Integrative Therapy

Integrative therapy is a forward-looking form of psychotherapy that uses aspects from different therapeutic tools and approaches, tailored to fit the needs of the individual client. Psychotherapy integration can be defined as an attempt to look beyond the confines of single-school approaches to see what can be learned from other perspectives (Stricker, 1994).

Characterized by an openness to various ways of integrating diverse theories and techniques, Integrative Therapy combines elements drawn from different schools of psychological theory and research, integrative therapy becomes a more flexible and inclusive approach to treatment, and can be more effective than traditional, singular forms of psychotherapy.

An integrative therapeutic approach can be used to treat any number of psychological problems and disorders, including depression, anxiety, and personality disorders. The therapist matches evidence-based treatments to each client and unique presentation.

Integrative therapy can be more inclusive of the client than traditional forms of therapy, where often the client plays a less active role in treatment.

Integrative psychotherapists consider the individual’s characteristics, preferences, needs, physical abilities, spiritual beliefs, resources, and motivation level and tailor their therapeutic approach accordingly. Different approaches may be used consecutively throughout different stages of the therapeutic process or they may be used as a single combined form of therapy throughout. The overarching philosophy of an integrative therapy approach is that the person is central, rather than the model or the diagnosis (if there is one).

Mounting research evidence into therapeutic effectiveness suggests that theoretical orientation and therapeutic model account for only about 8 per cent of the variation. This has come to be known as the ‘Dodo effect’ (Wampold, 2001). Moreover, differences in effectiveness between therapists are larger than differences between therapeutic modalities. Despite current trends towards privileging ‘empirically supported’ treatments, a lot of researchers and theorists have made the point that it is not possible to separate out the ‘techniques’ used from the person using them (Hemmings, 2008).

Since its early days as the ‘talking cure’, the body of knowledge on therapeutic practice has grown dramatically, giving rise to many different models within three broad approaches categorised as: humanistic, psychodynamic, and cognitive (or cognitive-behavioural)-based. Given how young the field of psychotherapy is, until recently, the similarities between the different therapeutic approaches were not emphasized as much as their differences.

By taking such findings into consideration, integrative therapy has looked at the space between the approaches, the connecting tissue and not the chasms and dichotomies. Thus, it encourages a constructive dialogue between modalities as a way of benefiting both patients/clients and the field via:

-Challenging the orthodoxy of any single approach

-Inviting reflection on the dangers of dogmatism: privileging certain therapeutic concepts/ideas and ‘setting any approach in concrete’

-Proposing an open attitude of aliveness and democratisation that feels like a suitable response to the complexity of human suffering/distress, circumstances, context, as well as the ever-evolving nature of knowledge.

The field of integrative psychotherapy has also been greatly influenced in recent years by significant developments within the three major therapeutic modalities, such as:

-A shift in psychoanalytic/psychodynamic thinking away from the narratives of ‘isolated mind’ and ‘intra-psychic’ accounts of understanding of behaviour and ‘pathology’, towards a more ‘inter-psychic’ and ‘intersubjective’ understanding of experience in what has been described as the ‘relational turn’.

-CBT approaches encompassing humanistic and psychodynamic ideas (e.g. role of unconscious, such as in meta-cognitions or ‘schemas’).

-Humanistic approaches embracing psychodynamic and CBT concepts and ideas.

-A truly wide acceptance of the influence of social, cultural, economic and other systems on human experience for all ‘big three’ approaches.

The body of knowledge on therapeutic practice has grown dramatically, giving rise to many different models within three broad approaches categorised as: humanistic, psychodynamic, and cognitive (or cognitive-behavioural) based. Until recently, the similarities between the different therapeutic approaches were not emphasised as much as their differences.

Integrative Therapy looks at the connection between other therapeutic approaches, by:

• Challenging the orthodoxy of any single approach
• Inviting reflection on the dangers of dogmatism: privileging certain therapeutic concepts and ideas and ‘setting any approach in concrete’
• Proposing an open attitude of aliveness and democratisation that feels like a suitable response to the complexity of human suffering or distress, circumstances, context, as well as the ever-evolving nature of knowledge.

The field of integrative psychotherapy has also been greatly influenced in recent years by significant developments within the three major therapeutic modalities, such as:

• A shift in psychoanalytic and psychodynamic thinking away from the narratives of ‘isolated mind’ and ‘intra-psychic’ accounts of understanding of behaviour and ‘pathology’, towards a more ‘inter-psychic’ and ‘intersubjective’ understanding of experience in what has been described as the ‘relational turn’.
• CBT approaches encompassing humanistic and psychodynamic ideas (e.g. role of unconscious, such as in meta-cognitions or ‘schemas’).
• Humanistic approaches embracing psychodynamic and CBT concepts and ideas.
• A wide acceptance of the influence of social, cultural, economic, and other systems on human experience for all ‘big three’ approaches.