The Art Of Initial Consultation

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

An initial consultation with a client for a psychologist is always exciting, regardless of the paradigm in which the specialist works. Beginning psychologists in this regard become even more anxious, due to the lack of accumulated experience that would reduce the anxiety and anxiety from the first meeting.

Initial psychological counseling is a meeting of two individuals, one of whom is an expert and the other is a client. And their interpersonal interaction helps to shed light on the problem, which usually centers on the suffering with which it came.

In this article I will try to structure the work of a specialist at the initial consultation and describe the tools that will help the psychologist to conduct the meeting more effectively.

The first thing that I would like to outline is the tasks that a specialist faces during the initial session.

The fundamental task of starting a consultation is to create a report with the client. The specialist creates a safe space for trusting relationships. It is non-judgmental and active listening that allows the client to relax and start a dialogue about their problem. Many clients perceive the psychologist as a person who is no longer surprised by anything. Such clients try to impress the specialist by dramatizing and exaggerating events. In this case, it is important for a psychologist to be able to distinguish between fantasies and manipulations so as not to be involved in a game that can quickly drag a specialist into the role of a rescuer or, even worse, a savior.

As a result, the second task of the psychologist is not to lose touch with reality and to clarify with questions and details the information that the client gives about a particular event.

The connection with the objective reality of the specialist himself is provided by an internal "constructive critic" or, say, to some extent by doubting what the client said. At the same time, the specialist empathizes with the client and understands what kind of suffering this or that problem brings him.

For example, a client talks about the grief that consumed him. He is apathetic and depressed, indifferent to himself and his life. The specialist clarifies with questions from objective reality: were there any loss of a loved one, violence, trauma, and so on. If there were no such events in the client's anamnesis, we begin to turn to the client's psychic reality, in which this is played out. We collect information about parents, loved ones, relationships. And it may be that his mother was in depression and grief all her life, and he (the client), as a child, decided to share her depression with her in order to maintain a connection. As a consequence, a client who has had no tragedies in his life can be in grief and depression without much signs of stress in objective reality. Thus, a specialist cannot broadcast to a client who has come with suffering, but has no reason in reality, that everything is all right with him, since there are no apparent reasons.

The next task of a psychologist is to assess whether this is a client, whether there are any indications for contacting a psychiatrist or other medical specialists. The psychologist must clearly understand the field of his activity and his capabilities. Thanks to this knowledge, he can determine the client's resource status: the ability to reflect and change.

Involving a client in consulting is the next task of a specialist. The client, together with the psychologist, begins to deeply explore their emotions and feelings. At the same time, some ways of responding to certain feelings begin to unfold, that is, the protective mechanisms of the psyche are clarified. The specialist builds a picture of the client's internal and external communication both with others and with himself.

Further, the psychologist interprets and reflects the client's material, indicating what problem lies in the depth of his treatment and determines the time and general strategy for working with this problem. Such a joint discussion enables both the specialist and the client to see the result of the meeting. Typically, this result is an empathic response to the client's needs and solutions to meet the client's own satisfaction. It is important that the first meeting for the client is a new look at his problem, so that the result of this meeting is meaningful for him and instills confidence that he can change what he wants to change and get rid of what he wants to get rid of.

The art of the first consultation becomes different for each specialist. This is a special handwriting of a psychologist, and his accumulated experience, and the ability to be spontaneous, as well as practical and theoretical material passed through, since there is no single form of initial consultation. I hope my attempt to structure such a complex work has helped to clarify the hidden aspects of our difficult profession.

Good job to us!