Integrative Psychotherapy
I have read many books, I have read a few books. So what?
What is Integrative Psychotherapy?
Integrative Psychotherapy begins by recognizing the individual as a whole, a whole that often encompasses many contradictory elements. The synthesis and coexistence of all these elements and characteristics collectively shape a person.
Integrative Psychotherapy incorporates many different approaches, based on the idea that not all need to be perfectly compatible to coexist. "[...] As a path of specialized training within the humanistic tradition, it adopts as its basic premise the philosophical position that there cannot be a single truth." Thus, rather than viewing different psychotherapeutic approaches as obstacles, they are welcomed for enriching the complexity and richness of each individual. The intention is to include with awareness, meaning that just as contradictory forces operate simultaneously within a person, so do contradictory theories.
Below are some remarks about various psychotherapeutic approaches that interest me. In many respects, they complement and enrich each other, while in others, they conflict and disagree sharply.
As a Integrative Psychotherapist, I do not specialize in any of the following approaches. They are presented here for general information.
Person-Centered Therapy & Rogers
Person-centered psychotherapeutic approaches emphasize the importance of the relationship between the therapist and the client. Carl Rogers is one of the founders of these approaches. He highlighted how therapeutic the relationship itself can be, with a particular focus on the therapist's acceptance and care towards the client, aiming to create a climate of safety that is inherently therapeutic.
Rogers asserted that beyond techniques, tools, studies, and theoretical knowledge, the most crucial aspect of a therapeutic approach is that the relationship should be grounded in the genuine love of the therapist for their fellow human being. This claim, while theoretically simplistic, is quite complex to achieve. As Colin Feltham and Ian Horton state, "Rogers articulated the necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic personality change," such as "empathic understanding, authenticity, and unconditional acceptance."
The core principles of C.R. Rogers' theory are always in the back of my mind as a foundation in my meetings with clients: the interest, care, and warmth that arise from empathy and acceptance.
"The curious Paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change". CR Rogers
Gestalt
"I do my thing and you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations and you're not in this world to live up to mine. You are you and I am I and if by chance we find each other it's beautiful. If not, it can't be helped." Fritz Perls
Gestalt Therapy is a person-centered approach that focuses on the therapeutic relationship and the here-and-now. Unlike Carl Rogers, Gestalt Therapy emphasizes different and sometimes opposing aspects. It values contact, including conflict, and encourages a more dynamic therapist-client relationship.
Gestalt Therapy insists on the here-and-now, using it as a means to explore the past. It believes that unresolved and forgotten issues from the past are still present in the here-and-now. Since the present moment is the only time we truly experience, it is also the only time where experiential therapy can occur.
Gestalt Therapy emphasizes the field—the space between the organism and the environment, such as between one person and another. This intermediate space, through which interactions occur or do not occur, is where Gestalt Therapy believes all pathologies manifest. In other words, the primary therapeutic tool of this approach is the relationship between the therapist and the client and everything that happens between them during their encounter.
What Gestalt Therapy introduces into the therapeutic relationship, unlike Rogers, is conflict. According to Gestalt Therapy, conflict is part of the authentic meeting between two people and a healthy conflict that is extremely therapeutic, as it helps the client gain awareness of themselves and their boundaries.
"Gestalt Therapy views the person as the 'whole' of their mind, body, emotions, and spirit during their contact and creative adaptation with their surrounding environment. Gestalt Therapy focuses on this contact space between the organism and the environment, as it believes that in this contact space, there is either flow and thus health or blockage and thus disruption of flow and dysfunction."
Gestalt Therapy has taught me to be authentic in my encounters with clients. To insist on the uniqueness and individuality of each therapeutic relationship, as any obstacle that arises is the key to its resolution.
Existentialism
Existential therapy is most closely related to philosophy among all the other therapeutic approaches. It works on the four fundamental existential concerns of human beings, believing that these are the starting points for everything: death, freedom, existential loneliness, and the absence of meaning. This approach does not rely on specific techniques or models of human character or development. Instead, it emphasizes that the therapist needs to be aware of these four issues both for the client and for themselves. The more the therapist can endure the harshness of this awareness, the better they can help the client to endure it as well and thus be free to choose how to live.
"The goal is not to cure people's pathology, which is a useless and misleading concept, but to help them reconcile with the contradictions and paradoxes of their daily existence... Vitality is based on the acceptance of both positive and negative elements. Life cannot exist without death, nor life without illness. Gradual confrontation with these concerns is a necessary condition for real existence."
I always maintain a connection with these four existential concerns during sessions, sometimes more explicitly and other times less explicitly, depending on the theme we are working on. I view these four concerns (death, freedom, existential loneliness, and the absence of meaning) as the four central gears for how we navigate our lives.
"Though the physicality of death destroys us, the idea of death may save us." Irvin Yalom
Psychosynthesis & Assagioli
"Without forgiveness life is governed by... an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation". Roberto Assagioli
Spirituality and the way it manifests in psychotherapy have significant importance. Among the early proponents who emphasized spirituality is R. Assagioli in his Psychosynthesis approach. R. Assagioli developed a theory that includes an analysis of human character by integrating the innate need of every person to evolve. He introduced the concept of the pure "Self" at our core. "The Self is the essential existence of the person, distinct but not separate from all the contents of experience."*
A very useful aspect of Psychosynthesis is the concept of the shadow, which refers to parts of ourselves that are beyond our awareness. These are parts that influence or even govern us as long as they remain outside our awareness of their existence.
Subpersonalities are also a tool that R. Assagioli developed through which he recognized the multifaceted nature of human existence. Subpersonalities, in their simplified form, are the different aspects of ourselves that often desire different things simultaneously, creating tension and turmoil, especially when they remain in obscurity.
These are some of the tools and methods for recognizing human existence that I draw from my study of R. Assagioli's Psychosynthesis. It enriches other approaches by emphasizing the wealth that each person carries within themselves and the different ways we can approach each case, depending on what seems most functional.
Transactional Analysis
""Games" people play are a compromise between intimacy and keeping intimacy away". Eric Berne
Eric Berne, through Transactional Analysis, adds his own understanding of the human mind and the way we interact internally with ourselves, as well as externally with others. Some of these techniques include the division of the Self into Parent, Adult, and Child, the Life Script, and the Games that people play.
The Parent, Adult, and Child (P.A.C.) refers to the division of the Self into Parent, Adult, and Child. Through this division, we learn how we address ourselves and communicate with our environment. By focusing on the here-and-now and observing the process of internal or external dialogues that occur in seconds, we gradually begin to gain awareness of how we are led to emotional shifts and cognitive decisions that previously seemed to happen automatically without our awareness.
The Life Script refers to how we pre-determine our adult life based on a script we wrote in the early years of our lives. As long as this remains unconscious, it governs us, but through psychotherapy, we gain awareness of this script and the power we have to change it. “...We use the concept of the Life Script to understand how people create problems for themselves, as well as how they plan to resolve them.”*
According to E. Berne, “A game is a repetitive sequence of transactions in which both parties end up experiencing contrivances.”* In other words, the Games people play are a mechanism through which they unconsciously relate to each other. As long as this mechanism remains unconscious, it prevents a person from connecting with authenticity and sincerity, causing pain to the other. Once again, the key is to gain awareness of the game we are playing so that we can gain the power to intervene in it.
Ultimately, for therapy sessions to be effective, the most crucial factor is the personal relationship we build during psychotherapy. We can only know this after we dare to meet—each meeting involves a risk, as it includes a risk of exposure. Whether we match or not, it’s okay between us, as we will learn something about ourselves.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
*1. Gilbert Maria & Orlans Vanja. Synthetic therapy, 100 key points & techniques, P. Asimakis Publications, p.20
*2. . Feltham Colin & Horton Ian. Counseling & Psychotherapy Guide, P. Asimakis Publications, p.382
*3. Giannakourou Zoi. Gestalt with Zoi: A holistic approach that leads to completeness, P. Asimakis Publications, p.15
*4. Feltham, Colin & Horton, Ian. Counseling & Psychotherapy Guide, P. Asimakis Publications p.366
*5. Firman John & Gila Ann. Psychosynthesis, the psychology of the Spirit, P. Asimakis Publications p.52
*6. Stewart Ian & Joines Vann. Transactional Analysis Today: A New Introduction to Transactional Analysis, P. Asimakis Publications, p.27
*7. Stewart Ian & Joines Vann. Transactional Analysis Today: A New Introduction to Transactional Analysis, P. Asimakis Publications, p.29
*8. Yalom, Irvin D. Existential Psychotherapy, Basic Books editions
All of the above are the result of personal study and experience. Under no circumstances do they correspond to a complete presentation of the aforementioned approaches.