ABOUT
What is The Center for Integrative Psychology?
The Center for Integrative Psychology (CIP) emphasizes an inherently creative process of integrative psychotherapy that uniquely combines common and specific therapeutic factors to meet each client in their stage of change and help people work towards a wholeness of Self.
The Dodo bird verdict, that all empirically supported psychotherapies are about equally effective, sparked the integrative psychology movement in 1975. In the half century since, integrative psychologists challenged the dogma-eat-dogma culture of psychology.
According to John C. Norcross (2005), the integrative psychology movement arose from a "dissatisfaction with single-school approaches and a concomitant desire to see what can be learned from the other ways of conducting psychotherapy."
Integrative psychotherapy is characterized by what Norcross called a psychological "zeitgeist of informed pluralism."
Integrative psychotherapy is the primary and most common approach amongst seasoned psychotherapists. CIP's training prepares clinicians to effectively incorporate interventions from various disciplines. Despite being the most common approach amongst seasoned psychotherapists, few clinicians describe their theoretical orientation as 'integrative.'
Few training opportunities blend & balance empiricism and creativity in the therapeutic exchange.
A course of psychotherapy, like the stages of change, is usually recursive, not linear. Thus, applied integrative psychology emphasizes a dynamic, transtheoretical practice grounded in empiricism and adaptability.
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CIP trains clinicians to systematically and creatively build strong rapport, help solve problems, and explore the deepest depths & furthest transpersonal realms of the psyche openly, courageously, and without judgment.
History
CSPP was established in 1969, in partnership with the California Psychological Association. The Clinical PsyD Program opened in the Fall of 1991 and has been accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) since May, 1994.
In 1996, the Alliant's Provost convened community gatherings to expand the real-life usefulness of psychology in personal and community meaning making. With an initial goal of integrating what Jung referred to as the numinous into clinical psychology, the integrative emphasis was woven into the PsyD Curriculum and the unique entity that grew into CIP was born.
Legacy
The California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) and The Center for Integrative Psychology (CIP) share a rich history that includes important pioneers in the effort to move psychology out of the 'dogma eat dogma' era.
