Integral Psychotherapy: A Holistic Approach to Psychocorrection, Counseling and Psychotherapeutic work

Integral psychotherapy: a holistic approach to psychocorrection, counseling, and psychotherapeutic work

Authors: Eugene Pustoshkin, Tatyana Parfenova

AI translation from Russian

Integral psychotherapy is a holistically oriented, non-reductionist approach to psychotherapy that draws on a deep understanding of integral metatheory and the AQAL model developed by philosophical and psychological thinker Ken Wilber , as applied to the theory and methodology of psychological counseling, psychocorrectional, and psychotherapeutic practice. Beyond psychotherapy and psychology, the integral approach has found application in over 100 disciplines and areas of human activity, and professional researchers and practitioners from around the world are exploring the applied aspects of the integral approach in these disciplines.

A key characteristic of integrative psychotherapy is that it considers—and potentially addresses—the entire spectrum (from prepersonal to transpersonal) of developmental levels and states of human consciousness and psyche, as well as the corresponding spectrum of potential pathologies and dysfunctions and methods of psychocorrection, or therapy, for these dysfunctions. Integrative psychotherapy also considers the bodily correlates of human consciousness in the form of the body's physical, biological, and behavioral activity (including neurophysiology) and the individual's sociocultural embeddedness (understood as being-in-the-world) within networks of familial, tribal, environmental, economic, and other relationships. In other words, if we use the terminology of the integral approach, then this direction takes into account and utilizes the manifestations and methods of all four quadrants (“I”: consciousness and psyche, methods of the 1st person; “WE”: culture and relationships, methods of the 2nd person; “IT”: organism and individual behavior, methods of the 3rd person; “ITs”: sociosystem and ecosystem, methods of the 3rd person plural, or systemic approaches).

Another distinctive feature of this direction of psychotherapy is the tendency towards transdisciplinary integrative metasynthesis (thus, one can speak of the direction also as a coordinating, post-non-classical integral metaparadigm of psychotherapy and psychocorrection), post-formal dialectical stages of cognitive development (vision-logic according to Wilber, probabilistic thinking according to V.V. Nalimov, dialectical thinking according to O. Laska and M. Basseches) and openness towards non-discursive (non-conceptual) forms and practices of direct awareness, drawn from both traditional meditative-contemplative approaches and from modern psychotechnical developments.

Read the article in the philosophical and psychological journal Eros and Cosmos: https://www.eroskosmos.org/integral-psychotherapy

Excerpts from the article

A necessary criterion of integral psychotherapy is its focus on the integral AQAL model [aqual-model] - a 4-quadrant biopsychosociocultural approach (which also includes spiritual principles in the form of taking into account the highest range of the spectrum of states of consciousness and structures of maturity), within the framework of which the tracking and structurally specific involvement of levels/stages of development of consciousness, maturity, complexity and depth of subjects and objects are carried out; reliance on all key elements of the AQAL model (quadrants, levels and lines/streams of development, types, states).

Thus, the two most important parameters of integral psychotherapy are the use of the biopsychosociocultural matrix (first-, second-, and third-person methods, as well as systemic methods of the third person plural—the contexts of subjectivity, intersubjectivity, objectivity, and interobjectivity) and the relevant levels of complexity, or height, of the subject's consciousness and their relationships (taking into account the full spectrum of mental development levels). The dynamics of states of consciousness, personality types and interpersonal relationships, and the unevenness of mental development across different functions (according to the information metabolism model) and developmental lines (intelligences) are also considered.

The second characteristic of this approach is its ability to integrate various schools and methods of psychotherapy by correlating them with the AQAL model as a neutral coordinate system (thus, it can function as a meta-approach to psychotherapy, coordinating the use of various approaches or methods)—based on the concept of an eight-zone integral methodological pluralism, applying a phenomenological (interior view) and a structuralist-systemic (exterior view) perspective to each quadrant. Furthermore, integral psychology and integral psychotherapy can provide recommendations for expanding and complementing specific methods (resulting in the development, for example, of an integral approach to Gestalt therapy, an integral approach to NLP, integral psychosynthesis, etc.).

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Integral psychotherapy has found application in all known formats: individual, family, and group psychotherapy, social work, nursing, hospice care, assistance in preparing for pregnancy and childbirth (in the context of integral psychology and coaching, also organizational consulting and pedagogy), etc.—both at the level of non-medical psychological therapy and at the level of medical psychiatric therapy.

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The integrative psychotherapy approach, providing a meta-framework for transdisciplinary coordination, conceptually integrates both avant-garde and classical psychotherapy methods and provides recommendations on the boundaries of their application. In this sense, it relies heavily on well-known and proven approaches (including psychological phenomenology, behavioral interventions, relationship psychotherapy, consideration of ecological and environmental factors, and the proposal of systemic interventions, etc.), which, when used individually, have been the subject of numerous published studies within mainstream psychology and psychotherapy (psychodynamic, existential, humanistic, cognitive-behavioral, developmental psychology, etc.).

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As we have already noted, the key characteristic of the integral approach to psychotherapy is its consideration of the full AQAL matrix—quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types—in the therapeutic and psychocorrectional process. Another key feature is that, with years of serious practice of the integral approach, the practitioner develops a natural inclination to develop dialectical thinking (the cognitive structures of vision-logic), which provides a post-non-classical and post-metaphysical understanding of the relationship between subject × method × object (epistemology × methodology × ontology) and the need to pay attention to the transformation of the subject itself (including the structures and states of consciousness of the psychotherapist). This last aspect emphasizes that the art and craft of integral psychotherapy is a matter not only and not so much of behavioral skills, but also of acquiring a qualitatively different depth and capacity of the therapist's personal self-awareness.

In individual cases of integrative psychotherapy, in addition to the therapist's tactical skills (such as the ability to establish rapport, maintain a therapeutic alliance, and conduct specific microinterventions), the focus shifts to monitoring—and, if necessary, engaging aspects of—the multifactorial dynamics of the AQAL matrix of both the client(s) and the therapist, who is also an integral participant in a unified sociocultural and spiritual field. Much depends on the specialist's specific training, life, and professional experience.

In general, the counseling and psychotherapeutic process necessarily involves correlating the client's needs and problems with a common integrated metamap (AQAL matrix) and identifying areas of dysfunction, as well as resource sources. Specific applications vary depending on the client(s)' personality characteristics and circumstances.

Full text of the article: https://www.eroskosmos.org/integral-psychotherapy