A study of eclectic views

Nine Humanistic Heresies

A heresy is what happens when one part of a coherent body of doctrine gets taken and blown up in size until it becomes something new, but distorted and one-sided. The heresies in this article are Instrumentalism, Feelingism, Autonomy-ism, Peace-and-loveism, Peakism, Spiritual-ism, Expertism, Sexism, and Eclectic Mish-mash-ism. They are described and then criticized in detail. In the conclusion, humanistic psychology is described and its hopeful nature is outlined in world terms.

Adaptive Counseling and Therapy

This article presents an integrative model for selecting a progression of therapist styles as clients move through developmental stages during the course of counseling and psychotherapy. The model, Adaptive Counseling and Therapy (ACT), suggests an eclectic approach to the utilization of techniques in therapy. The ACT approach is compared and contrasted with other integrative models that suggest an eclectic practice of therapy, with both similarities and divergent recommendations being noted. ACT is intended to be useful to practitioners in case conceptualization and in the application of effective treatment planning. The assessment instruments required to operationalize the central constructs of ACT theory are presented and described, and data on both the instruments' psychometric adequacy and the relationship of ACT constructs to therapy outcome are reviewed. Finally, the ways in which ACT can serve as a rich heuristic device for counseling practice, research, and supervision are delineated.

Systematic Eclectic Models

Although increasingly popular, eclecticism has sometimes been characterized by its critics as "seat of the pants " therapy. This has led some authors to provide organizing principles for the eclectic field. These systematic eclectic models help counselors and therapists integrate interventions from various schools of psychotherapy. Four systematic eclectic models (Beutler 's eclectic psychotherapy; Howard, Nance, and Myers' adaptive counseling and therapy; Lazarus' multimodal therapy; and Prochaska and DiClemente's transtheoretical approach) are presented and evaluated on five dimensions. Additionally, the article examines support for the models, and makes conceptual and empirical recommendations.

Psychotherapists' personal identities, theoretical orientations, and professional relationships: elective affinity and role adjustment as modes of congruence

Research shows psychotherapists espousing different theoretical approaches differ in mentality (e.g., cognitive styles, beliefs and epistemologies) and personality (e.g., neuroticism). However, studies have not investigated the association between professional relational style prescribed by therapists' theoretical orientations and therapists' manner of relating in personal life. Analyses of over 4000 therapists of varied nationalities, professions and career levels having different theoretical preferences indicate: (i) therapists' self-experience in close personal relationships was significantly associated with the manner their theoretical orientations prescribed for relating with clients; (ii) therapists were less accepting, less tolerant and more demanding in their personal relationships than with clients; and (iii) therapists adjusted their professional relational manner in practice to meet the specific expectations of their preferred orientations.

What's an integrationist? A study of self-identified integrative and (occasionally) eclectic psychologists

We examined the views and practices of self-identified eclectic and integrative psychologists, particularly in the context of historical changes since 1977 and 1988. Results from 187 eclectic clinical psychologists indicated that 50% previously adhered to another theoretical orientation, the majority preferred the term integrative to eclectic, and 85% conceptualized eclecticism/integration as the endorsement of a broader orientation. The most common paths toward integration were theoretical integration, common factors, and assimilative integration, as opposed to technical eclecticism. The most frequent theoretical contributor to integrative practice was cognitive therapy.

STRATEGIC THERAPY, ECLECTICISM, AND THE THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP

Although profoundly influencing the family field by highlighting the deficiencies of pathology-based views, strategic therapy has come under fire in two general areas: (a) adherence to a "black box" philosophy that discounts the value of intrapersonal phenomena; and (b) interventions that appear exceedingly instrumental, manipulative, and based on a position of therapist power. This article will examine these criticisms in light of the rise of eclecticism and the resurgence of the primacy of the therapeutic relationship. It will be argued that if strategic therapy is to remain viable, it must evolve to include the contributions of other models and consider the relationship context from which intervention arises.