One of the first things one notices when looking for a psychotherapist or a coach is that there are different approaches, different schools. The question naturally arises - Which approach is right for me? You start googling what they are and how they differ from each other. You will find that there are many of them and it is not easy to navigate through them. So you may be pleased to know that scientific research shows that all the common and established approaches work equally well.

This means that you don't have to worry about taking the "wrong approach" in this respect. It's all about what suits you the best, personally. One could even say that it is more about how you match with the psychologist on basis of your personalities. That is to say, even two psychologists with the same therapeutic approach will not be exactly the same. Everyone is different as a person, and that shows in the sessions, in their work.

You can read about various approaches here "Ako si nájsť správneho psychológa".

Where does the Integrative Approach fit into this? The integrative approach is not uniform. Each psychotherapist / coach with this approach integrates in their own way and from different sources. My main resource is Solution Focused Therapy and to that I add other approaches I mention above on the page. While the integrative approach tries to be flexible and adapt to the client, that still doesn't mean it will work for everyone.

While the idea of integration is to select the best of different approaches, this does not mean that this approach is superior to the others. Although I personally, like any therapist, try to develop my approach and myself to help my clients as much as possible. In the interest of transparency and fairness, I want to caution against statements that any one approach is the "best" and most effective and "guaranteed" to help you. This style of text suggests a misleading and unprofessional approach.

In the end, I'll repeat what matters most - how you feel about the human side of a given psychologist. Unfortunately, you can't find that out completely in advance, but you can get some impression of the person from the site and their articles or interviews. Remember that if the psychologist doesn't suit you after a few sessions, you can change him or her at any time. The important thing is that the psychotherapy environment is a safe and stimulating environment for you. Feel free to look around my site and consider giving me the opportunity to be a professional guide through your journey of mental health treatment or personal development. Further reading about my approach HERE..

I currently work with people above 18 years old.

Scientific research with one graph: in this figure, zero means low efficiency and one means very high efficiency. The colored dots represent different comparisons of psychotherapy in adults with depression. We are interested in the column on the far right, indicated by the red rectangle. The green point in this column is close to 0.8, indicating high effectiveness of the therapy compared to a group of people who have not yet received therapy and are waiting for it (the so-called "waiting list" condition). The research involved almost 300 clinical trials (each trial involves hundreds of people, so the total number is in the hundreds of thousands).

Source of the image (in study as Fig.1): Munder, T., Flückiger, C., Leichsenring, F., Abbass, A. A., Hilsenroth, M. J., Luyten, P., Rabung, S., Steinert, C., & Wampold, B. E. (2019). Is psychotherapy effective? A re-analysis of treatments for depression. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 28(03), 268–274. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796018000355 

The online form of psychotherapy has been practiced and researched since the beginning of this millennium. In that time, also due to COVID-19, there has been a great deal of research on tens of thousands of participants. Online forms of psychotherapy have been shown to help people just as effectively as in-person sessions. However, you need to consider all the pros and cons whether this form of therapy is right for you.

Sources:

Batastini, A. B., Paprzycki, P., Jones, A. C. T., & MacLean, N. (2021). Are videoconferenced mental and behavioral health services just as good as in-person? A meta-analysis of a fast-growing practice. Clinical Psychology Review, 83, 101944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2020.101944

Carlbring, P., Andersson, G., Cuijpers, P., Riper, H., & Hedman-Lagerlöf, E. (2018). Internet-based vs. face-to-face cognitive behavior therapy for psychiatric and somatic disorders: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 47(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2017.1401115

Dhillon, S., & Verma, G. (2022). Online Therapy and its Effectiveness in the Treatment of Mental Disorders. Indian Journal of Health & Wellbeing, 13(4), 554.

Sriati, A., Kurniawan, K., Senjaya, S., Khoirunnisa, K., Muslim, R. N. I., Putri, A. M., Aghnia, N., & Fitriani, N. (2023). The Effectiveness of Digital-Based Psychotherapy in Overcoming Psychological Problems in College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 089801012311629. https://doi.org/10.1177/08980101231162990

Scientific research in one chart: in this figure we see the incidence of adverse effects in a broader sense, expressed as a percentage. A person could report more than one adverse effect, so each column could have values from 0% to 100%. The study includes 330 people.

Source of the image (in study as Figure 1): Pourová, M., Řiháček, T., Chvála, L., Vybíral, Z., & Boehnke, J. R. (2023). Negative effects during multicomponent group-based treatment: A multisite study. Psychotherapy Research, 33(3), 282–297. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2022.2095237 

Sources: Polákovská, L. (2018). Nežádoucí účinky psychoterapie. Psychoterapie, 2(12), 115–131. URL: https://journals.muni.cz/psychoterapie/article/view/10455/9432 

Strauss, B., Gawlytta, R., Schleu, A., & Frenzl, D. (2021). Negative effects of psychotherapy: Estimating the prevalence in a random national sample. BJPsych Open, 7(6), e186. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2021.1025 

Psychotherapy is a service that requires adherence to high ethical standards. You can find Code of Ethics of psychotherapist on the website of Slovakian psychotherapeutic society (Slovenskej psychoterapeutickej spoločnosti - SPS) here: https://psychoterapeuti.org/sps/stranka/zdruzenie-eticky-kodex 

This code is adapted from code of European Association for Psychotherapy (EAP) and you can find the original version in english language here: https://www.europsyche.org/quality-standards/eap-guidelines/statement-of-ethical-principles/ 

• In the event of a late show-up, I cannot extend the session, so I recommend leaving plenty of time to arrive or set up your PC / laptop - to make the most of your session time.

• If you cancel less than 24h before the session, I charge 50% of the session price. If you do Not show up without notice, I charge 100% of the session price. Please let me know if you have to cancel the session. Exceptions can be made in some cases, I reserve the right to judge this on individual basis.

In this figure, the black dots to the right of the dividing line (point zero) represent the research result in favour of combination therapy. It can be seen that all the sub-results (squares and circles), and the overall result below marked in red, are to the right of point 0. The research included 650,514 people.

Source of picture (in study as Figure 4): Leichsenring, F., Steinert, C., Rabung, S., & Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2022). The efficacy of psychotherapies and pharmacotherapies for mental disorders in adults: An umbrella review and meta‐analytic evaluation of recent meta‐analyses. World Psychiatry, 21(1), 133–145. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20941

If you need to document your condition, for example for the legal authorities and work (sick leave) or insurance company, you need to see a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist. I do NOT do psychodiagnostics for medical documentation purposes. However, I am proficient in psychiatric diagnoses (as any therapist should be).

If you have any other questions, try to see if you can find the answers in the expanded FAQ section (sorry, not everything is translated into english yet).

In any case, you can also write me / call me and ask directly.