How Do You Work In Psychotherapy To Adapt To Each Patient?
If there is something that characterizes psychotherapy, it is its ability to adapt to many types of problems and difficulties. Ultimately, in the psychologist’s consultation, patient and professional address very different experiences from each other: cases of phobias, low self-esteem, relationship crisis, extreme perfectionism, depression, learning disorders… All of these phenomena are reflected through symptoms. and very diverse forms of discomfort, which cannot be solved by applying the same “recipes”.
However, it is not surprising that psychologists adapt to each particular case; Their work consists of studying the particularities of the patient and their way of life, and on the other hand, both the way of thinking and behaving of people is necessarily plural and flexible. Everyone thinks, feels and lives life in their own way.
Now, within the ability of psychologists to adjust their services to each reason for consultation and specific patient, there are intervention modalities that are more versatile than others.
How is it possible to adapt to the problems of each patient in psychotherapy?
All psychologists specialized in psychotherapy dedicate the first part of the therapeutic process to know your patient better and what led you to seek professional help. This is achieved through dialogue, and taking measures so that the person who has attended the consultation (or who the psychologist uses through the online therapy format by video call) can relax and adopt an attitude of honesty, knowing that they can express themselves. without fear and that she will not be judged.
This first phase of information gathering is crucial to being able to help the person, but by itself it is insufficient. Firstly, this accumulated information must be transformed into a working hypothesis, and secondly, it must be shared with the patient and a personalized intervention program must be applied in order to provide a solution.
How to achieve it? At this point, there are two big options. One is to start from a psychotherapy paradigm and analyze the information from that prism to first make a description of the problem to be addressed, then create a hypothesis of the elements that cause the patient’s problem, and finally propose solutions. This implies allowing the information provided by the patient to be transformed by the explanatory scheme of that paradigm. and that the objective to be achieved is also expressed in very particular terms, associated with that theoretical-practical orientation (for example, the cognitive-behavioral model).
The other option is Do not subscribe to a single paradigm and focus on providing solutions to the problems that the patient complains about. , without allowing these to be totally re-interpreted by a specific interpretation framework. In this way, the psychologist can combine various theoretical and practical resources to describe the problem without conceptual limitations and address it without procedural limitations. What is known as integrative psychotherapy is based on this.
What is integrative psychotherapy?
As its name indicates, integrative psychotherapy is a model of psychological therapy in which Emphasis is placed on the need to combine and make compatible various intervention techniques and strategies to “integrate” them. in a solution designed to suit the patient, from a philosophy characterized by pragmatism.
Instead of ascribing to a specific paradigm and fitting into it the case presented by the patient, integrative psychotherapy invites you to take a step back, adopt a general and broader point of view of the problem, and combine resources to fit as best as possible. to the characteristics of the person, their life context, their expectations, etc.
So that, avoids falling into theoretical limitations , using in each case the techniques and solutions that have shown greater effectiveness for that specific type of problem. For this reason, integrative psychotherapy is characterized by its heterogeneity and the plurality of resources to which it gives access.
Do you want to learn more about integrative psychotherapy?
If you are a psychologist and are interested in training in the theory and practice of integrative psychotherapy, the Mensalus courses and postgraduate courses are for you. In our psychological and psychiatric assistance center we offer training options both online and in person.
On the one hand, the Master in Integrative Psychotherapy It lasts one school year and its 12th edition begins on September 27, 2021. It can be done at the Institut Mensalus center, located in Barcelona, or from home through live connections with the classroom. It includes practical exercises and observation sessions and participation in therapy with real patients, under the supervision of the center’s professionals. When completed, it grants students a University Degree from the Nebrija University of Madrid.
On the other, the Professional Online Postgraduate in Integrative Psychotherapy It lasts 6 months and begins on October 25, 2021. This training program is 100% online and gives the possibility of observing real cases of therapeutic processes through supervision classes. As with the Master, upon completion it also grants students a University Degree from the Nebrija University of Madrid.
