A case study of the challenges for an integrative practitioner learning a new psychological therapy

Byrne, Angela, Salmon, Peter ORCID: 0000-0001-6450-5209 and Fisher, Peter ORCID: 0000-0002-7388-720X (2018) A case study of the challenges for an integrative practitioner learning a new psychological therapy. COUNSELLING & PSYCHOTHERAPY RESEARCH, 18 (4). pp. 369-376.

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Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Many psychotherapy practitioners draw from several psychotherapeutic models in an effort to maximise the help they can give to individual patients. Such “integrative” practice is promoted by training that typically encompasses multiple models, but might impair practitioners’ ability to learn any single approach proficiently.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Aims</jats:title><jats:p>One way to identify the influence of integrative practice on therapists’ ability to learn a new approach is by examining the challenges that arise when a psychotherapist, previously socialised into the integrative approach, tries to learn a new single approach. Here we describe the experience of the first author, a clinical psychologist being supervised by the last author, to make the transition from an integrative way of working to a single approach.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Method</jats:title><jats:p>In a single case of post‐qualification training, we aimed to identify the influence of the integrative approach to clinical practice by analysing the challenges that arose when one experienced clinical psychologist was supervised with the aim to reach competence in an unfamiliar psychotherapeutic model: metacognitive therapy. The present paper is based on the experience of the training period, documented contemporaneously by the supervisee and supervisor and analysed subsequently in discussion amongst all authors.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>The challenges included learning to adhere to the model consistently, resisting previous habits of engaging with the content of patients’ distress, dismantling beliefs about the nature and importance of therapeutic relationship, and learning not to interpret patient improvement as indicating therapeutic competence.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>These challenges reflect fundamental weaknesses of the integrative approach that characterise current psychotherapy training in the <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">USA</jats:styled-content> and more generally and highlight implications for how training and supervision might be strengthened to ensure psychotherapists’ competence.</jats:p></jats:sec>

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	integrative approach, metacognitive therapy, psychotherapy, supervision
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	10 Jul 2018 09:53
Last Modified:	18 Sep 2023 14:49
DOI:	10.1002/capr.12185
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3023387