room for the child's experience.
Then a familiar cycle begins. The child resists, delays, or answers impatiently to recover some sense of control. The parent sees this as further evidence that the child needs more reminders. The more the parent pushes, the less capable the child feels. The less capable the child appears, the more the parent pushes.
Adlerian psychology helps us see that both parent and child are reaching for belonging and significance. The parent wants to be a responsible caregiver whose guidance protects the child. The child wants to be treated as a person with ideas, dignity, and growing competence. These purposes are not enemies, yet anxiety can make them seem that way.
Encouragement is not simply replacing a harsh sentence with a gentler one. It asks a deeper question: What is my response inviting this child to believe about himself and about our relationship?
In the morning scene, the boundary remains: We must leave on time. But the parent might say, “You can't find it, and we have five minutes. What will you do first? I can help with one step.” Later, when the urgency has passed, they can talk about preparing for the next morning. Responsibility has not disappeared. It has been conveyed, in a manageable form, to the child.
This understanding also shapes how I teach. During a recent sharing activity, several students began speaking at once. Instead of immediately asking for silence, I paused and asked, “What can we do so that we can hear one another?” The students suggested taking turns and listening until each person had finished.
Later, one student began to speak, then stopped. “Mine is the same as hers,” she said. I told her, “You can still share your own thinking. It's okay if it's similar to someone else's.” She thought for a moment and continued.
These are small moments, but their direction matters. My words not only stop or correct behavior. They also invite students to experience themselves as capable members of a group—able to contribute, listen, adjust, and remain included even when uncertain or mistaken.
The hardest part of encouragement is tolerating the adult's anxiety. Correction brings immediate relief: I warned you; I did my duty. Encouragement asks us to support the child's courage even when change is slow and includes setbacks.
This does not mean Chinese parents love their children wrongly. For many, sacrifice, worry, and pointing out problems express care and responsibility. The love need not be rejected, but it may need another way to reach the child. I see your effort. I trust your growing ability. I will stay beside you while you learn.
Perhaps this is the deeper work of encouragement, helping a child believe, “I can learn and find my way. Even when I make mistakes, I do not lose my place in this relationship.” Care then communicates both trust and connection.
Wang Yang is a social-emotional learning teacher working in public schools in Beijing, China and trained in Adlerian psychology.
Sadie “Tee” Dreikurs Discusses Belonging
This historic excerpt comes from the Family Education Section’s Winter 2000 newsletter. The address is by Sadie “Tee” Dreikurs (1900-1996), Rudolf Dreikurs’ wife and a pioneering art therapist and social worker. The Family Education Section hopes you will enjoy this and other historic articles posted on the NASAP website at https://www.alfredadler.org/family-ed-section-newsletters.
“Adlerian Psychology is a creative way of life. Man as a social being has one desire, and that is to belong. Without a sense of embeddedness, first in his family, then his community, and into the world, he is less than human.... Now, the sense of belonging is a matter of choice. It starts in early childhood in his first creative experiences of serving his physical environment and his personal environment, and he makes a choice, he makes a decision, and he forms a plan in his mind, which he follows thereafter for the rest of his life.
Nowadays, we talk about lifestyle, which is a very common expression. But life-style in the Adlerian meaning is a pattern of life. We, in our early childhood, look around and observe and we act and take certain actions and draw certain conclusions and decide on how we can find a place in the world. This is done through the family atmosphere which the parents set; it is done through the child’s comparing himself with his siblings; it is done...[by] the manner in which he can get the services or the comforts or the things that he wants, and then he forms a pattern which he follows for the rest of his life. He gets impressions, and certain things work for him and certain things do not work for him, and each decision that he makes about how he can function in life limits the next decision, so that, by the time he is three or four years old, he has a pretty good blueprint of what he thinks life is and what he thinks is his place in it, and how he can function in it.
All this is not necessarily an accurate conclusion. No, I should say, it rarely is an accurate conclusion. It’s a “biased apperception” as Adler called it. We are biased because we do not see the whole picture: we only record in our memories the things that work for us and the things that give us comfort, and the things that we want. So that, this plan, this life plan, this pattern, influences what we do for the rest of our lives. (circa 1975)
The RESILIENCE COUNSELING & TRAINING CENTER
In Collaboration with the North American Society of Adlerian Psychology
Presents
The Evolution of Counseling Practice:
Integrating Resilience Research & the Wellness-Promoting Models
February 5-7, 2027
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Join us for this unique professional development experience focusing on the continuing evolution and further development of Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology.
Broaden and deepen your knowledge and skills of Adlerian practice! Expand your therapeutic toolkit by blending complementary approaches within an Adlerian framework enabling more responsive, creative, and effective counseling experiences. Learn about EMDR-informed techniques, internal family systems, early memory reorientation, and cognitive-behavioral counseling practices. Learn to expand.
LIVE DEMONSTRATIONS & EXPERIENTIAL PRACTICE!
Expand upon Adler’s concept of “social embeddedness” via:
· Parent-Child-School Triad perspective in the assessment and development of collaborative interventions.
· Learn about Project LIFT, an innovative and highly effective approach for working with adolescents experiencing substance abuse and delinquency.
INSTRUCTORS:
William Nicoll, Ph.D., & Monica Nicoll, Ph.D., LCMHC Resilience Counseling and Training Center,
Bob Zaccheo, LMHC, Project LIFT CEO & Founder
Recommended For ALL Counselors & Mental Health Professionals
Earn 15 CE Credits
LOCATION: The Bostonian Hotel in the heart of Boston’s historic district!
Low Group Room Rates: $139.00 p/king - $159.00 2dbl bd. For reservations, Contact the Bostonian Hotel
For further information or REGISTRATION FORM:
Go To: www.resiliencecounselingcenter.com