8 Universal Principles of Psychotherapy

Pillars.

Source: Jay Chaudhary/Unsplash

The Steering Committee of the SEPI Special Interest Group on Convergence has developed a working list of eight principles that aim to capture the underlying and universal foundation that undergirds all of psychotherapy, regardless of orientation or approach. We hope that these drafted principles serve as a useful starting point to approaching a convergent framework within which to situate the range and diversity of types of psychotherapy and psychotherapeutic interventions in the field. Foundational psychotherapy principles may enhance communication among scholars and practitioners as well as provide a coherent means of teaching integrative psychotherapy to trainees.

We welcome comments, critiques, and commentary on this working draft of eight universal principles of psychotherapy.

1. The aim of psychotherapy is primarily to help people exchange entrenched maladaptive patterns of action, feeling, thinking, relating, and embodiment (somatizing) for healthier or more satisfactory adaptations.
2. Maladaptive patterns are products of a mind shaped through evolution and informed by experience to adapt to actual or anticipated circumstances. There are multiple ways in which these become or are inherently maladaptive.
3. The implementation of maladaptive patterns is purposeful and driven by conscious or unconscious motivation.
4. Maladaptive patterns are embodied as neural network memory structures and neural pathways.
5. Entrenched maladaptive patterns originate, almost always, as responses to circumstances appraised unconsciously or consciously as threats, as opposed to opportunities.
6. Maladaptive responses to internal and external stimuli are mediated and energized by emotion, conscious or unconscious.
7. Therapeutic change of maladaptive patterns is often appraised by the mind as loss of a needed protection, and therefore, as a threat. Such perceived threats trigger active avoidance, which can be seen as a new maladaptive pattern consistent with the same principles articulated here.
8. Specific maladaptive patterns are best understood through multiple perspectives such as biological, psychological, relational, social, cultural, developmental, and evolutionary lenses.

—The SIG Steering Committee

___________________

To find a therapist near you, visit the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.

Join the Convergence Special Interest Group listserv here for more information about the latest on convergence in psychotherapy.