Integrated Therapy: Increasing Your Effectiveness in Clinical Sessions
Online Workshop
(Pre-registration)

Frequently, psychiatrist, psychologists and counselors are exposed to “models” for clinical work, set protocols based on singular theories. But empirical evidence strongly suggests that, outside of select disorders such as anxiety or depression, models produce relatively modest outcomes for clients. Part of this poor prognosis from singular approaches may be just a narrowing of both skills and focus on the part of psychological clinicians, but more likely contributing factors may dull the clinical session so that clinicians pay more attention to what they are “supposed” to do rather than seeking deeper insights, working intuitively based on those insights, and in the process losing creativity.

But increasingly, integrated therapy has begun to improve outcomes from psychological counseling as it becomes more sophisticated. Research consistently shows evidence of dramatic improvement in prognosis for clients who attend psychotherapy with clinicians who have integrated several theory bases into their session. Integrated therapy requires a clear understanding of theoretic conceptualizations of client attitudes and issues beyond mere diagnosis, a wealth of skills sets acquired from study and practice of multiple theories and increased intuitive response to the expressions the client offers as clues to attitudes and deeper issues. Research also suggests that client responses to integrated theory deal with deeper problems than those presented, including personality and temperament.

Professor Emeritus Louis Downs, PhD, who has practiced integrated therapy since the early 1990s as well as taught and supervised counseling psychology students and clinicians the art of integrated therapy since 1995, will bring his extensive experience to InPsych’s workshop with seasoned professionals in psychology and counseling. After a philosophical and clinical orientation to the breadth and skills of integrated therapy, Dr. Downs will open an extensive discussion with participants about the use in practice of the varied skills used for integrated therapy.

Participants should come prepared with memory of sessions with clients that were difficult and be prepared not to do case presentations but to discuss the dynamics of those sessions; they should also be prepared to role play their clients whenever it is important to model the intuitive skill sets in action. Participants can expect to take a more refined and functional understanding with them at the end of the workshop, with accompanying insights into different ways to focus a therapeutic conversation beyond the initial presentation by their clients.