Personal approaches to psychotherapy integration

Abstract

Growing interest in the process of psychotherapy integration has been evident from both a theoretical and practice perspective. This research aimed to investigate how psychotherapists think about and practice psychotherapy integration. Five experienced therapists participated in in-depth qualitative interviews on three occasions. In the first interview, each therapist's espoused theory of practice was explored. In the second interview, an interpersonal process recall methodology was used to examine therapists’ practice and reflections on practice using a video-taped therapy session. For the third interview, the therapists produced symbolic creative representations of their approach to integration, and these were explored and reflected on. The data were analysed using multiple qualitative methods focusing particularly on the comparison between theoretical espousals and practice, and on how integration was conceptualised and practiced. A number of different approaches to psychotherapy integration were identified. The significance of ‘local’ approaches to psychotherapy integration is discussed.

Keywords:

• Interpersonal process recall
• models of integration
• psychotherapy integration
• qualitative research
• theory