About
IRIPS
The Institute for Relational-Integrative Psychotherapy of Serbia is an educational center for Relationally-Oriented, Developmentally-Based Integrative Psychotherapy according to the model of Dr. Richard G. Erskine. We organize a four-year training program in integrative psychotherapy, supervision workshops, experiential seminars, and psychotherapy marathons in accordance with the ethical, professional, and certification standards of the International Integrative Psychotherapy Association (IIPA).
What is integrative psychotherapy?
Integrative psychotherapy is a psychotherapeutic approach developed on the basis of a range of relationally oriented and developmentally based concepts. The theories and methods of integrative psychotherapy serve as a foundation for psychotherapists to facilitate the internal integration of a client’s bodily sensations, feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.
The term “Integrative Psychotherapy” was originally and primarily developed by Dr. Richard G. Erskine in 1972, while he was a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois.
The relational methods of integrative psychotherapy distinguish it as a unique school of psychotherapy and make a significant contribution to the field of psychotherapy as a whole. In integrative psychotherapy, the theory of method can be summarized in one sentence: healing the physical and emotional effects of stress, repeated relational disruptions, cumulative neglect, or trauma occurs through full contact within the therapeutic relationship. The methods consist of the therapeutic skills of inquiry, attunement, and involvement.
Developmental concepts provide the foundation for developmental attunement, the creation of developmental images, phenomenological inquiry, and therapeutic reasoning, enabling implicit and procedural memories to be expressed within the therapeutic narrative.
Although integrative psychotherapy incorporates perspectives on human functioning from several therapeutic schools, such as Transactional Analysis, Gestalt therapy, systemic family therapy, body psychotherapy, and psychodynamic approaches, it is not eclectic and stands as a distinct modality with a clearly formulated and coherent theoretical core.
Integrative psychotherapy is a process of personality integration. In brief, integration means committing to awareness of repressed, unconscious, or unresolved aspects of the personality so that the experience of self becomes whole; reducing the use of protective strategies that limit spontaneity and restrict flexibility in problem solving, maintaining health, relating to others, and engaging with the broader social environment in full contact.
The term “integrative” refers to the complete synthesis of the affective, behavioral, cognitive, physiological, and spiritual dimensions in both the theory and practice of psychotherapy, as well as to the outcome of psychotherapy itself – the integration of fragmented or fixed parts of the personality within the client. The goal of integrative psychotherapy is for each person to develop personal awareness and assume responsibility so that their behavior becomes a choice in a given situation, rather than being determined by compulsion, fear, or conditioning.
