By Jose Perez De La Cruz

Eclectic, or integrative psychotherapy means therapy which utilises the many different therapeutic approaches available instead of confining itself to working from just one school of thought i.e. psychoanalysis or behavioural therapy. What we shall examine here is a working method of how the vast number of therapies available, can be used together in a systematic way when treating a patient. The problem which has long plagued the eclectic approach is that otherwise effective psychotherapists seem to use whatever aspect, of whatever psychotherapy takes their fancy at a given moment. In other words, they work on a whim with many parts of many therapies which are which are wholly incompatible with one another and form no cohesive methodology. This brings us to our first important consideration when working integratively with psychotherapy.

Methodology is the key, and many integrative therapists simply disregard it. By methodology, I do not whether the therapy being used is classified as client-centred or whatever; I mean that whatever parts of whatever therapies are being used must be worked into a form which is relevant and makes sense in regard to the needs of a particular patient. Such a working methodology is the first thing that should be set out after the initial interview with a client, an initial interview during which your main aim must be to clearly illicit the exact needs therapeutically of that client. Read the rest of this entry »