ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the evolution of psychotherapy—of single-system approaches, to the emergence of eclecticism and integration, and unified approaches to psychotherapy. Since the founding of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration in 1983, five different integrative approaches—each with numerous different subtypes—have been developed and are well-established: eclecticism, common factors, theoretical integration, assimilative integration, and metatheoretical integration these will be described. Eclecticism, a common form of integration, includes technical eclecticism and systematic eclecticism. The eclectic practitioner attempts to provide a specifically tailored treatment for each individual and her specific issues. Theoretical integration has been characterized as both the most important and sophisticated integrative approach as well as overly ambitious; the latter is asserted because most theoretical approaches contain philosophical assumptions that are incompatible with other approaches. The unified psychotherapy movement has emerged from the psychotherapy integration movement, but the former bears a number of characteristics that differentiate it from integration.
