So Fast Or Slow? On The Timing And Types Of Work Of A Psychologist And Psychosomat

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

Almost every time you read an article by a psychologist that "only 5 sessions and everything will be fine", you immediately come across responses "this only removes the symptom, it does not solve the problem", etc. But the opposite is also true. As soon as someone writes that psychotherapy is long, there will immediately be someone who will note that "everything can be done very shortly, if you do not know how, do not take it."

And the truth, as always, is somewhere in between. From my own experience, I can say that people often turning to a psychologist or psychotherapist do not fully know what they really want. This is natural, because if they were aware of what the actual essence of the problem is, then a lot could solve everything themselves, without outside help. 10 - 12 meetings is one of the most frequent options, when a client came up with one request, realized that the problems were completely different, but did not count on a long study. Sometimes clients before a psychotherapeutic interaction ask how long it takes to resolve a particular issue in order to save money in advance. By and large, the main discrepancies between reality and expectations are obtained for 2 reasons - financial constraints and insufficient motivation to change. (There used to be 2 more - time and the lack of objective information about who psychologists are, now with the development of Internet technologies and the advent of Skype consultations, these reasons have receded into the background). Such a situation frustrates not only the client, but also the psychotherapist himself, since his reputation suffers and, nevertheless, striving to be useful to the client, he begins to make mistakes (gives advice and ready-made conclusions, because - in order for the client to come to something - then it takes time). Then, in general, it turns out a complete perdimonocle, the client spent the money, and apart from the experience of interaction and advice, he really did not receive anything.

In order to prevent such a situation, I tell my clients what and in what time frame we can get, respectively, what we can count on and at what cost, including activity, it can turn out for us. The general scheme for all clients might look like this:

1. Psychological consultation. There are times when just 1 meeting with a psychologist is enough. Many experts divide it into 2, because you cannot build everything smoothly in 1 hour, personally I prefer 1, 5-2 hours to close the topic right away, since putting off something is lost, forgotten, depreciated, etc.

In the process of consultation, a person receives information on any issue of interest to him. It happens that a client is engaged in some kind of practice and he needs feedback (the webinar was downloaded on YouTube, but there is no one to ask a question during the process). Sometimes a person has a high level of reflection (introspection) and he needs to mirror his projections (just understand how he acts correctly or is dictated by his defense mechanisms leading away from the truth).

Parents often bring their children or husbands to consultations, and vice versa. They ask, "Is my child behaving this way and that is normal or not?" or "we are planning a move, how to prepare grandmother", "it happened that I got pregnant, how to tell my parents", etc. Married couples trying to find out who is right, who is wrong, and where next. And just people who are looking for an algorithm, a solution ("advise who to contact", "what needs to be done in such cases", "how to understand that what is happening is wrong", "do I really need psychotherapy or not", etc.). etc.).

Career guidance, various kinds of psychodiagnostics and testing can also be attributed to psychological counseling. In part, the articles that we write have just such a function. Whatever the complexity of the article, there is an answer or not, there is a plan or not, all this is nothing more than a generalized consultation. At the same time, the one who reads the articles of the specialist whom he plans to turn to, literally saves both time and money, since he already knows a lot that the psychologist would have to explain. Some psychologists put a very high price for this kind of service, since in one meeting you can get a set of techniques for working on yourself, an exhaustive answer, etc. Some, on the contrary, make discounts in order to reach low-income clients or to interest them in longer work.

2. Psychological correction. Here the process is a little more complicated and requires not just high-quality theoretical training of the psychologist, practical experience is important here, because no matter how the psychologist positions himself, he, by any of his words and actions, influences the essence of the issue. A person comes to change something specific. Most often, he has already read many articles on his issue and tried to do a lot himself, but something is not right.

In this form of work, techniques of behavioral therapy, NLP, trance / hypnosis, various techniques of "first aid" in a crisis, acute trauma, etc. are often used, the psychologist gives homework, exercises, algorithms, etc. In this case, it is not so important to understand childhood traumas, how much you just need to take and do, change, correct, redirect, approve, etc. The longest journey of a client in this case is about half a year, the average is 14 meetings. At its core, this kind of work often refers to directive psychotherapy, where, contrary to the popular belief that the psychologist does not give advice, psychocorrection assumes that either you take and do what leads you to change, or you received information, weighed the pros and cons and left with the knowledge that you were not ready to major changes. This is not to say that with nothing, at least you get information about your state and a plan for getting out of this state. And whether it's your decision to go out or not, the psychologist here will not do anything against the will of the client (even with the help of hypnosis). An example of a positive solution to the issue is a situation when a person was bitten by a dog and he began to be afraid of dogs. Trance, flood methods, cinemas and so on (depending on which direction the psychologist is working in) - and the fear goes away. Or if the parents have addressed the issue of the child's problematic behavior, the psychologist identifies what could be the reason and gives recommendations on how to change this situation. Parents start to follow the recommendations, the behavior changes, everyone is happy;)

3. Psychotherapy … This is a type of psychological interaction that implies a qualitative change in personality. It doesn't matter who and why we call psychotherapists. It is important that in order to engage in psychotherapy, both the doctor and the psychologist, in addition to academic education, receive additional psychotherapeutic and their own personal study. Psychotherapy is never short. If in psychocorrection you get an algorithm for working with something specific (you cannot cover everything and everything in a few meetings), then in psychotherapy, without receiving ready-made algorithms, you learn to solve your psychological questions without outside help (the point is not that you were given a technique, but that through personal changes you yourself find and develop your own personal techniques, begin to effectively manage yourself and your life in all areas). Even the name implies by itself that a person does not come for information and not to be tweaked by magic cogs, but for spiritual "healing". More often he does not come to therapy when everything is fine with him, and especially he comes to therapy when everything seems to be fine, but he still feels bad, there is no emotional balance, there are too many existential questions, the burden of memories, traumas experienced, etc. is too heavy. etc.. There is definitely no place for advice and ready-made recipes, while there is room unconditional acceptance (after all, when you are told "do this and you will get that", this is not acceptance, this is what initially implies the position "you are doing everything wrong, I teach you"), willingness to listen (while in counseling and correction, the psychologist speaks more), empathy, support, feedback, full involvement in the client's state and so on.. You cannot list everything, but in general, the question "what does psychotherapy give" can be answered "the same as the feeling of peace, inner growth and self-knowledge." Self-improvement is spinning on the tongue, but I don't feel it like "becoming perfect", I feel more like "feeling that you are satisfied and successful in your place."

For comparison, I can offer another example, more tangible in our experience. Think about your opinion of the people described below and what category do you belong to or which category you would like to belong to:

1 - a person does not understand how best to take care of himself, what diets to follow, whether to go in for sports, which specialist to turn to and whether he needs it at all, etc. - he is studying.

2 - before the beach season or after the holidays, a person goes on a strict diet and enrolls in the gym, masks-creams on the occasion, if to the doctor, then only by ambulance, etc.

3 - a person takes care of himself constantly, eats rationally, keeps the body in good shape with the help of light physical exertion, undergoes a planned medical examination, gets enough rest, etc.

This is approximately how the psychological need for a particular specialist and for certain changes may look like - to consult / study, remove a symptom / get a recommendation, or change oneself and the quality of one's life. People who try to correct themselves from time to time often say that this is not the first time they turn to a therapist. I always regard this as a mismatch between expectations and reality. Of course, there are different specialists, but more often this is due to the fact that the client expected to receive a quick solution, but did not realize its price. There are clients who work a lot on themselves on their own, they periodically come and go, but as a rule they work with the same specialist and both of them understand that the meetings are in the nature of counseling and correction. In order to come to psychotherapy, it is necessary to have an inner readiness for the fact that it will be for a long time, but most importantly, it is necessary to feel the need for such work (non-violent, supportive, helping, accepting, respectful, etc.). When no one devalues, does not urge, does not tell you how you should feel, etc.

Everyone chooses what is closer and more comfortable to him. However, in the case when the solution of problems was postponed for so long that they could not find any other way out except through the body (psychosomatic disorders or diseases), there is usually nowhere to delay. When mental pain turns into physical pain, ignoring the problem becomes not only more difficult, but also more dangerous. There is no time for consultations and articles on the Internet.

At the same time in work with psychosomatic diseases and disorders, the above formula changes … Psychotherapy is indispensable here, however, since many do not understand their state, what to do and how, at each stage of psychotherapy the question may arise "what is it, how to deal with it, what to do with it" and the therapist will have to explain a lot and tell how at the institute at a lecture. Moreover, from time to time, questions can be repeated and this is normal, because in order to learn and accept something, it is not enough just to take a word, you need to live with it a little, clarify and only then try on and accept.

Also, due to the fact that the psychosomatic client does not have a problem in general, but a specific symptom that annoys him, sometimes the work of an ambulance is needed, correction of the current state, homework, etc. As many were able to see, the formula it hurts think it “doesn’t help, and in order to stop the symptom you need to do something specific, through don’t want to, or with the help of drug therapy. Thought itself does not kill germs, does not establish metabolism, does not stop in the event of an obsessional problem, etc.

In the previous article I wrote about how different "psychosomatics" is and the complexity of the quality of assistance a client needs in a particular case. Psychosomatosis (asthma, migraine, neurodermatitis, gastrointestinal tract and cardiovascular diseases, etc.), neuroses (IBS, PA, OCD, etc.), masked depressions do not heal quickly.

So, depending on what result you are counting on, you can understand how long the work will last, what during this time a psychologist or psychotherapist can do and what not, and what will be required of yourself to achieve a result. I would like to believe that this article will help potential clients to orient themselves in relation to expectations with reality and will save time and money) And most importantly, it will reduce the feeling of dissatisfaction, frustration, etc. on each side.