Who Is A Psychologist And How Can He Help?

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

For a long time in our country there was an opinion that only mentally unhealthy people should consult a psychologist. This misconception is associated with insufficient awareness of the content of psychological assistance as such, as well as the difference between the work of such specialists as a practical psychologist, psychotherapist, clinical psychologist and psychiatrist.

I am often asked: “How does a psychologist differ from a psychotherapist and psychiatrist? "How can he help at all?"

So, a psychologist is a certified specialist who provides psychological assistance to mentally healthy people. Psychologists who engage in practical work with people (not research or teaching) are called practical psychologists.

As for the psychotherapist, the situation is as follows. There are various models of psychotherapeutic assistance - medical, psychological, etc. [Vachkov, Grinshpun, Pryazhnikov, 2004]. In the medical model, a psychotherapist (like a clinical psychologist) is a specialist with a medical education who carries out his work in a clinic. Such a specialist, as a rule, deals with patients with mental and nervous disorders (neuroses, clinical depression, borderline states, etc.). The psychiatrist works with people with serious mental illness in medical institutions (psychiatric clinics and hospitals).

There is such a thing as personality-oriented psychotherapist … This is a practical psychologist who provides psychological assistance to people using various techniques and techniques of psychotherapy, which allow t deeply and comprehensively to work out the client's problems with maximum benefit for the latter. This is the form of psychotherapy that I am engaged in.

The psychologist does not heal the sick! It helps healthy and normal people overcome difficulties, understand yourself and your relationships, go through a difficult period in life or get important information with the help of special knowledge and skills that he receives through education and experience.

There are the following types of psychological assistance:

• psychological counseling - providing the client with the necessary psychological information to help overcome life difficulties (for example, if you need to get information on the age-related development of the child);
• psychotherapy, aimed at a deep study of personal problems and characteristics, in order to provide effective and comprehensive psychological assistance to the client.

So how can a practical psychologist help? Here are some of the professional competencies of a psychologist:

• a psychologist will help find answers to those questions that have troubled you for a long time (“I don’t know what to do”, “I don’t understand what is happening”, “I don’t find a way out of the situation, etc.”;
• the psychologist will help restore harmony in an emotional state (if it hurts, sad, you don't want anything, tears do not stop flowing, resentment, anger, hatred, etc. gnaws at);
• the psychologist will help understand complex relationships with the opposite sex (unrequited love, "everything is complicated and confused", "I can't build a relationship", relationships with a mistress / lover, etc.);
• the psychologist will help understand complex relationships with other people (with relatives, colleagues, strangers, etc.);
• the psychologist will help survive the grief (death of a loved one);
• the psychologist will help survive a divorce (with the least emotional losses and trauma);
• the psychologist will help get out of a personal crisis with the least loss (faster and more painless)
• the psychologist will help build a relationship with a child (with kids)
• psychologist will provide you with the information you need (concerning the development of the child, the peculiarities of the functioning of the family and marriage, the peculiarities of the functioning of the psyche of the elderly person, etc.)

A psychologist can accomplish this and much more with the help of the knowledge that he received in the course of his many years of study at the university and in various advanced training courses; with the help of psychological techniques and techniques that he owns; with the help of specially built relationships that have a psychotherapeutic effect.

Do not be shy or afraid to seek professional help! We are not engaged in self-extraction of teeth! In human psychology, the situation is exactly the same - a professional psychologist will help you deal with your difficulties with the least loss of mental and physical health, time and relationships!