In 1920 he began teaching psychology courses at the People’s Institute in Vienna, and as educational

reform became the city’s rallying cry, he established several child guidance clinics where he
applied Individual Psychology to treating children with behavioral problems. Viennese state schools
were soon linked to Adler’s child guidance centers so that teachers could consult on how best to work
with problem children. Parents were included in the consultations, and demand eventually arose for
Adler’s participation in monthly lectures to newly established parent associations. His family-systems
approach was not only successful but also remarkably innovative at a time when other psychological
approaches focused on individuals—primarily adults—and generally attributed their problems to
insuperable human drives. Adler’s child guidance centers were influential in the later emergence of
family therapy.