PSYCHOLOGICAL EDUCATION AND AS PSYCHOLOGISTS

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

There is a very persistent illusion that psychological education allows you to understand yourself and solve some problems. This is absolutely not the case. At the same time, guided by this illusion, psychologically very problematic guys often (but not always!) Go to study to be psychologists. Having experience in teaching and communicating with students of the psychological, historical, linguistic, graphic arts faculties, I can confidently say that psychologists and educational psychologists, for the most part, are the most difficult. First of all - in terms of communication, independence and initiative. And graduates from the walls of the university are not at all a specialist in working with people and their problems.

This fact is explained by two circumstances.

First. In psychology, there is a serious gap between academic (scientific) and practical psychology. "Academists" conduct research, write scientific articles, receive scientific degrees and, for the most part, teach in universities. Practitioners are divided into two categories - conducting trainings and consulting. It is not at all guaranteed that the one who does all kinds of training perfectly is at the same time a good consultant. More often these two categories coexist without overlapping. Only a few of the first and second categories teach in universities. Practitioners can also get an academic degree, but this is either "for themselves" or as a result of their previous hobby for academic psychology.

Academic psychologists can be well versed in their scientific problems, but be completely helpless both in solving their problems and in helping other people. Why? Because the achievements of academic psychology for the most part are not reflected in the work of practitioners. If only because the psychologist-scientist is focused not on solving the client's problem, but on studying the properties of the human psyche. So that's it. Educational programs for the training of psychologists in Russia are focused on training psychologists, not practitioners. A lot of hours in theoretical disciplines, mathematical statistics, psychodiagnostics, and little for practice. In some universities, this problem is solved as an option, at the expense of additional classes. in some they do not decide in any way. It turns out scientists, not practitioners.

And a legion of psychologists who know a huge layer of theoretical literature goes out into the open spaces of Russia, with a wild porridge in their heads and with a minimal idea of how to work with a client. They know well WHAT needs to be done, but at the same time they do not know or do not know how to do it. Sometimes the dialogue in the classroom proceeds in the following way:

- So, what needs to be done in such and such a case?

- We need to do this and that.

- Well, how to do it?

- Well, you need to find out the reasons …

- This is clear. I ask, HOW to find out the reasons if the client is not particularly disposed towards you?

- Well … We need to win him over.

- HOW?

And on this - a stupor. If I also add something like "how to work later when the reasons were revealed", then an awkward silence reigns at all.

Psychologists like these are clearly visible on psychological forums - they talk in detail about your problems, make diagnoses, but as soon as it comes to what and how to do, they confine themselves to something like "you need to raise your self-esteem … Well, there are affirmations … ".

Second circumstance. Knowing about your problem does not help in any way to solve it. Here, a person knows that he is not punctual or that he overeats. Does this somehow fundamentally change the situation? He may even know that his overeating is related to the anxiety he experiences when he thinks about the future. And he continues to worry and eat. Knowledge creates the illusion of control and calms down a little, knocks down the motivation for change. That is why it is so difficult to work with psychologists or with students: "we all already know that …". In order to solve the problem, you need to get up and go to a psychologist, undergo personal therapy. But this is not happening. The university cannot provide personal therapy for all students, it is a private matter. And some of the learners are learning important customer experiences on their own.

But client experience is not enough, you need experience and a therapist. And it can be obtained by studying at special, non-university training courses organized by private psychotherapy centers or state ones, but optional, as additional education. And again, only a few of the novice psychologists go there to study.

Ultimately, a psychologist's diploma is only a confirmation that a given person knows something about the science of the human psyche (most likely, in fragments), and nothing more. He cannot say anything about his skills. If a graduate has only a diploma and nothing else, and he begins to give private consultations, then, most often, he works with all his might to discredit the profession, hiding his own anxiety behind a confident look and giving advice.

If a student studied well, then he has a good base for starting real training as a psychologist.

There are, of course, exceptions. But they are still the exception.