Jere Truer, MA, LICSW, is an alumnus as well as an associate faculty member of AGS.  He graduated from what was then the Alfred Adler Institute of Chicago/Minnesota in 1989, the last year that AGS was under the aegis of what is now the Adler School of Professional Psychology.  Jere grew up in Willmar, MN, the only child of two civil servants.  His father was a postal worker and his mother worked in county government clerical work before opening her own business as an abstractor.  Contributing to one's community was instilled in him by a tightly knit elder community of Scandinavian emigres wherein the Lutheran church figured as a cornerstone.  His grandmother was deserted by her husband during the Great Depression and so his mother's family had to pull together to overcome great hardship. 

Jere's early heroes were folksingers like Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie, and poets like William Butler Yeats and William Blake.  His early ambitions were to be a minister, a folksinger, a poet, a storyteller, and a social change activist.  Those interests abide in him still.  He took his first job in the mental health field as a psychiatric assistant.  It fit with his orientation but he had no idea it would become a lifelong career.  Now, after 33 years, including 18 in private practice, Jere believes that by practicing as an Adlerian psychotherapist and instructor he has the proper container to include all of his passions.

Jere teaches Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced Internship classes, as well as Advanced Supervision.  He also teaches Comparative Theories.  In the Friday Workshop series, he continues to teach a class called Incorporating Alternative Spiritual Techniques Into Psychotherapy.  He has studied Eastern and Western Mysticism for 40 years which he has integrated into his work with clients.  His specialty areas also include sexual trauma and sexual addiction, grief and loss, codependency, and the effects of mental illness/addiction on family members.

Jere is married to Lee Truer, also a therapist who offices next door to him in Uptown Minneapolis.  He also lives in Uptown and has a married daughter living in Brooklyn.  His interests beyond those stated above are biking, kayaking, playing music (piano, voice, guitar, drums, harmonica, and mandolin), composing music, writing poetry, storytelling, foreign and independent films, eating well, drinking very strong coffee, and telling jokes. 

Classes at AGS: 
591/592 Beginning Internship
593/594 Intermediate Internship
597 Advanced Internship
598 Advanced Supervision
513 Comparative Theories
560 Treatment Planning

Professional Affiliations:
Minnesota Jung Association 
Minnesota Psychoanalytic Society

Workshops: 
Building Community and Leadership Through Storytelling and Drumming

Research Interests: 
Consciousness
Body-mind therapies
Complementary Medicine

Writing
Contributed a chapter about drum-making and self-help.
Johnson, Julie Tallard. The Thundering Years: Rituals and Sacred Wisdom for Teens, Pema Publications, 1999

What Brought You to Adlerian Psychology? 
In the mid-1970’s, Mr. Truer attended several workshops led by Adlerians Mim Pew and Bob Powers, among others.  “I was captivated by the open, fresh way of seeing people that did not seem arcane, dusty, and moldy,” he says. “It seemed practical and do-able.”  A decade later he read, The Courage to be Imperfect and thought, “This (AGS) is the grad school for me.  I’ve been imperfect ever since.”

Strengths as an Instructor: 
“I respect my students and I have respect for the background and experience each one brings to bear as they continue to develop their therapy skills and career.  I believe I listen well and will admit when I do not know something.  I always try to find resources for people and to help them develop their own resourcefulness.  I use humor a lot and draw on my hobby as a storyteller to illustrate my points.”

Contact Information:
Home: 612-721-8079
Work:  612-824-9745
Fax:  612-827-8916
Email: Truer02@iphouse.com

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