ABSTRACT
Writing this book has provided us with an opportunity to review our own thinking and practices and the ways in which these have evolved in the courses that we manage and the students that we train and supervise. Hollanders (2007), re¯ecting on trends within the movement of integration, sets out two different philosophical positions. First, there is what he terms the modernist/ positivist strand which has focused on making use of the various common elements that make for effectiveness in psychotherapy and a parallel interest in combining these into a system with its own structure. The positivistic underpinnings point to a quest for `truth' within the context of the `reality' of presenting distress of various kinds. In contrast, he posits the postmodern/ constructionist position which eschews any grand narrative, in either the context of what constitutes the fully functioning human being or the precise response that should be provided in terms of a psychotherapeutic approach. He then goes on to outline some of the operational strands to which we have earlier referred, notably the focus on technical eclecticism, theoretical integration, common factors and the assimilative and accommodative approaches to integration. In terms of the possible permutations between the two philosophical strands and the various operational modes, we see ourselves as working with the recognition of a pluralistic approach that seeks to engage with what it means to be human, to attempt to understand the complexity of the profession in which we are deeply engaged, and to recognize that we are unlikely to come up with psychotherapeutic answers that will apply in all situations or for all presenting dif®culties. In the training courses that we run we provide what we believe to be leading-edge ideas and offer students the opportunity of joining with us in the exploration of an approach that is based in a humanistic set of values, a collaborative energy, and a commitment to attempting to
has been
