Join the Unified Psychotherapy Movement

Have you ever looked out at the field of psychotherapy and been a bit overwhelmed by all the models, perspectives, and ways of conceptualizing and intervening? Perhaps as a student of psychotherapy you felt each of the major perspectives had value and you wished that there was a way to bring greater order to the field? Or maybe you have noticed that the practice of psychotherapy often seems quite disconnected from the science of human psychology and wondered if better bridges between the two could be built?

If these characterizations have a familiar ring to you, we invite you to consider joining the Unified Psychotherapy Movement (UPM). The UPM consists of a group of scholars and practitioners of psychotherapy who are concerned that the field is in conceptual disarray, meaning that it is a fragmented jungle of approaches that are taught and exist in a way that is potentially very confusing to the student and practitioner alike. Consider, for example, that major paradigms such as cognitive behavioral and psychodynamic therapy largely function as different “tribes” that offer adherents different languages, insights, and goals that then compete with one another for dominance. Yet if one steps back and views traditional cognitive behavioral perspectives as attempting to foster adaptive regulation of distressing patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting, whereas psychodynamic perspectives tend to focus on achieving deeper insights into one’s identity, defenses and relationships (which in turn will allow for adaptive growth), then one can see that these approaches are not necessarily antithetical and that they may in fact be quite complementary (see here for more).

Of course, these are only two major schools of psychotherapy and there are many others, such as emotion-focused, narrative, family systems, mindfulness-based interventions, and so forth. But this observation raises the question: Why are there so many different approaches to psychotherapy and why are they so often defined against one another? One major reason is that they are attached to different foundational assumptions and models about human psychology, personality, psychopathology, and therapeutic change processes. Why is this so? One primary reason is that the field of human psychology is itself lacking a coherent framework that would allow for different systems of psychotherapy to be related and coordinated in a systematic way. So the question then becomes: What is the broad framework of understanding that practitioners of various forms of psychotherapy are operating from? It is here that the UPM is focused.

In late September of 2015, a conference was held at Cape Cod, MA that brought together leading scholars in the UPM to discuss its focus and its future. The conference participants arrived at a consensus statement, which stated that the Unified Psychotherapy Movement seeks to enhance practitioners’ capacity to draw from the diversity of approaches, processes, techniques, and research findings by providing an evolving, comprehensive, and holistic framework.

It was further agreed that steps need to be taken to lay the foundation for a movement toward a more unified psychotherapy. One such step will be the development of a unified psychotherapy listserv, which has been set up and will be formally launched in late January of 2016. If you are interested in joining this group, please contact Dr. Jeff Harris at JHarris18@mail.twu.edu. If you have questions, feel free to contact me at henriqgx@jmu.edu.

How do you know if you would like to join the UPM? Here are some FAQs that might help you understand the movement better:

What is the point of the UPM?

The point is to engage in the development of holistic or meta-theoretical frameworks and perspectives that allow for more order and organization to be brought to the field of psychotherapy. This perspective is needed because the field is fragmented and many paradigms are defined against one another. We need to understand why this is so and whether this is necessary or is it a consequence of the perspectives themselves being limited or shortsighted. As a group, we generally see each of the major perspectives having something of value to offer and that they are unnecessarily defined against one another because we have lacked an effective, meta-theoretical view of the human condition and human change processes.

Who are some of the major players in the UPM?

Drs. Jeffrey Magnavita and Jack Anchin are pioneers in the field. They have authored many articles on unified psychotherapy and recently the book Unifying Psychotherapy: Principles, Methods and Evidence from Clinical Science. These individuals also founded The Journal of Unified Psychotherapy and Clinical Science. Dr. Anchin is a clinical associate professor (core faculty) in Medaille College’s doctoral program in clinical psychology and an adjunct professor of psychology at the University at Buffalo/SUNY. Jeffrey Magnavita is the leading figure in the Unified Psychotherapy Project and Psychotherapedia (launched with the help of Steve Sobleman).

Dr. Jeff Harris is the founder of Multitheoretical Psychotherapy and is author of the book Integrative Multitheoretical Psychotherapy. Dr. Harris is an associate professor of psychology at Texas Woman’s University, where he teaches students how to operate from a multitheoretical perspective.

Dr. Andre Marquis is one of the founding members of the Integral Institute and has authored several works exploring why Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory provides a valuable meta-theoretical framework for understanding psychopathology and psychotherapy. Dr. Marquis is an associate professor at the University of Rochester where he is using, teaching and researching an integral approach to psychotherapy.

Dr. Gregg Henriques has developed a novel approach to unifying the science of psychology, which he argues can be used to provide the framework for the assimilation and integration of the major paradigms in psychotherapy. He is author of the blog Theory of Knowledge on Psychology today and the book A New Unified Theory of Psychology. He is a professor at James Madison University, where he directs a doctoral program in Health Service Psychology that is organized around integrative and unified approaches to the field. Drs. Kenneth Critchfield and Craig Shealy are also associated with the movement and teach in JMU’s program. Thus, JMU’s program provides a model of training for how students of psychotherapy can learn the unified approach.

What is the relationship between the UPM and the psychotherapy integration movement as embodied by the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration?

There is much overlap between the forces that gave rise to the psychotherapy integration movement and the UPM. It was in the 1980s that an increasing number of leading scholars and practitioners of psychotherapy became interested in considering the ways that the major single schools (e.g., cognitive behavioral, humanistic, psychodynamic) might inform one another in a synergistic way. The psychotherapy integration movement gave rise to four discernable angles on integration: 1) Common Factors, which emphasized the general, healing relational factors that were common across the perspectives; 2) Technical Eclecticism, which emphasized drawing from empirically supported techniques from across the perspectives; 3) Assimilative Integration, which emphasized understanding the concepts from other approaches through the lens of one’s major perspective; and 4) Theoretical Integration, which attempted to combined theoretical concepts to create new ways of thinking about personality, psychopathology and psychotherapy.

The UPM can be thought of as a fifth kind of psychotherapy integration and it is the most ambitious. It seeks unifying frameworks that transcend the separate competing paradigms and offer a holistic picture of the field.

Does the UPM offer a single framework or several different frameworks for unifying psychotherapy?

The founders of the movement are exploring this question in depth, and it was the central point of discussion at the Cape Cod meeting. On the one hand, the frameworks were developed independently by different scholars and definitely have different elements. For example, Wilber’s Integral Theory (the focus of Andre Marquis’ work) is different than Henriques’ Tree of Knowledge System, which in turn is somewhat different than the nested triangles that organize Magnavita and Anchin’s formulation. The question that we are exploring is the following: To what extent are these maps different representations of the same broad territory or are they fundamentally contradictory? Our current sense is the former; they largely are different ways of representing the overall big picture. That said, more work is needed to explore the overlap and differences of the models so that we can be clear on what are differences of emphasis and perspective, and what might be fundamental differences in claims about reality.

What does it mean to identify as unified psychotherapist?

The basic position that supporters of the UPM endorse is found in the old parable of the blind men and the elephant, where six blind men happen upon an elephant and each grabs a portion of the elephant and makes a claim about its nature. Our position is that each of the major paradigms (i.e., bio-psychiatric, humanistic, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, family systems) is grabbing ahold of a key and legitimate piece of the human condition. What is missing is a comprehensive picture of the elephant. The absence of the larger perspective results in much unnecessary fragmentation, confusion, and the pieces being defined against one another in problematic ways. This state of the field impedes how students are taught about psychotherapy, the relationship between science and practice, and the ease with which the gifts of psychotherapy are given away to the public.

What does the future of the field look like from a UPM perspective?

As effective holistic models are developed that provide clear models for assessing and intervening, a shift will occur in how people think about psychotherapy. With a common language and conceptual framework, future trainees in psychotherapy will not be trained only or even separately in CBT, dynamic or client-centered approaches. Instead, they will be given models about how humans are built and provided ways to assess and intervene in the different systems of psychological adaptation. To provide just one example, Henriques has developed Character Adaptation Systems Theory, which divides psychological functioning into five systems of adaptation: 1) the habit system; 2) the experiential/emotional system; 3) the attachment/relationship system; 4) the defensive system; and 5) the justification system. These systems of adaptation correspond directly to what historically have been the major perspectives in individual psychotherapy (the behavioral tradition corresponds to the habit system, the humanistic/experiential tradition corresponds to the experiential system; the psychodynamic tradition corresponds to the relationship and defensive systems; and the cognitive tradition corresponds to the justification system). This kind of map shows how we can readily transcend the paradigms into a much more accessible holistic view of human adaptation.

What can you do to get involved?

Here are some things you can do to get involved: 1) Read up on the movement by familiarizing yourself with the works listed below; 2) Contact myself at henriqgx@jmu.edu or Dr. Jeff Harris at JHarris18@mail.twu.edu and let us know you want to join the list; 3) Like this blog and make a comment; 4) Ask your professors or other senior therapists if they have heard of the unified psychotherapy movement and what they think of it. Share with us your thoughts, comments and suggestions.

Additional Materials:

Some blogs on the unified point of view:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201305/my-approac…

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201205/psychother…

The Unified Psychotherapy Project Homepage:

https://www.unifiedpsychotherapyproject.org/

The primary home journal:

The Journal of Unified Psychotherapy and Clinical Science

http://www.unifiedpsychotherapyproject.org/Psychotherapy/Journal/ojs-2…

Books on the unified approach:

Unifying Psychotherapy by Jeffrey Magnavita and Jack Anchin

A New Unified Theory of Psychology by Gregg Henriques

Integrative Multitheoretical Psychotherapy by Jeff Harris

The Integral Intake by Andre Marquis