Systematic Treatment Selection and Prescriptive Psychotherapy: An Integrative Eclectic Approach

Chapter 6 discusses systematic treatment selection (STS) and prescriptive psychotherapy, and covers the approach, applicability and structure, assessment and formulation, processes of change, therapy relationships, methods and techniques, and a case study example.

Multimodal Therapy

Chapter 5 discusses multimodal therapy, and how the multimodal approach provides a framework that facilitates systematic treatment selection in a broad-based, comprehensive, and yet highly focused manner. It covers how it respects science and data-driven findings, and it endeavors to use empirically supported methods when possible. Nevertheless, it recognizes that many issues still fall into the grey area in which artistry and subjective judgment are necessary and tries to fill the void by offering methods that have strong clinical support.

Outcome-Informed Clinical Work

For a field as intent on identifying and codifying the methods of treatment as psychotherapy is, abandoning process in favor of outcome may seem radical indeed. Nevertheless, an entire tradition of using outcome to inform process exists. We begin by exploring the empirical antecedents of an outcome-informed approach to clinical practice. After this review, the development our own work and perspective is presented.

A Primer on Psychotherapy Integration

This chapter explicates the broad context of psychotherapy integration and sets the stage for the subsequent chapters in the volume. This chapter offers a primer on integration: in the dual sense of a primer (soft i) as a small introduction to the subject and of a primer (hard i) as a basecoat or undercoat for the following applications. This chapter begins by describing the converging reasons for the growth of psychotherapy integration, after which it reviewsfour predominant routes to integration. This segues into a brief consideration of the varieties of integration, which includes summaries of recent studies on the prevalence and subtypes of eclectic/integrative therapies. The chapter concludes with a discussion of recurrent obstacles to psychotherapy integration.

A Critical Dialogue on Psychotherapy Integration

Chapter 23 presents a critical dialogue on psychotherapy integration, presented as the closing plenary session of the 19th annual meeting of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) in New York City, and features SEPI’s cofounders in a candid conversation about the purposes, status, and future of psychotherapy integration.

Outcome Research on Psychotherapy Integration

Chapter 22 reviews the existing outcome literature on psychotherapy integration, discusses the difficulties inherent in conducting this research, and suggests future possibilities. It primarily focuses on individual psychotherapy, with a brief review on literature of family, couples, and group modalities. Additionally, most of these treatments are for adults, as very little empirical research exists on integrative psychotherapy therapy for children. Although much of the treatment for children may be eclectic for pragmatic reasons, it is rarely identified as such.

Training in Psychotherapy Integration

Chapter 21 introduces an ideal training model for psychotherapy integration. It then considers training in light of the four principal routes of integration - technical eclecticism, theoretical integration, common factors, and assimilative integration - as the training objectives and sequence will differ somewhat among them. Next, it addresses questions regarding the centrality of personal therapy and the necessity of research training in the preparation of integrative therapists. It reviews integrative supervision, specifically problems in the acquisition of integrative competence and an improved system. It concludes with a discussion of organizational strategies for introducing changes, particularly those promoting psychotherapy integration, into training institutions.

Integrating Spirituality with Psychotherapy

Chapter 19 discusses integrating spirituality with psychotherapy, and covers examples of current directions in integrating spirituality with psychotherapy, followed by a discussion of a number of concerns having to do with such integration. It then presents, illustrates, and evaluates six major paths of integrating spirituality with psychotherapy (acknowledging the spiritual aspects of psychotherapy, working in conjunction with a client’s views, use of spiritual techniques for remediation of behaviorial disorders, facilitating a spiritual approach to living, spiritual formation as a goal in itself, and the use of methods derived from spiritual traditions).

Integrative Psychotherapy of the Anxiety Disorders

Chapter 12 discusses integrative psychotherapy of the anxiety disorders, and covers the integrative approach, a treatment model that attempts to provide an integrative perspective on the nature, development, and maintenance of anxiety disorders, the phases of this treatment model, assessment and case formulation, applicability and structure, processes of change and the therapy relationship, methods and techniques, a case example, empirical research, and future directions.

Cognitive-Behavioral Assimilative Integration

Chapter 11 discusses cognitive-behavioral assimilative integration, and how the beneficial use of what many would consider non-cognitive-behavioral therapy (non-CBT) methods has raised the question of how best to incorporate methods derived from (or consistent with) humanistic, psychodynamic, interpersonal, or systemic approaches into CBT practice. The integrative approach described in this chapter represents the effort to improve the efficacy of CBT via a systematic and theoretically cohesive assimilation of treatment procedures typically associated with other psychotherapy orientations.