Integral psychotherapy and Integral Life Practice

Domain VII · Transpersonal, psychedelic & altered states · Ken Wilber, Allan Marquis · 1986

What it is

Integral psychotherapy is not a single therapy with its own technique set. It is a metatheoretical framework. It applies Wilber's AQAL map (all quadrants, all levels, all lines, all states, all types) to organise existing therapies: pharmacological, psychodynamic, behavioural, cognitive,…

Format

• No published session-by-session protocol, fixed session count or formal phase-transition criteria appear in the sources cited. The authors describe a sequence of tasks. The phase structure below is assembled from the chapter structure of Marquis (2018) and Forman (2010); the moving-on criteria are.
• Phase A: Integral assessment (intake), usually sessions 1–3.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Parallel strand: therapist development. Forman (Ch. 14) treats the therapist's own growth as part of the method. He holds that integral work needs the therapist to have reached an 'integrated-multiperspectival' stage, cultivated through practices in each quadrant. This is the author's position, not an accreditation standard.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• one-minute practice replacing needed therapy work.
• spiritual superiority toward clients. Use supervision.
• turning it into intellectualisation. Keep it experiential.
• overload. Choose few actions and add more as earlier ones stick.
• fixing the client to the address. Rowan warns this can block movement.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.