Integrative/Eclectic Therapy

Common Factors

The common factors route to integration identifies core ingredients that most forms of psychotherapy share. The advantage of common factors is the emphasis on therapeutic actions that have been demonstrated to be effective. The disadvantage is that common factors may overlook specific techniques that have been developed within particular theories.

Jerome Frank and Julia Frank analyzed cross-cultural approaches to healing and identified the following common factors: (1) an emotionally charged, confiding relationship with a helping person; (2) a healing setting; (3) a rational, conceptual scheme, or myth that provides a plausible explanation for the client's symptoms; and (4) a ritual or procedure that requires the active participation of client and therapist and that both believe to be the means of restoring the client's health. The analysis concluded that the active ingredients in psychotherapy are not unique or new but have been used by healers around the world for many centuries. Research has demonstrated the importance of the therapeutic alliance as well as other common factors.

Scott Miller and his colleagues have described a contemporary common factors approach that ensures that clients experience the kind of changes they desire. This approach is based on research demonstrating common factors related to the client's role in extratherapeutic change, the therapeutic relationship, and expectancies for change. Miller emphasized the importance of working within the client's frame of reference as the defining “theory” for psychotherapy, in order to support active participation in shared goals. The therapeutic alliance is strengthened when counselor and client come to a consensus on the methods of treatment and share an emotional bond. There is also ongoing attention to the client's experience of the therapeutic relationship and active attempts to address problems in the relationship when they arise.

Technical Eclecticism

Technical eclecticism is designed to improve the therapist's ability to select the best treatment for the person and the problem. This route to integration is guided by empirical data on the efficacy of different methods. The advantage of technical eclecticism is that it encourages the use of diverse strategies without being hindered by theoretical differences. A disadvantage is the lack of a clear conceptual framework describing how techniques drawn from divergent theories fit together.

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