THE INTEGRATIVE HELPER

CONTENTS

PREFACE

There are four interrelated objectives for this book:

1. To provide a readable, practical overview of the fundamental dynamics of human behavior and consciousness.
2. To highlight important contributions from the world's psychologies that are not well-known in Western psychology.
3. To facilitate readers developing their own integrated understanding of psychology and helping processes.
4. To identify knowledge and skills that an optimal psychologist or helper would have.

Chapter one elaborates on these objectives. And at the end of this preface is a listing of some of the helper skills, reader/client activities, and clinical examples found in the text. Next, I say a little more about for whom the book is intended, and then thank people who helped in its creation.

As stated in chapter one, this book is for anyone who functions as a helper with oneself and others, including psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, counselors, teachers, parents, and others. The book is intended for college courses and for people in the field.

In terms of college courses, due to its broad and exploratory approach, the book could be a supplementary text in courses on therapy and change techniques, in psychology, counseling, social work, and health. This is particularly true for instructors who wish to add one or more of the following components to their courses: powerful therapies from Asian psychologies that are coming into Western psychology, complementary psychophysical health practices that are being established by research and more and more supported by insurance companies and managed health care, important and widespread biological and transpersonal influences on psychology, and cross-cultural integrative models of psychology and change processes.

There are also courses where this would be a primary text, such as courses specifically geared toward the students synthesizing their knowledge and developing their own broad integrated perspectives. This includes senior honors courses and other undergraduate or graduate capstone courses. This book encourages students to integrate what they know, and provides some possible conceptualizations for this integration. It also exposes them to many ideas and practices they have not yet considered. This can help them reflect on some of their assumptions and gain a more accurate understanding of their current knowledge and skills.

Currently, perhaps the most important and influential movement in clinical psychology and counseling is the development of integrative/eclectic therapies. Every year there are more and more courses devoted to this topic, nationally and worldwide. This book is intended for such courses and covers many topics not found in any other such book. This book would package very well with Gold's (1996) summary of Western psychotherapy integration and/or Wilber's (2000) overview of his integrative integral psychology. Other possible readings are listed at the beginning of chapter two.

In addition to college courses, this book is intended for helpers in the field. After a necessarily limited formal education, such people continue to learn and grow through means such as personal reading, workshops, and professional experiences. This book contains many topics and change approaches that were not part of most of these people's formal education, but which they may now be gradually encountering, such as some of the material from Eastern psychologies, biological psychology, and transpersonal psychology. This book provides a practical discussion of these topics, plus key references for further learning.

Many people contributed to the development of this book. Jay Gould sharpened my biological discussion, Roz Hussong expanded my knowledge of cultural variables, and John Ritchie kept me abreast of important issues in men's psychology and the men's movement. John, and the students in my Conjunctive Psychology courses of Fall 1998 and Fall 2000, read through an entire earlier draft of the book and provided many helpful suggestions. The second conjunctive course also helped generate 49 of the 165 thought questions.

Special thanks go to my friend and production assistant Connie Works who delights in contributing to my books and papers. Because of her, I can write in longhand and later have all the advantages of the computer technology. I marvel at her ability to type very quickly while also reading content. In addition to appreciating her great help in producing publications, I greatly value the person Connie, a quality lady of quiet strength who has made many people's lives better. Connie is also the webmaster of this website.

HELPER SKILLS

mindfulness of breathing
relaxation procedures
mindfulness of body
seeing operant contingencies
seeing operant/respondent interrelationships
mindfulness of behavior
behavior modification
behaviors of mind
art of living

READER/CLIENT ACTIVITIES

mindfulness of breathing
dependent origination
attachment log
mandala
personal tarot
self-meditations
pie exercise
lovingkindness meditation
journal keeping
right speech
conjunctive pyramid

CLINICAL EXAMPLES

Caucasian and Chinese assessment
food allergy
physical size
school anxiety
cognition and emotion
depth perception
teaching story
learning without awareness
expectation and perception
multiple selves

 

http://uwf.edu/psych/mikulas.html
Last modified 4/22/02
© Copyright 1999, 2000. All rights reserved.
Department of Psychology
University of West Florida
Pensacola, FL 32514