Integrative Psychotherapy: A Review 1

Consider this your forwarning that I am about to start weekly chapter reviews of Mark McMinn and Clark Campbell’s book Integrative Psychotherapy: Toward a Comprehensive Approach(IVP, 2007). I believe this book is important because it marks an important step forward in developing a substantial theoretical model for integrationist psychotherapy. Most of what has gone on in the last several decades has been primarily theoretical and not practice oriented. Both men are professors at George Fox University in Oregon. I know Mark personally as he taught several of my classes at Wheaton and helped me publish my first book chapters in a book he edited. Mark is a gentleman, prolific writer, and pretty good basketball player (he has/had one of the quickest releases around, making it hard to block his shot).

I’m not likely to fully agree with this book, but I expect that it will provoke some thoughts among my student readers.

Introduction: What is a Christian psychotherapy? Good question. the authors say that Christian psychotherapy must be based on “a model of psychotherapy that is faithful to both Christianity and psychology.” (p. 15).

They acknowledge some problems with prior attempts. They define integration in 2 dimensions: (a) integrating a Christian view of persons with psychological literature, and (b) integrating various approaches to therapy (they do not believe in any one pure approach to therapy).

They are not trying to propose the ONE christian model for psychotherapy.

What is to come? the first 4 chapters establish their theoretical framework. For example, they use the concept of the imago dei and its functional, structural, and relational aspects to build their model of persons and therapy). The next 7 chapters consider the practice of their model referred to as IP.

Well, strap on your seatbelts and come along for the ride each Wednesday.