Your Clinical Orientation

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I attend a university where we are thought integrative therapy. In this context it means the focus is on so-called "working mechanisms" - what interventions have what effects. It's not eclectic so much as an attempt to find a unifying theory.

At the moment, I'm exploring the thoughts of the late prof. Klaus Grawe. In his work, he tried to combine integrative psychotherapy with basic psychology and neuroscience.
http://www.klaus-grawe-institut.ch/content/index_eng.html

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Anybody here doing health psych? How do you think that has informed your orientation?

I'm just about to start grad school, so I'll be interested to look back at this post and see how my orientation changes, but right now I see CBT for crisis intervention, short term needs and then more existential and psychodynamic theory joining up with CBT and informing longer term work (such as copng with chronic illness or illness experience). I may have to do some extra coursework or focused externships to get enough psychodynamic training, though.

I do. Its almost entirely CBT, though like anything there are components of other areas that can fit in. Health psych really has a vastly different "feel" to it than typical therapy from what I have seen though. In many cases the ENTIRE reason people are in is for coping skills, so that means alot of approaches simply wouldn't make sense with that population.
 
I like this thread. :)

As for me, I'm just an undergraduate, but right now, I tend to lean toward CBT with a touch of humanistic phenomology. I'm also somewhat trained in motivational interviewing, which is very good for initial interventions, imo. I find that I just can't "buy" a lot of the psychodynamic philosophy, though apparently most of the facility at my school subscribe to it. They're all strangly closed mouthed about their orientations in undergraduate classes, though--I had one instructor who never once mentioned mindfulness in class. Talking to her later, I found out that she adored mindfulness, did her dissertation on it, and liked to use it with almost every client she had.

What are your thoughts on group treatment in general? In what situations or populations do you find it useful?
 
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CBT for me! Especially with a lot of Problem Solving Therapy
 
I'm basically psychodynamic. I tend to formulate from that perspective, although I'm more integrative in terms of interventions. I use dbt, cognitive therapy, behavior-based work, and motivational interviewing in addition to more traditional exploratory open-ended work. I'm also influenced by short-term dynamic approaches, such as ISTDP (Davanloo, et al) and AEDP (Fosha).
 
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