Advanced Integrative Therapy

Domain XII · Complementary, energy & biofield · Asha Clinton · 1999

What it is

AIT is an energy-psychology-based trauma therapy that combines psychodynamic, Jungian, attachment, cognitive, transpersonal and body-centred work with an "energetic" trauma-clearing procedure. Clinton developed it in the late 1990s, first under the name "Seemorg Matrix Work"; the first training ran…

Format

• AIT is a structured trauma therapy embedded in an ongoing psychotherapy rather than a fixed-session manual. No published session count exists. The phases below follow the sequence described by trained practitioners and the Basics course objectives; phase labels are a.
• Phase A: Assessment, alliance and ego strength. Goals: history, presenting symptoms, current patterns; assess ego strength and strengthen it before the deepest traumas are approached. Format: ordinary psychotherapy sessions. Move on when the client can tolerate and report distress, return to the…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Phase E: Self-regulation and consolidation. Goals: teach Quick AIT for self-soothing at home; meditation; integration in the relationship.
• Training and certification route. Training is in three-day seminars; Clinton describes two introductory seminars and 13 advanced seminars; she has created 15 in all. Basics is open to qualified mental health professionals; the current Basics is a 24-CE-hour, three-day course for counsellors, MFTs, social workers and addiction professionals, sponsored by AIT, with practicum in which trainees practise on each other. A…
• Professional-body positions. No published position on AIT from a psychology, counselling or social-work licensing board was found. Treat it as a complementary technique within your existing scope; follow your board's rules on informed consent for emerging methods and on touch.

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Informed consent (cover before Phase B). Explain: AIT is a complementary method; it involves the client speaking short statements about painful experiences while placing their own hands on a sequence of points from the crown of the head down the midline of the body to the base of the spine; it uses…

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?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• 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

• Leaving open, high-charge material; reserve at least ten minutes to close.
• Intuitions treated as facts about the client's history. Hold them as hypotheses.
• Pressure to reach a "complete" result in one session; consolidate gains over time.
• Objections or a drop in mood signal an unfinished trauma; do not push the positive over it.
• Chaining into ever earlier material faster than the client can integrate. Pace by ego strength.

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.