A Tamworth & Lichfield Counselling Service - Integrativ

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Integrative counselling draws on techniques from different types of therapy to tailor an approach specifically for you 

If you would like to speak to a female counsellor, I do refer clients to a dedicated female specialist. Her name is Dionne, and she works from Malvern but also provides online sessions.

An integrative psychotherapist believes there isn’t just one therapeutic approach that can help a client in all situations. Instead, they take into account you as an individual and your circumstances, and use elements of different approaches to help you explore and cope with your problems (BACP, 2024)

From my experience, every client is unique, so one form of therapy may work for some but not for others.

The integrative approach may include elements of person-centred therapy. This focuses on you rather than the counsellor being the expert on yourself and aims to help you reach your full potential. Your therapist will help you achieve that by accepting and valuing you, being honest and transparent with you and offering you unconditional positive regard.

Your therapist may draw on psychodynamic therapy. This involves helping you to bring your subconscious  - what is just below the surface of your awareness - into your conscious mind. It helps you become more aware of what’s in your subconscious, such as difficult memories and experiences, so you can understand how these deep-rooted feelings impact on you in the present and how you can learn to cope with them.

The therapist might bring in elements of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). This looks at your thoughts, feelings and behaviours and helps you to change some of these where they are unhelpful, using a variety of practical strategies and tools, such as journaling.

And, if appropriate for you, your therapist may bring in elements of other approaches too (BACP, 2024)

 Solution-focused therapy (SFBT) also known as solution-focused brief therapy or brief therapy, is an approach to psychotherapy based on solution-building rather than problem-solving. While it acknowledges present problems and past causes, SFBT predominantly explores an individual's current resources and future hopes. This can help them to look forward and use their own strengths to achieve their goals. 

The approach was founded on seven basic philosophies and assumptions:

1. Change is both constant and certain.
2. Clients must want to change.
3. Clients are the experts and outline their own goals.
4. Clients have resources and their own strengths to solve and overcome their problems.
5. Therapy is short-term.
6. Emphasis is on what is changeable and possible.
7. Focus on the future - history is not essential.

The solution-focused approach is a humanistic therapy, which focuses on self-development, growth and responsibility. It is goal-directed and focuses on building solutions, rather than on solving the problems that clients bring to therapy.