Integrative/Eclectic Therapy

Jeff E. Brooks-Harris

Eclecticism, or integration, is now the most common theoretical orientation among counselors and psychotherapists in the United States. This has not always been the case. In the mid-20th century, three dominant theories of counseling and psychotherapy were often viewed as distinct and incompatible: psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and humanism. Less contradictory forms of therapy evolved during the second half of the century, and counselors began to combine strategies from diverse theories in an eclectic manner. Early eclecticism was often criticized for its lack of an underlying theory and the absence of formal guidelines to help counselors make decisions. In response, more formal models of integrative psychotherapy were developed, and today four general routes to integration are recognized: (1) common factors, (2) technical eclecticism, (3) theoretical integration, and (4) assimilative integration. In this entry, formal models of integration are described that exemplify each of these general routes. The common factors route to Jerome ...

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