Classical Adlerians are keenly aware of affect, and follow Adler's suggestion to "stand in the shoes" of the client and "see and feel" what the client is experiencing. Empathy is essential for making a connection, which then enables us to provide encouragement and gradual insight. The client must feel cared for as well as understood. Adler's style of treatment was the opposite of the traditional psychoanalytic "blank screen." His warm, friendly, and diplomatic manner suggested the attitude of a "kindly old grandmother." Indeed, Adler suggested that we must treat our adult clients "with the gentleness (and sensitivity) that a mother would show an infant."
I don't believe that Socrates "withheld his emotional self" in his approach. It was essential that the participants in a Socratic exchange share a friendly regard for each other. He called his art of mutual inquiry "intellectual midwifery," helping a person bring an idea to birth. The Socratic method has been adapted, by several fields, from its original intent and style. Philosophy, education, law, and psychotherapy have created variations that suit their purposes. Sophia de Vries, my mentor, mastered the art of Socratic questioning in the discipline of psychotherapy. In an atmosphere of equality, warmth, and respect, she demonstrated how a diplomatic series of skillful questions could help clients think clearly and deeply about an issue. I have never seen this approach provoke "shame" in a client. (Contrast this with the aggressive adaptation of the Socratic method in law schools and courtrooms.) After studying de Vries' technique for nearly thirty years, I have identified over fifty Socratic strategies that are integral to Classical Adlerian psychotherapy.
Our "theory of affect" is consistent with Adler's principle of the unity and self-consistency of the personality. Within a teleological perspective, we believe that most of the client's thinking, feeling, emotion, images, fantasies, memories, dreams, daydreams, behavior, and even many physical symptoms (organ dialect) lead in one major direction, usually toward a single, unconscious, fictional, final goal. Consequently, we help the client discover how nearly every expression, including affects, have a common (usually hidden) ultimate purpose. We see only one style of life (in contrast to many "scripts"), repeated at various scales (like a fractal image), evidenced in tiny details (like a hologram), and with minor variations of a single theme (like a piece of music).
Any approach that relies solely or mainly on cognitive interventions would be as limited as an approach that relies solely or mainly on affective or behavioral interventions. The Classical Adlerian approach permits the therapist to be creative with a wide range of strategies. The keys to choosing the right one at the right time lies in understanding the style of life of the client, as well as the stages of treatment (See "Theory and Practice of Classical Adlerian Psychotherapy" at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hstein/theoprac/htm ). Classical Adlerians may use the Socratic method for cognitive change, eidetic and guided imagery for affective change, role-playing for behavioral change, and invent new techniques for each case, but all of the strategies are used in a direction that will reduce inferiority feelings, correct private logic, increase the feeling of community, and change the style of life and fictional final goal of the client.