About Us

ADLER was formed with the express purpose of offering degrees and other advanced professional education in the mental health and wellbeing professions to students from Ontario and around the world. Adlerian graduate-level professional education has been a presence in Ontario since 1978. When the Ontario government enacted the Post-secondary Education Choice and Excellence Act, 2000, members of the ADLER community recognized the opportunity, for the first time in Ontario, to establish an independent degree-granting graduate professional institution that could meet the professional needs of Ontario students. Although it is an independent organization, ADLER maintains collegial relations with other Adlerian institutions such as Adler Graduate School in Minnesota and Adler University in Chicago and Vancouver.

Although ADLER’s educational orientation is rooted in Adlerian philosophy, all major approaches and theories that contribute to mental health and well-being are represented in ADLER Curricula. Our experience and professional expertise suggest that a firm grounding in a broad-based theory, such as Adlerian Philosophy, provides a foundation for developing high-level cognitive and emotional capacity for comparing and evaluating other theories.

ADLER bases its philosophical assumptions, Core Values and Curriculum Guiding Principles on IndividualPsychology, a comprehensive science-of-living system originated and developed by the well-known Austrian psychiatrist, Alfred Adler (1870-1937) who promoted basic values of community and social justice.

The science of the mind can only have for its proper goal the understanding of human nature by every human being, and through its use, brings peace to every human soul.

–Alfred Adler, 1870-1937

Our Stylized ‘A’ logo is the Greek sign for Delta, symbolizing positive change. Each side of the triangle represents one of our three focus areas; Psychology and Psychotherapy, Coaching and Leadership, and Continuing Education and Community Service. All three areas of focus have a similar aim: to help people move towards positive change.

Our mission	Our values	Our goals
Our mission is to practice what we teach…in all our relations….	ADLER supports the right of everyone to live free of oppression and deprivation.  What we want for ourselves, we want for all.	Our academic goal is to utilize humanistic and evidence-based principles of change… to empower ourselves and others in our families, communities, and the world by transforming Teaching into learning Careers into callings, Theory into practice and vice-versa.

Individual Psychology, or Adlerian Psychology, emphasizes the uniqueness of every individual and stresses the individual’s social embeddedness. At the core of the School’s approach to mental health and well-being, and to training professionals in these fields is a philosophical assumption about the dynamics of being human that draws on the work of Adler.

We are all caught in a paradoxical tension between being ourselves, the centre and creator of our own phenomenological universe, and fulfilling the demands of a social community without which we cannot survive. On the one hand, we are all unique human beings with a strong need and desire to express ourselves fully in our life and work. On the other hand, we are subjected to pushes and pulls in a web of relationships as a member of multiple systems and an irretrievable part of humanity. Our creativity in resolving this seeming paradox between self-expression and embeddedness determines, to a significant extent, our level of success and fulfillment and, according to Adler, our mental health. The key to resolving the paradox lies in using our unique selves to make a contribution to and with others. Adler calls this key ‘social interest.’

Our goal at ADLER is to develop professionals whose work will be thoroughly grounded in the intention to help clients creatively resolve and transcend this paradox between self-expression and embeddedness – that is, to develop social interest. Even when that work is narrowly focused on a specific issue or area, we believe that operating from such a higher-level intention will enhance both healing and possibilities for growth and development.

ADLER’s collegial environment means students form a collaborative community with their professors. Our teaching faculty are all practitioners who bring real-life experience into the classroom as well as the mutually respectful learning process that characterizes the ADLER educational philosophy. Mentorship is provided by every instructor, and students are expected to become reflective scholar-practitioners. This process requires a safe and supportive context, one in which our students’ strengths and capabilities are acknowledged and nurtured.

In my experiences with both the Transitional Equivalency and Master of Psychology programs, I have found the faculty at ADLER to be warm, engaging, and always willing to help. Returning to school after several years in the professional field was a challenge, as was getting my head around student life! From the first phone call, I made to the school I have encountered people who have helped me make the transition a seamless one. My professors have been engaging and passionate about their own work, which translates into their work in the classroom and in turn enhanced my excitement to enter the field of psychology. Adlerian philosophy embraces community and learning, which is inherently apparent the moment you walk through the doors of ADLER.

Cydney Lebovitz — MPsy Graduate 2015, Current PsyD Student

AGPS gives more than just an excellent masters program delivered by highly qualified practising professionals and experts. It offers a diversity of approaches and programs that makes the experience there feel tailor-made. The balance of academic excellence and practical skills built my confidence, while the environment of collaboration and mutual respect from all faculty ensured that I felt supported throughout and beyond the program. I was almost sorry to leave!

Sarah Hallett MPsy Graduate 2015, Current PsyD Student