Applying Adlerian Therapy to Adverse Childhood Experiences in University Students

Childhood experiences have been documented to influence later life experience of individuals in terms of their intra-and-interpersonal wellbeing. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events that occur before a child gets to the age of 18 as described by the Centre for Disease Control and Protection (CDC). The purpose of the study was to explore the lived experiences, and meanings that university students attached to their ACEs and their effect on their intrapersonal and interpersonal conflict on campus adjustment. Homogeneous purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to sample 15 students from three public universities in the Greater Accra Region. This study aligned to the interpretivist paradigm which informed the use of the hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative design. Using interview and focus groups, findings of the study highlighted some meanings that the participants ascribed to their ACEs as neglect and abuse from parents, indecision and humiliation. It was also found out that these experiences shaped participants intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts, making them have trust issues, suicidal ideation and difficulty in making friends. Although these students have adopted either positive or negative coping strategies to adjust to their campus life, it is recommended that university students be screened by university counsellors to identify those at risk for early intervention.