Psychotherapy integration in the treatment of personality disorders: a commentary.

Whereas research on the treatment of personality disorders over the past several decades has focused primarily on comparing the efficacy of various treatment packages associated with different theoretical models, there is increasing evidence that the field would benefit from focusing more attention on developing integrative treatments that are both informed by research and capable of scientific verification. The articles assembled for this special section each propose a different approach to integrative treatment for personality disorders. In this commentary, we outline a number of reasons for making such a shift to more integrative treatments, consider some of the potential challenges to integration, and discuss the different approaches to integration illustrated in these articles. We highlight some of the difficult tradeoffs that must be made in developing an integrative approach and discuss similarities and differences in the response to such challenges by the contributors to this special section. Finally, we point to several areas for future research that we believe will contribute to the development of increasingly effective treatments for individuals with personality disorders.

Competency in integrative psychotherapy: perspectives on training and supervision.

Increasingly, many psychotherapists identify with an integrative approach to psychotherapy. In recent years, more attention has been directed toward the operationalization and evaluation of competence in professional psychology and health care service delivery. Aspects of integrative psychotherapy competency may differ from competency in other psychotherapy orientations, although convergence is more often the case. Despite the potential differences, there exist very few formal training programs or guidelines to systematically guide clinicians in developing a competent integrative practice. This paper attempts to distill the essential elements of competent integrative psychotherapy practice and focuses on how these might be developed in training and supervision. We address most of these complex issues from a specific integrative perspective: principle-based assimilative integration.

Psychotherapists, researchers, or both? A qualitative analysis of psychotherapists' experiences in a practice research network.

This paper describes the experiences of psychotherapists who, as part of a practice research network (PRN), collaborated with researchers in designing and conducting a psychotherapy study within their own clinical practices. A qualitative analysis of interviews conducted with these psychotherapists led to the delineation of several benefits (e.g., learning information that improved their work with clients and feeling that they were contributing to research that would be useful for psychotherapists) and difficulties for them and their clients (e.g., time and effort required to integrate research protocol into routine clinical practice) that psychotherapists associated with their participation in the PRN. Also identified were a number of strategies used by psychotherapists to address obstacles that they encountered, as well as general recommendations for future PRN studies. As a whole, the experiences of these psychotherapists are likely to provide valuable lessons for the survival and growth of what is viewed by many as a promising pathway for building a stronger bridge between practice and research.