Adler University is a private not-for-profit university, with two campuses in North America. The university's flagship campus is in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

, and its satellite campus is located in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. The university also offers online classes and degree programs online for both masters and doctoral students.

History

Adler University is named for

Alfred Adler Alfred Adler ( , ; 7 February 1870 – 28 May 1937) was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. His emphasis on the importance of feelings of belonging, family constellation and birth orde ...

(1870–1937), a physician, psychotherapist, and founder of Adlerian psychology, which is sometimes called individual psychology. He is considered the first community psychologist, because his work pioneered attention to community life, prevention, and population health. Among Adler's advocates and followers was Adler University founder

Rudolf Dreikurs Rudolf Dreikurs (February 8, 1897, ViennaMay 25, 1972, Chicago) was an Austrian psychiatrist and educator who developed psychologist Alfred Adler's system of individual psychology into a pragmatic method for understanding the purposes of repreh ...

(1897–1972), a psychiatrist who immigrated to Chicago in 1937 after Adler's death. Dreikurs lived and worked in Chicago's

Hull House Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located on the Near West Side of the city, Hull House (named after the original house's first owner Cha ...

, and he was instrumental in the child guidance movement in the U.S. In 1952, Dreikurs founded the Institute of Adlerian Psychology that, in 1954, changed its name to the Alfred Adler Institute of Chicago, and in 1991 became known as the Adler School of Professional Psychology, and in 2015 as Adler University. Early instructors and founders of the institute were also Bernard Shulman, Harold Mosak, Bina Rosenberg, and Robert Powers. In 1963, the institute was chartered as a not-for-profit Illinois corporation and approved as a

post-secondary Tertiary education, also referred to as third-level, third-stage or post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank, for example, defines tertiary education as including univers ...

educational provider. A year later, the institute created a group therapy program for those incarcerated at Cook County Jail, a program that was a precursor to the school's later focus on the incarcerated and the formerly incarcerated. In 1972, the institute established its on-campus Dreikurs Psychological Services Center, a community mental health center and training site for students, which was the precursor to today's Adler Community Health Services (ACHS), directed by Dan Barnes. In 1973, the Illinois Office of Education granted the institute the authority to award the Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology. The institute received full accreditation of masters level programs and awarded its first M.A. degrees in 1978. It received doctoral level accreditation in 1987, and awarded its first Psy.D. degrees in 1990. The Psy.D. program was accredited by the American Psychological Association in 1998. (This accreditation has been maintained, but is limited to the Chicago campus.)

Academics

Master and doctoral programs are offered at both the Chicago and Vancouver campuses. In fall 2013, the Vancouver campus began offering a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology—the first traditional Psy.D. program in Canada. Adler University's Chicago campus is accredited by the

Higher Learning Commission The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa ...

and the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

. All of Adler University's masters and doctoral programs offered at the Vancouver campus are offered under the written consent of the British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education, having undergone a quality assessment process and been found to meet the criteria established by the Ministry. Doctoral programs at the university's Vancouver campus are not currently accredited by the

Canadian Psychological Association The Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) is the primary organization representing psychologists throughout Canada. It was organized in 1939 and incorporated under the Canada Corporations Act, Part II, in May 1950. Its objectives are to imp ...

Campuses

In addition to its main campus in downtown Chicago, Adler University also maintains a campus in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Community partnerships

Annually, Adler University students provide over 650,000 hours of community service. Adler University partners with more than 700 agencies to advance community health. Adler Community Health Services (ACHS) provides psychological services to under-served populations through its clinical training programs. ACHS training programs include the Adler Community Mental Health Doctoral Internship in Clinical Psychology as well as psychotherapy and diagnostic assessment externships, also known as clinical practica. The pre-doctoral internship at ACHS is accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) and is a member of the Association of Psychology Post-doctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC). A distinctive feature of Adler's programs, the Community Service Practicum (CSP) is a requirement for all first-year students at the School. The CSP is unique non-clinical experience, meant to expose future practitioners to concepts of social justice and social change, and to instill in them the ethos and the skill set necessary to engage in socially responsible practice.

References

External links