Assimilative Psychotherapy Integration

Assimilative psychotherapy integration, or assimilative integration, is a mode of conducting psychotherapy or counseling in which a technique, concept, or perspective is incorporated into one’s home or preferred therapeutic approach from another form of therapy. One might, for example, incorporate systematic desensitization or social skills training— that is, cognitive-behavioral techniques—into a psychodynamic or person-centered therapy, or one could include in cognitive-behavioral therapy special attention to the therapeutic relationship as described in client-centered therapy. Assimilative integration is one of four major types of psychotherapy integration or eclecticism, the others being theoretical integration, common factors, and technical eclecticism. It recognizes that although most therapists are trained in, and practice from within, one theoretical model, as they gain experience they are likely to include features of another approach ...