2026-03-01
Carol Merle-Fishman
I am delighted to present Volume 17, No. 1 (2026) of the International Journal of Integrative Psychotherapy. This issue offers an eclectic array of articles: cutting edge research on trauma, two in-depth case studies, and a heartfelt description of how life experiences can impact one’s choice to become a psychotherapist. Each article demonstrates a unique sense of passion and professional commitment to the field of psychotherapy, with the ultimate goal of bringing best practices to our clients.
2026-03-01
John Hallett
This is an expanded version of the keynote speech John Hallett gave at the International Integrative Psychotherapy Association’s 2025 conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia. In this keynote, Hallett shares the experiences and learnings that have shaped him as a psychotherapist. He starts with the influence of his parents and follows with significant occurrences in his life that were pivotal for his development as a person and an integrative psychotherapist.
2025-08-12
Maša Žvelc
This article is based on a keynote address delivered at the 12th International Integrative Psychotherapy Association Conference (Ljubljana, Slovenia, May 8, 2025). It explores the proposition that the therapist’s state of being, beyond technique or verbal intervention, plays a central role in the therapeutic process. Drawing on contemporary research in physiological synchrony, the author highlights the bodily and physiological dimensions of psychotherapy, with particular emphasis on physiological attunement and the therapist’s embodied presence. Physiological attunement is introduced as a newly defined sixth component of the Keyhole model of integrative psychotherapy (Erskine et al., 1999/2023; Žvelc & Žvelc, 2021). The article argues that mindful awareness and self-compassion support therapists in regulating their autonomic arousal and conveying cues of safety to clients, which are key factors in fostering effective therapeutic involvement. A transcript from a therapy session is included to illustrate psychotherapy beyond words. In the final section, the author reflects on broader relational fields that support healing beyond words, drawing inspiration from Māori perspectives on interconnectedness, nature, and ancestry. It concludes with a guided practice, inviting readers into embodied, compassionate presence.
2025-08-12
Sally Openshaw
This keynote was chosen because there is a paucity of literature on the topic of humor use in therapy. The presentation identifies humor as a therapeutic skill and provides the reader with some ideas around competence and incompetent use in therapy. When humor is used purposefully, it enhances connection, but when used without thought, it can create distance and confusion.
2025-03-26
Christine Loyrion, Richard G. Erskine
This article presents a unique form of psychotherapy research. Rather than using a parametric research design involving several participants, the single-person research format presented here makes use of three significant components: a verbatim transcript of a recorded psychotherapy session; a detailed description of the client’s internal experience during and after the psychotherapy session; and the psychotherapist’s reflections on what he was feeling and thinking. Additionally, this article describes how to engage in an in-depth psychotherapy for the client who is emotionally sequestered and relationally withdrawn. It emphasizes how relationally withdrawn clients have a particular need for a sensitive psychotherapist who is responsive to their fear laden and non-verbal affect states—a state of being that may be present but often overlooked in a verbal psychotherapy.
2025-03-26
Sally Openshaw
This article provides an adapted transcript of the Presidential acceptance speech made in 2023 at the IIPA Conference. The speech considers the role of AI in therapy and references how IIPA is represented currently with ChatGPT. A request is made for all members of the audience to go onto this platform and re-educate the current material that is presented there, which is incorrect and is not representative of how we see ourselves.
2024-12-17
Carol Merle-Fishman
Dear Readers, I am delighted to present Volume 15 (2024) of the International Journal of Integrative Psychotherapy. This volume brings an array of riches. You will have an opportunity to explore cutting-edge research from our Spanish colleagues and immerse yourself in some deeply personal statements from a few of our most wise and esteemed leaders in IP.
2024-12-17
Ruth Birkebaek
This keynote speech describes the significance of a relationally focused and developmentally based psychotherapy in the treatment of shame, using the author as a clinical example. Richard Erskine (1994) defines shame as a complex process involving five emotional dynamics: 1) sadness at not being accepted as I am, 2) fear of rejection for who I am, 3) compliance with how I am being defined, 4) disavowal and retroflection of anger, and 5) a core belief that something is wrong with me. Each of these components of shame are discussed and exemplified in this speech.
2024-12-17
Ioseba Iraurgi, Ignacio Gómez-Marroquín, Susana Gorbeña, Amaia Mauriz-Etxabe, Richard G. Erskine
Erskine’s Integrative Relational Psychotherapy is founded in a theoretical model that proposes eight relational needs, but there is a lack of an assessment instrument to facilitate research and therapeutic exploration. The development of a new scale to assess the eight needs is described including expert analysis, comprehensibility testing, and a preliminary study of its factorial structure and validity. Results show an optimal apparent and content validity (concordance kappa coefficients between .62 and .96), a high reliability (Cronbach alpha .96 for total scale and above .76 in the eight dimensions), and promising psychometric data. Future research work is discussed, especially the possibility to refine the scale, reducing the number of items in studies with more heterogeneous and ample clinical and normative samples.
2024-12-17
Carol Merle-Fishman
We are pleased to offer three Keynotes delivered in November 2024 at the Manchester Institute for Psychotherapy’s conference on “Empowerment – Empathy – Self-Agency Within the Therapeutic Relationship” (https://mcpt.co.uk). Each Keynote, delivered by a leading expert in Developmentally- focused, Relationally-based Integrative Psychotherapy, offers a unique perspective on the theme of the conference and the importance of creating an empowering environment for relational healing in Integrative Psychotherapy, the role of empathy within that relationship, and the therapeutic necessity to support self-agency as a positive therapeutic outcome.
2024-07-23
Carl R Nassar
This article sheds light on how humanity fell into today’s collective sorrows, falling from a time of great hospitality into a culture of great separation. It explains how this cultural fall plays an integral role in the inner fragmentation we each experience early in life, when each of us break apart into adult, child, and parent ego states; and it explains how this takes each of us far away from our natural relational self and into an individual and collective life script. Most importantly, it explores how embracing the grief of where we are, within ourselves and within our culture, comes with the remarkable power of liberating us from these scripts and bringing us home to each other. But, to arrive here, we must each endure a time in the ashes.
2024-01-23
Lindsay Stewart
Mindfulness and Compassion in Integrative Supervision is a highly accessible and comprehensive guide that will be a valuable resource for both experienced clinicians with years of providing supervision as well as those who are beginning to expand their scope of practice into this area. This model provides a structure that can be applied to the supervisory relationship within most theoretical paradigms, particularly those that are relationally focused and value working with the intersubjective through incorporating many universal themes related to change and growth in human relationships.
2024-01-09
Maruša Zaletel Tekavc
In the article the author describes how we can integrate nature into relational integrative psychotherapy and supervision. A proposal for an expanded model Self-in-relationship is given. The integration of nature into different relational methods is presented. The author explores different ways of working outdoors like using mindfulness, metaphors and equine assisted supervision. Possible consideration and difficulties when working therapeutically outdoors are discussed. At the end ecological and spiritual topics in outdoor therapy are considered.