The Current Status of Psychotherapy Integration

Abstract

After reviewing the excellent and varied contributions to this Handbook, it is possible to integrate these chapters and to reach some superordinate conclusions. However, let us first begin by drawing distinctions between psychotherapy integration, integrative psychotherapy, and an eclectic approach to psychotherapy. An eclectic approach is one in which the therapist chooses interventions because they work, without any theoretical basis for, or understanding of, or necessary concern with, the reason for using the technique other than the one of efficacy. Psychotherapy integration attends to the relationship between theory and technique. Integrative psychotherapy is presented as a completed, pure-form approach to treatment, whereas psychotherapy integration is a process rather than a school of psychotherapy.