Integrative Therapeutic Approaches
N Ditz
~ Mao Tse-Tung"We think too small, like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view."
The Holistic Art of Psychotherapy:
My therapeutic work is a richly integrative and continuously expanding art- in-progress. I am forever in the process of weaving an eclectic mélange of theories, methods, techniques and ways of knowing into a colorfully diversified and holistically inclusive approach to psychotherapy. Although I am grounded in psychodynamic, developmental and attachment-based theories as well as relational and existential-humanistic approaches to psychotherapy, I am convicted by the idea that I must eschew the dangers of being trapped inside one or even several narrow conceptual frameworks of psychological knowledge that try to capture a fixed and limited understanding of tremendously complex human beings.
I believe in incorporating ideas and practices from many different psychological, philosophical, scientific and spiritual orientations to health, healing and transformation. I am constantly testing these viewpoints and paradigms within the bustling arena of human life to discover which are flimsy and excessively restrictive and which can be usefully coalesced to illuminate and loosely hold the lively, ever-shifting, human motion picture.
I assimilate into my flexible and capacious therapeutic art multiple lenses in which to comprehend and relate to the intricacies of the people with whom I work. My integrative perspective includes wide angle, zoom, telephoto and macro "lenses" - ways of seeing - that are able to focus broadly, close-up and with great magnification on multiple dimensions of an individual. This varied use of lenses allows me to embrace a roomy and multifaceted yet detailed understanding of my clients. It reduces the crime of gross human reductionism and the belittlement of people's majestic scope.
My wide angle lenses capture a whole person contextual image that encompasses psychological, emotional, cognitive, physical, and spiritual facets interacting within varied environmental backgrounds and relational scenes. My zoom lenses are agile and slide me forward and backward to focus more sharply on specific aspects of a person for a time and then to step further away to envision a larger perspective. The fleet footed telephoto lenses can spot an individual's vulnerable self scampering away on the distant horizon like a shy animal. It can also hone in on relevant withdrawn details while pushing out of my viewer distracting surface defenses. Lastly, my macro lenses are very frequently called upon to intimately examine the most delicate, infinitesimally tiny and hidden aspects of a person and to enlarge them so that they can finally be appreciated in all their variegated grandeur.
N Ditz
~ Don IannoneShadow Light
"Light lurks
in every shadow
of your life.
It finds
its place
in the darkness.
It adheres
to the constantly
emerging part
of who you are.
Your light
is brought forth
by every question
you ask,
illuminating
those parts
of who you are
that have yet
to be discovered.
Don't fear your darkness,
for your light
is within it."
In addition to arranging varying depths of field and angles of view, my approach as a psychotherapist also involves a balanced oscillation between an emphasis on conceptual reflection and experiential processing. Conceptual reflection utilizes a vast array of psychological theories, ideas, and constructs in the service of mapping out, interpreting and understanding people's internal and interpersonal worlds. I spend a good deal of time helping my clients to rationally and coherently make sense of their subjective experiences by introducing them to multiple explanatory psychological systems that address both the impact of their developmental histories on their sense of self as well as their current ways of perceiving, experiencing, expressing and relating.
The more conceptual aspect of therapy is essential to people's empowerment and emotional stability. It provides my clients with psychological knowledge that clarifies the many causes, forces, and life experiences that have contributed to and perpetuate their present emotional suffering, conflicts, and self-defeating patterns. Psychological insight sheds light and structure within chaotic and shadowy worlds of confusion that can make one feel lost, overwhelmed and tremendously unsafe. This light spreads across vast terrains of questions such as: "What makes me feel so afraid all the time or empty or depressed?" "How do I understand my low self-esteem, my compulsions, my irrational reactions to my boss or child or spouse?" "How come I keep repeating the same futile behaviors over and over again even though I know better!?"
Habitual patterns of perceiving and reacting are analyzed, reframed and challenged so as to help people gradually liberate themselves from dysfunctional and painful ways of interpreting their experiences. An example of a common but slow structural shift in a habitual organizing belief or self schema would be a survivor of childhood trauma moving from a narrative of self-blame and shame to a deep understanding that the trauma was not due to any inherent badness or unworthiness within him. Psychological insight facilitates changes in both the person's internal emotional climate as well as in her behavioral reactions to outer events and relationships.
In addition to cultivating insight, I also teach my clients diverse skills and holistic tools that they can practice utilizing to overcome painful and self-compromising states of being. These skills are very wide ranging and encompass many strategies such as identifying and changing distorted core schematic beliefs and assumptions, developing effective communication styles, assertiveness training, self-soothing techniques, internal dialoguing, mindfulness meditation practices, and Buddhist psychological approaches to self-growth. Other interventions include body oriented practices, voice dialogue, psychosynthesis, experiential journeying, dream analysis, Jungian active imagination, and inner child work.
Go to Page 1 2 3 || Next Page of Integrative Therapeutic Approaches