What Works in Counseling, Psychotherapy, and Psychoanalysis: A Theory of Therapeutic Action and Patient Change
Many years ago, a prominent psychologist asserted that “there is nothing so practical as a good theory.” I could not agree more! I honor my patients by basing moment-to-moment engagements with them as best I can on well-articulated, established, and peer reviewed theories that emerge from psychological scientists and applied clinicians who have gathered and analyzed quantitative and qualitative data. My integrationist perspective should not be considered as merely eclectic, in effect throwing up against the wall any intervention that seems like it would work because somewhere I read that a therapist reported success with it! Rather, because human behavior is so incredibly complex, and subject to so many unseen effects of socialization, I want to have at my disposal multiple viewpoints that can help patients more efficiently and effectively re-write the inner narratives of their lives, to use the discipline of scientific thinking and applied research to help them learn more about themselves, their relational world, and their perceived place in that world to live in a wiser and more intentional manner.
