Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, Vol 34(3), Sep 2024, 219-245; doi:10.1037/int0000345
The field of psychotherapy lacks a common framework to explain what it is and how it works. This article lays out a new approach to define the “common core” of the field. First, it frames the common core as consisting of relationship quality, a shared conceptualization, and interventions toward adaptive living. Next, it divides the landscape of psychotherapy integration into three layers, which include the common factors that ground the work, the major schools of thought and the integrative pathways between them, and a zoomed-out, metatheoretical perspective that provides a unified view of the landscape. It then builds a conceptual bridge between the common factors and the unification pathway to integration to construct a common core using the unified framework for psychological science and practice developed by Henriques (2011, 2022a, 2022b). The article summarizes why this framework can be used as a metatheory of the common core. The result is a coherent metatheory for why the therapeutic relationship is central, how therapists can help patients understand maladaptive behavior patterns, and why processes that cultivate a psychologically mindful approach of curiosity, acceptance, loving compassion, and motivation toward valued states of being can reverse maladaptive cycles and result in pathways of wiser, more adaptive living. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)