Integral Life & Practice with Mark Forman

Integral Life & Practice --Mark Forman, PhD An event from Center for Integrative Psychology (not a San Diego Integral event)
Mark Forman, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist and the Clinical Director of Life Design Centre, an innovative psychotherapy studio dedicated to changing the lives of individuals, couples, children, and families. His text-- A Guide to Integral Psychotherapy: Complexity, Integration, and Spirituality in Practice -- is one of the seminal works in the field. He is also currently co-editing his second text which applies Integral principles to diversity concerns, titled Integral Approaches to Diversity Dynamics: Exploring the Maturation of Diversity Theory and Practice. It will be published in 2014. Integral Theory is one of the most complete frameworks for understanding human experience ever devised, meshing the psychological, spiritual, scientific, cultural, and social into an integrated whole. Its elegance and extraordinary explanatory power have made it one of the world’s most popular and studied philosophical theories. The Integral model also gives us clear ways to incorporate all the major approaches, including: Psychodynamic Interpersonal Cognitive behavioral Somatic Multicultural Feminist Existential/Transpersonal Integral Psychotherapy does not attempt to unify these diverse models, but rather takes a metatheoretical perspective, giving general guidelines for which is most appropriate in a wide range of situations. The application of integral theory is not limited to psychotherapy in clinical practice. It also strongly emphasizes the practitioner’s own personal development, whether an educator, nurse, or other health care professionals under the premise that the depth and complexity of the human psyche must be understood first within the self if it is to be understood fully in others. The Four Quadrant model is the central element in all of Integral Theory. When we understand it, we are able to approach the whole of a client’s, patient’s, or student’s life experience with clarity, openness, compassion, and understanding. With integral training, participants learn how to assess clients using a Four Quadrant framework and how to apply Four Quadrant knowing in care-giving and therapeutic relationships, working not only in a cognitive way, but also practicing how to see “sense” or intuit the Four Quadrants in real time.