Responsiveness in integrative therapies.

Abstract

Responsivity is the raison d'être of integrative psychotherapies, which cannot be defined by a single model or a static set of prescribed interventions. There are multiple models and pathways to integrative practice and a given course of psychotherapy can become a de facto integrative one at any given moment, even with clinicians who would not identify themselves as integrative practitioners (Goldfried et al., 1998).Given that it is not tied to any particular theoretical orientation, integrative therapists can easily adopt Stiles's working definition of responsiveness (1998, 2009), which states that therapists and clients use emerging information and context to modify their behavior in therapy. Such modifications represent appropriate responsiveness when they optimize therapy outcome. In addition, responsiveness occurs on a continuum of time scales, including moments within a session or patient-centered treatment selection at the earliest stages of a course of therapy (Beutler & Harwood, 2000). Interestingly, these different time scales map onto different pathways to integrative practice.

Psychotherapy integration: History, current status, and future directions.

“…Gold & Stricker, 2020), such that, in real time, integration occurring in accordance with one of these pathways can imperceptibly intersect with elements of one or more other integrative pathways. Moreover, as is discussed in greater detail below, responsiveness is the true hallmark of psychotherapy integration (Boswell et al, 2021). A given therapy can become integrative at any given moment within or across sessions.…”