what an integrative therapist is

To be ‘integrative’ means taking separate things and combining them. Does this mean if you tell an integrative therapist you feel like your life is falling apart, they’ll sit you down and tell you to pull yourself together?

Absolutely not! No genuine, qualified therapeutic counsellor would ever be so crass, brutal and directive. An integrative therapist incorporates techniques and theories from different therapeutic approaches to tailor treatment to the individual needs of a client. This approach combines elements from various psychological theories to create a more flexible and personalised therapeutic process.

Come again? In plain English, please? Okay. There are different kinds of therapy. Person-centred, Gestalt, cognitive-behavioural (CBT) and more. If you’re interested in learning about them, the British Association for Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP) has an A-Z of therapeutic approaches. You can search for a therapist on the same page. Or approach me directly for a chat to find out if we might be able to work together. I’d never take offence if the answer was no. Neither would anyone else I know in the profession.

It’s your money, your time, your needs. There’s a baseline of high-quality standards and ethical practice you should always expect, whatever choices you make when it comes to therapy. That’s true of face-to-face in-person counselling, telephone counselling and Zoom- or Teams-based video counselling.

Does opting for an integrative therapist mean you get more than if you chose, say, a person-centred or CBT practitioner? You might think so – the sense of having access to the many rather than just one – but that isn’t true at all. You’ll always be getting expertise and the basics of respect, care, good listening skills, no judgement and insightful feedback that resonates with you.

If your therapist decides you need a different approach to their own, the ethical framework they work within means they’ll refer you on to get the best kind of help for you. You can also decide for yourself that the therapy you’re getting isn’t right and switch to working with someone else. It’s not like signing up for a 24-month phone contract, where you’re stuck if you decide you aren’t happy with the deal. You have obligations, sure, like your therapist does towards you, the sort of stuff I detailed in the paragraph preceding this one. They’ll expect you to attend on time, never get abusive, respect boundaries and sign an agreement.

The only thing that’s never advised is to have more than one therapeutic relationship. In other words, don’t see Bob on Mondays and Janet on Thursdays. It isn’t about Bob or Janet, it’s about helping you find your way. Imagine if you asked three people for directions and got three roads to try. You couldn’t try them all at once. Better to ask one person for directions and if you end up at a dead end, ask someone else. Bear in mind, though, that analogy only goes so far – in therapy, your counsellor will not be giving you directions at all. They’ll help you find your own ways forward. Some might ask what goals you have and make suggestions of things you can try between sessions, but they’ll never direct you to do this or that.

I will not argue as an integrative therapist drawing on different approaches that my way is the only way or best way. Because it isn’t true. In the same way a teacher isn’t a good teacher because of their qualifications alone but because of how they talk, listen, respond and behave, the same is true of therapists. Every human being is more than the sum of their parts.

An initial assessment, where you give a summary or overall picture and your potential counsellor will seek to identify risks and possible safeguarding issues, will help you and them decide whether to go ahead with an agreement to work together. They can decide no, same as you, but their decision will be about what’s best for you.

A no is never personal and you’ll be signposted to a service or individual much better suited to what you’re wanting to achieve. With some services, the initial assessment is done by one counsellor whose job is to act as introducer and assign you to another from their team. However things are done, you’re in control of what you’re doing, making your decisions, every step of the way.

Therapy, be it integrative or another kind, can be challenging and difficult but that’s often a signal telling you just how necessary it is to keep working on the thing that’s proving hard to go over. I can attest, having been a client and a counsellor, to the fact that therapy can also be rewarding and is always clarifying and empowering. There are times when a client will smile or laugh.

If you’re considering trying therapy or already on a counselling journey, I wish you healing and wellness, whichever modality, as we call a therapeutic approach, you decide might be right for you. Integrative or otherwise.

xph therapy offers integrative counselling, which means working with multiple therapy types, including CBT, psychotherapeutic and person-centred to develop a therapeutic pathway just for you, whatever outcome you’re hoping to achieve. Get in touch in a variety of ways. See the contact page for more info.