Cross-racial psychotherapy: What the therapists say.

41 White and 37 Black psychotherapists with an average of 8.2 yrs' experience completed a 41-item questionnaire regarding psychotherapy with same- and opposite-race clients. White Ss did not experience racial issues in psychotherapy with the same salience that Black Ss did, yet they reported higher levels of subjective distress in cross-racial treatment. This distress focused on negative attitudes of clients, therapists' feelings of not being able to help or confront opposite race clients, or being oversolicitous or too distant with opposite-race clients. Both therapist groups reported equivalent abilities to empathize with opposite-race clients, but Blacks and Whites differed on a number of questions of racial attitudes and stereotyping. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How patients coach their therapists in psychotherapy.

Examines coaching behavior in the therapeutic relationship from the perspective of control mastery theory. The expanded concept of coaching presented here views the patient as actively engaged throughout therapy in prompting, instructing, and educating the therapist to relevant aspects of the patient's plan for disconfirming pathogenic beliefs and attaining treatment goals. Three therapy situations encountered when coaching is prominent are identified and illustrated with clinical vignettes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reasons therapists give for refusing to participate in psychotherapy process research.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reasons why a majority of practitioners refused to participate in a field-based psychotherapy process research project and to learn from them what would be required to enlist their future participation in this type of research. In a sample of 109 psychologists, the main reasons for refusing to participate included insufficient time, unwillingness to audiotape clients, and clients deemed inappropriate for the research. In terms of what would be required to facilitate their participation in future process research, the most common responses were more time and no recording of the therapy sessions. The implications for process research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The future of psychotherapy integration.

Discusses the outlook for and potential contributions of the integration movement (IMV) in psychotherapy. Interest in the IMV is likely to continue to increase. Though it is doubtful that the IMV will provide the field with a grand theoretical integration, it is likely that integrative efforts can lead to some consensus on intervention strategies associated with certain clinical problems. This can already be observed with regard to certain disorders, such as pathological grief. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Narrative psychology and psychotherapy integration.

Bruner (1986) and Sarbin (1986) have argued that people make sense of living by actively constructing stories containing characters moving toward goals through time. Both content and structure in these narratives are understood as promoting either flexible, adaptive functioning or psychological distress. Theories of psychotherapy can also be seen as stories about human function and dysfunction that incorporate many of the same ideas about reality, human nature and change that are found in clients' personal narratives. This narrative perspective, then, suggests that the therapeutic alliance might be improved and an integrative use of different theories might be made by selecting therapeutic approaches and interventions based on the degree of similarity between the nature of the client's life story and the story of human functioning incorporated in the theory. A classification of theories, examples of classification of client stories and some issues of implementation of this integrative proposal are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assimilative integration in constructivist psychotherapy.

Assimilative integration is discussed in relationship to constructivist psychotherapy. Keeping in mind the assimilative integrationist view that it is important to provide a coherent justification when importing therapy techniques across theoretical orientations, the utilization of three techniques is discussed from a constructivist perspective-using relational countertransference, disputing irrational beliefs, and self-monitoring. The notion of meaning-based practice (MBP) is introduced as a unifying rationale for incorporating nonconstructivist techniques into constructivist therapeutic practice. Examples from a therapy case in which using relational countertransference, disputing irrational beliefs, and self-monitoring were assimilated into a constructivist perspective are described and analyzed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal pathways in psychotherapy integration.

This article traces the pathways that led the author to his current integrative perspective on psychotherapy. Such perspective is described as an attempt to cope with repeated confrontations with the complexity of human functioning, as revealed by the seductiveness of major intellectual traditions, the untamable nature of clinical reality, and the challenge of unexpected empirical findings. The article also outlines the author's current and future integrative efforts, both in terms of training and research. Recommendations for the future of the integration movement, as well as the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integrations, are also suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Observations on the training of therapists in time-limited dynamic psychotherapy.

Suggests that "manualized training" is most effective at increasing adherence to the technical procedures characterizing the treatment under scrutiny. There is minimal evidence that other skills associated with therapeutic competence are acquired or enhanced to the extent found with technical adherence. Drawing on findings from a study of manual-guided training of therapists in the techniques of brief therapy (H. H. Strupp and J. L. Binder, 1984), the author offers recommendations for improving therapy training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integrating an emotion-focused approach to treatment into psychotherapy integration.

A truly integrative approach to treatment needs to combine methods of working with affect, cognition, and behavior, but established principles of affective change are sorely missing in the literature. Emotion theory and research suggests that emotion awareness, regulation, and transformation are 3 major principles of emotional change. In addition to these principles, 3 general factors that help guide integrative intervention in their use are discussed. Intervention should be guided by the source of the affect involved in the client's distress (amygdala- or prefrontal cortex-generated emotion), the type of affect dysregulation involved (too much or too little emotion), and the type of change process to be used (quick change to improve coping or longer change to restructure character). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recommendations for training therapists based on manuals for psychotherapy research.

Discusses the author's treatment manual for supportive-expressive psychoanalytic psychotherapy written to train therapists in this form of treatment. The author addresses the relevance of psychiatric severity for technique, the importance of the therapeutic alliance, the need to make reliable dynamic formulations of the central relationship pattern, the need to focus on convergence of the central relationship pattern with the interpretations, and the need to pay attention to the maintenance of benefits. Typical resistances by trainees to teaching efforts are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A second look at psychotherapy integration.

Psychotherapy integration has been a formal approach since 1983 when the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) was first formed. Initial concerns included defining the E in SEPI and understanding the relationship among theory, technique, and experience. More recent concerns have included the categorization of approaches to psychotherapy integration, the role of the client, and the relationship of psychotherapy integration to evidence-based practice. The E represents a continuing commitment to exploration, but the categories of integration have become fuzzy. Evidence-based practice is a central concern, but evidence must be defined broadly and the role of the client and of the relationship must be emphasized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Classics in the history of psychotherapy integration.

Introduces an article by Harry Stack Sullivan (see record 2011-11862-005), and the commentary by Golan Shahar (see record 2011-11862-006) that accompanies it. These are part of the ongoing series that has been featured in this journal in which important antecedent contributions to the foundations of psychotherapy integration are discussed within a contemporary framework. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the road to psychotherapy integration: A student's journey.

This article presents the integrative journey of a doctoral student across two continents. The development and aspirations of a student integrationist from the "get go" are outlined, and some thoughts on the future of the integration movement are offered. The role of self-direction, integrative role models, flexible training environments, and the support of the integrative community in one's integrative development are highlighted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Status of sexuality in contemporary psychoanalytic psychotherapy as reported by therapists.

Contemporary psychoanalytic literature places less emphasis than its classical counterpart on sexuality in explaining human motivation. However, up until now no methodical research has been done on the status of sexuality in clinical work. We report on a qualitative interview study that examined the status of sexuality in psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy (n = 10). We studied the extent to which therapists used sexual factors to explain patient behavior: To what extent were sexual themes dominant in the treatment, what importance did therapists attach to them, and what factors affected their place in therapy? The data gathered from the investigation were related to theoretical thinking on the marginalization of sexuality in psychoanalytic theory and practice. On the basis of the investigation, we describe four factors that affect the status of sexual themes in therapy: the extent of the belief in the centrality of sexuality in human motivation, the level of expressiveness of therapy, the narrowing of the concept of sexuality and the separation between sexuality and intimacy, and the tendency to avoid sexual issues because of the discomfort their discussion causes to patient or therapist. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Wish and overgeneralization model for psychotherapy integration.

This article introduces a clinical Wish and Overgeneralization (W&O) Model for dynamic, cognitive and narrative procedures, supported by a metasynthetic study linking cognitive overgeneralization and psychodynamic transference and determining it to be the antithesis of wish – a Luborsky (1988a) transference component. The model emphasizes symptoms and patient core themes: The therapist interprets the conflict between wish and overgeneralization, indicating how it confirms the overgeneralization and sabotages the wish. He helps the patient identify unique outcomes (White & Epston, 1990) for formulation of positive self-statements (Meichenbaum, 1994, 1985, 1977) and proposes an alternative narrative based on a coherent experience. This integrative therapy thus combines insight-oriented and coping strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A heuristic path to psychotherapy integration: One early European development.

In the 1930s, the author accepted Freud's view that neurotic symptoms, dreams, and parapraxes were not chaotic brain activities but socially motivated structures. However, Freud did not pursue his social-psychological insight and was sidetracked by his individualistic metapsychology. The author made this next step, inspired by some psychoanalytic dissidents and the Prague philosophy of science, moving toward an interpersonal and small-group-system concept. The next decisive step to integration, enabled by the analysis of the intrapsychic-interpersonal fallacy, was the unifying concept of group schema, conceptualizing an individual's mental life as a group process. Simultaneously, a clinical system propelled by efficiency and cost effectiveness emerged in both Czechoslovakia and Canada, consisting of successive steps from a psychotherapeutic community to individual, group, and family therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The future of psychotherapy integration: A roundtable.

This article provides a compilation of forecasts on the future of psychotherapy integration from 22 prominent figures in the integration movement. Contributors succinctly addressed questions on desirable practice, research, theoretical, and training directions for the movement. Contributors also responded to the question, What would you like the field of psychotherapy integration to look like in 25 years? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory processes in psychotherapy: Implications for integration.

This article discusses aspects of memory, such as encoding processes, source misattribution, and postevent suggestions, which may potentially distort memories. Some of these memory distortions may result from therapist actions and create false memories. The possible role of hypnotic ability in memory distortions is discussed, and implications for integrative psychotherapeutic practice are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unification beyond eclecticism and integration: Integral psychotherapy.

This article suggests that a unifying meta-paradigm of psychotherapy may be presently available in integral psychotherapy. Integral theory's all-quadrant, all-level (AQAL) model systematically, coherently, and comprehensively includes and unifies the existing single-theories and their associated interventions in such a way that they complement, rather than contradict, one another. An integrally informed approach to psychotherapy continually reminds us to conceptualize patients and utilize practices from multiple perspectives. The AQAL model thus operates like self-scanning software that readily alerts us as to whether we are engaging the methods and techniques that will make our treatment approaches comprehensive and optimally therapeutic for each individual. Recognizing that multiple theories and techniques are important in the integral forest of psychotherapeutic practice, integral therapists do not devalue any of the existing approaches, but rather emphasize the need to acknowledge and attend to as many dimensions of patients' being-in-the-world as possible. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)