Unification: The fifth pathway to psychotherapy integration

Abstract

Unified psychotherapy is an emerging trend in psychotherapy integration. This paper describes how and why unification constitutes a fifth pathway in the psychotherapy integration literature, and it delineates its key elements, and how it is practiced. The defining feature of unification is that it adopts a metatheoretical perspective that allows for the major psychotherapy paradigms and their interrelations to be seen from a more comprehensive vantage point. Such approaches facilitate holistic understandings of patients and treatment. The practice of unified psychotherapy includes comprehensive assessment, clinical case conceptualization and problem formulation, treatment planning and monitoring, and core principles for effective practice.