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The practice of psychotherapy has been characterized by division and dogmatism since the origins of talk therapy with Freud (McGoldrick, Gerson, & Petry, 2008; Norcross & Goldfried, 2005). Today there seem to be two competing trajectories—one that seeks to build bridges and move toward integration of psychotherapy paradigms and another that seeks firmer boundaries between different approaches and resists integration. The reasons for the latter are myriad, including the nature of clinical research, which relies on clearly operationalized treatments; the pressures of managed care, which limit creativity and experimentation; and a culture of competition within academia, which can lead to the idealization of one’s own perspective and the devaluing of others. There are also valid and theoretically driven reasons for maintaining boundaries between psychotherapy approaches. The muddling of conceptualization and technique may lead to suboptimal psychotherapy process, resulting in compromised quality of care. Despite these challenges, there has been increasing emphasis on psychotherapy integration over the course of the last few decades (Norcross & Goldfried, 2005). However, the research and clinical writing on this topic has largely focused on integrative treatments for adults (Berking, Ebert, Cuijpers, & Hofmann, 2013; Bresler & Starr, 2015). This special issue of JICAP aims to soften the reified boundaries that separate theoretical perspectives and offer new perspectives on psychotherapy integration and its challenges with children, adolescents, and their families.
Although my professional identity has largely been defined by my commitment to scholarship in the area of psychodynamic psychotherapy, there has always been a consistent thread of psychotherapy integration. My seminary training prepared me with treatment approaches that integrate issues of religiosity and spirituality. At Cambridge Health Alliance, I trained with Ross Greene and Stuart Ablon using their Collabor