What do psychotherapy experts actually do in their sessions? An analysis of psychotherapy integration in prototypical demonstrations

In the past few decades there has been an increasing movement toward adopting integrative perspectives. Although the levels of psychotherapy integration shown by therapists in naturalistic and experimental settings have been investigated, not much is known about the levels of integration among psychotherapy experts. The current study examines the levels of psychotherapy integration in psychotherapy sessions of known experts from different orientations, at different time points in history. Ratings of prototypical demonstrations of 9 psychotherapy experts from different therapeutic orientations and from different generations were examined to determine the extent of integration. Psychotherapy integration was observed in all prototypical demonstrations. Experts tended to integrate techniques from other approaches within their own "family"- similarities in the use of techniques were found among experts who identified with an 'exploratory' orientation as well as among experts who identified with a 'directive' orientation. The current findings show that experts "stay in the family"- they integrate techniques from approaches similar to their own. Furthermore, experts from different generations showed similar levels of psychotherapy integration.