Unification beyond eclecticism and integration: Integral psychotherapy.

Abstract

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) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)