Psychotherapy Integration Unit
2: Common Factors
INFORMATION FROM
STRICKER, G. (2011). PSYCHOTHERAPY
INTEGRATION. WASHINGTON, DC:
AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL
ASSOCIATION.
Outline
 History of Psychotherapy Integration
 Contemporary Integration
History of Psychotherapy & Theoretical Integration
 Freud
 Stated “there are many ways and means of practicing
psychotherapy. All that lead to recovery are good” (Freud,
1905/1953)
 Identified common factors of client expectation and the central
role of the therapist’s personality
 French (1933)
 Identified similarities between psychoanalysis and Pavlovian
conditioning
 His ideas were not well received at the time
History of Psychotherapy & Theoretical Integration
 Rosenzweig (1936)
 Pointed out commonalities in all psychotherapies
 Dodo bird effect – “Everyone has won”
 Alexander & French (1946)
 Corrective emotional experience –the client re-experiences
previously difficult relationships in the relationship with the
counselor, and can experience those difficulties in new ways.
This happens in all psychotherapies
 Cyclical nature of insight leading to change and change leading
to insight
 These ideas were also not well received at the time
History of Psychotherapy & Theoretical Integration
 Donnard & Miller (1950)
 Wrote about psychoanalytic concepts in learning terms
 Bridged a gap between two previously very different theories
 Considered somewhat controversial, and not well received by
current community
First Comprehensive Common Factors Work
 Frank & Frank (1961)
 Identified many commonalities across a vast arrange of change
processes
 Culturally comprehensive work
 Initial list of common factors:
Expectancy for change
 Arousal of hope
 Emotional arousal
 Encouragement of change outside of therapy
 Encouragement of self-understanding through interpretations
 Corrective emotional experiences

Two Approaches to Psychotherapy
 London (1964) suggested that all kinds of
psychotherapies could be grouped into one of two
approaches

Action-Oriented
Encourage the client to take action to change behavior
 Example: Behavior Therapy


Insight-Oriented
Seek to discuss matters of concern to promote understanding
 Example: Psychoanalytic Approaches

 Integration of these two approaches provides the
most effective and longest lasting psychotherapeutic
change
Historical Types of Integration
 Understanding two theories by merging or translating
the language of one into the language of the other
(Dollard & Miller, 1950)
 Lazarus (1976) – Multimodal Therapy


An example of technical eclecticism
BASIC-ID
Behavior
 Affect
 Sensation
 Imagery
 Cognition
 Interpersonal Functioning
 Drugs/Biology

Historical Types of Integration
 Beck (1979) – Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
 Combined aspects of cognitive therapy and behavioral therapy
 Contemporary Era of Psychotherapy Integration was
marked by the publication of Wachtel’s (1977)
Psychoanalysis and Behavior Therapy
Contemporary Era of Psychotherapy Integration
 Wachtel - All change in every therapy was a cyclical
process
 Groups & Resources for Psychotherapy Integration
were created

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

Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration
Journal of Psychotherapy Integration
Handbook of Psychotherapy Integration
Comprehensive Handbook of Psychotherapy Integration
Contemporary Era of Psychotherapy Integration
 Clinicians and Researches started creating different
approaches to integrating aspects of many
psychotherapies
 Various types of integrated treatments have been
developed



Transtheoretical approach – Levels of Change that apply to all
psychotherapies
Dialectical Behavior Therapy – Integrates Eastern and
Western approaches to therapy
Client Directed therapy
Contemporary Approaches to Integration
Four Approaches:
 Common Factors
 Technical Integration
 Theoretical Integration
 Assimilative Integration
Common Factors
 Aspects of Psychotherapy that are present in all
approaches to treatment
 Students -- (Refer to ongoing slides for The
Heart and Soul of Change, which focuses on
common factors)
Technical Integration
 Most simple form of integration
 Use of techniques drawn from several different
approaches




Also known as technical eclecticism
Sometimes seen as a “hodgepodge” of various techniques
thrown together
Better when techniques are pulled together through a
systematic basis for the combination of techniques
Techniques should compliment each other and be flexible to
match different client needs
Theoretical Integration
 Most difficult type of integration
 Blending of different approaches to psychotherapy
 Should produce a “grand unified theory”
 All contradictions between theories must be addressed
 Examples:
Cyclical Psychodynamics
 Cognitive-analytic therapy
 Behavioral Psychotherapy

Assimilative Integration
 Most recently developed approach to integration
 A solid theoretical approach is already established
and different techniques are integrated in from other
theories
 Requires a theoretical meaning for each integrated
technique
 An example will be further explained next
chapter