Integrative Community Therapy (ICT): What is it?

January 25, 2023

Integrative Community Therapy: Why it should matter to psychologists, therapists, and communities

The Birth of TCI: From the favelas of Brazil to communities worldwide

Integrative Community Therapy (ICT, based on the Brazilian method of Terapia Comunitária Integrativa) is a unique large group dialogic therapeutic modality that requires only short-term training, can accommodate groups from 15-200 people, and can be performed successfully in an online format. Terapia Comunitária Integrativa was created by psychiatrist/anthropologist Dr. Adalberto Barreto in response to an increased need for meaningful community-based mental health services in the extremely low-income neighborhoods (also known as favelas) of Fortaleza, Brazil.

This modality is based on a five-step participatory structure that elicits therapeutic community conversation and knowledge-sharing in groups of 15 or more. The primary benefits are community building, promoting a sense of “shared suffering,” providing a space of inclusion and diversity, sharing experiences to promote healthy coping strategies, and creating and reinforcing social/support networks. By emphasizing community-building in a shared environment, ICT creates a forum for solidarity, collective healing and proliferation of resiliency.

TCI is now a worldwide movement with excellent results

Today, Brazil has over 42 training centers that have trained 37 thousand community therapists nation-wide, and TCI is offered across Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe as a first-line treatment for patients who present to their primary care physician with mild to moderate mental health complaints as a supplement to medical management. Research examined surveys from 12,000 participants and found 88.5% reported that they had successfully resolved their primary mental health complaint.

Our goal: Attainable, affordable, accessible mental health services for all

Visible Hands Collaborative’s goal is to train a cohort of community members who can facilitate Integrative Commmunity Therapy, bringing this much-needed service to the Southwestern Pennsylvania region and the English-speaking world more broadly. By training a cadre of community mental health workers in ICT, Visible Hands Collaborative hopes to subsequently create a new and sustainable stream of mental health services provided with, by and for the community that increases access while minimizing stress to existing systems.

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