Editorial: Integration in Couple and Family Therapy

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12476
• Author: Jay L. Lebow
• Date: 01 September 2019
• Published date: 01 September 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019 VOLUME 58 NUMBER 3

Editorial: Integration in Couple and Family Therapy

JAY L. LEBOW*

Fam Proc 58:527–531, 2019

This issue features a special section focused on integration in couple and family ther-

apy. This is a subject about which I have written several articles, chapters, and a book

elsewhere (Lebow, 1984, 1987, 1997, 2006, 2014, 2016) and I have contributed an article to

the special section. Here, I center on a few specific aspects of this movement spurred by

the articles in our special section: the “both-and” focus on the individual and couple/family;

the blending of various theoretical concepts and pragmatic methods of intervention; the

foundation of all therapies in a set of common factors and shared strategies; the genera-

tion of hypotheses about core principles of practice; the presence in our work with families

of topics about which there are long and distinguished histories of examination through

multiple lenses; the emergence of culture as a crucial framework in integrative practice;

the interconnection between integration and translating research into practice; and the

need for attention to the integration of methods between therapists treating members of

the same family and between supervisees and supervisors.

As I suggest in my article in this issue (Lebow, 2019), integration across methods of

practice is very much with us. One prominent aspect in many integrations is the melding

of individual and systemic concepts and of individual and conjoint session structures

(Chambers, 2019; Fraenkel, 2019; Kelly et al., 2019; Russell & Breunlin, 2019; Scheink-

man, 2019). Although there remain some pure form “old school” systemic practitioners

who focus exclusively on the family system, couple and family therapy has for good or ill (I

think mostly for good though others may disagree) become therapy that includes such an

integration of individual and systemic processes. This “both-and” view predominates

despite early warnings by the first generation of family therapists to beware of focusing

too much on the individual, lest it erode systemic thinking and practice (Haley, 1975;

Napier & Whitaker, 1988). A multitude of valuable contributions in research and clinical

practice have established both systemic and individual processes as crucial inputs in

human functioning (Demby, Riggs, & Kaminski, 2017; Ganong & Coleman, 2018; Tissot,

Favez, Ghisletta, Frascarolo, & Despland, 2017) and have provided a vast array of

*Family Institute at Northwestern, Evanston, IL .

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jay L. Lebow, Family Institute at North-

western, 618 Library Place, Evanston, IL 60201. E-mail: j-lebow@northwestern.edu.

527

Family Process, Vol. 58, No. 3, 2019 ©2019 Family Process Institute

doi: 10.1111/famp.12476