Integrative therapy is a model of psychotherapy that draws from different clinical and theoretical approaches to address your unique psychological and emotional needs. The therapist combines different clinical tools and techniques to tailor therapy to your specific needs.
Every individual who decides to take up therapy is a unique human being, with a unique life journey. Every individual brings to therapy its own personal history, its specific set of experiences, and its particular issues or difficulties. Integrative therapy aims to fit its approach around the unique individual rather than the other way around (to fit the individual in a model). Integrative therapy is a flexible, open-minded psychotherapeutic approach that integrates different therapy styles depending on your needs and your circumstances.
An example of an integrative approach is the combination of practical approaches such as CBT and of exploratory approaches such as Psychodynamic therapy. For example, if you struggle with chronic anxiety an integrative approach could combine CBT and Psychodynamic therapy to enable relief of symptoms and lasting change. CBT could be employed for a few sessions to help you manage anxiety in healthier ways and address unhelpful behaviour to help you be more in control of your feelings and thoughts. Once this is achieved, a Psychodynamic perspective could be used to help you to gain a deeper understanding of the causes of your present difficulties current and illuminate the unconscious process that have contributed to chronic emotional difficulties.
Integrative therapy strives to offer a bespoke approach to your emotional difficulties and requires openness on both parts of the therapist and the client to work collaboratively to find out the most effective approach that respect deeply the uniqueness of the client and his/her individual life struggle.
Integrative therapy is often medium-term to long-term depending on the particular needs and circumstances of the client.
Dr Maria Pournara, Chartered Psychologist, has considerable experience offering integrative therapy online. If you would like to know more or schedule a session.