Reflections On Psychologists

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

1) What should you pay attention to, what questions should you ask a specialist to be sure that you are working with a professional? Will the mountain of questions from a specialist scare away and he himself will refuse to accept you?

- You have every right to ask: what experience of a psychologist, where he studied, are there any publications, is he in professional communities, is there a website or a professional page. Personally, such questions do not scare me - a person has the right to know information of this kind, the more I open up, the easier it will be to set up a client for a consultation. The mountain of questions testifies not so much to distrust as to a high level of client motivation, and sometimes negative previous experience of working with a psychologist. In general, there should be no refusal to accept a client because of questions about competence.

2) What diplomas / licenses / certificates, in a word, documents should a psychologist have? Or is not obliged to provide anything.

- The main document is a state-standard diploma of a psychologist, certificates and testimonies have no legal force in our country, however, it is advisable for a psychologist to improve his professional level, undergo retraining, and be a member of communities. And, ideally, a specialist should have a supervisor (such as a teacher, an experienced colleague who will help with advice and point out shortcomings in the work) or an intervision group (this is when psychologists gather and share experience, talk about difficulties in work, share new techniques and approaches, analyze his work (the names and all personal data of the client remain secret.) If you come to an appointment with a psychologist at an institution, then his diploma is in a personal file, otherwise he would not work. If this is a private appointment, a specialist must provide a diploma at the client's request purely for professional reasons and for the emotional comfort of the client.

3) When I already started working with a specialist, what points should alert the client?

- A psychologist is not a doctor and not an esoteric, he does not prescribe drugs and performs rituals. If a psychologist sees psychiatry in a client or suspects it, he must refer the person to a psychiatrist. The psychologist's tool is the word, you can use art techniques: drawing, modeling, associative cards, etc. But the consultation itself is a conversation directed in the "right direction" with the help of a psychologist. The psychologist does not have to say more to the client. The client should also be alerted by the promise of quick results in work (no one has invented magic pills yet). It is unacceptable for a psychologist to be rude and assess the client's personality (discuss only behavior, action). There is a method of provocative psychology, when you are rude and provoked, but here everyone chooses for himself and in scientific psychology its effectiveness is questionable, it is used most often in coaching. It is important for a good professional to adhere to tactics and confidentiality at work. Psychologist's advice is not universal, they are recommendatory in nature and, ideally, the client himself forms recommendations for himself, which he can adhere to, based on the awareness of the motives of his behavior identified in the work with the psychologist. At the end of the consultation, it is important that the psychologist asks you to voice your condition, your feelings with which you are leaving - it is very important that the client does not feel overwhelmed and has a "plan of action" at least until the next consultation.