Self-promotion Of A Psychologist: To Be Or Not To Be?

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

Novice psychologists and psychotherapists are sometimes afraid to promote themselves, talk about themselves, avoid self-promotion. In some cases, this hides a lack of self-confidence, as in specialists. And sometimes - unwillingness to go into populism, fear of becoming superficial and saying banal things.

The question of self-doubt is solved quite simply: psychotherapy, on the one hand, and independent work with inner confidence, on the other. Moreover, speaking of inner work on confidence, I mean not only psychological self-help techniques to increase confidence. Confidence must have a foundation that is reinforced by increasing knowledge and skills, although not always. There are many highly qualified psychologists with scientific publications and hundreds of hours of training under their belt. This is a wonderful foundation for confidence. But they still remain unsure of their competence, believing that knowledge is still not enough. Professional development should always go hand in hand with work on self-confidence, so that this knowledge is not afraid to apply.

With psychologists who shy away from promotion for fear of falling into populism, things are a little more complicated. In their minds, serious psychology (and even more so, psychotherapy) and active self-promotion are incompatible. Well, of course, after all, psychotherapy is depth, and so many superficial people are engaged in self-promotion and self-promotion, sometimes outright charlatans who take only with their charisma, without deep scientific knowledge. And in some ways they are right: this is the trend of our time. Populism, pop music, popularity. Sweeping aside populism, they sweep aside popularity, eschew the very idea of promoting themselves and their services. Perhaps, at the same time, they "throw out the child with water," together with the unnecessary, rejecting something very valuable.

What's wrong with sharing your depth, sharing it with others? Don't become a "pop" trainer, become a "deep" psychotherapist. But if you have chosen this path, then for sure for a reason, but among other things - to help people. But how do you plan to help if no one knows how much benefit you can do. Word of mouth is great. But until it works, years will pass. Maybe someone needs your help right now. Yes, there are many psychologists and psychotherapists. But they are all different: they work in different methods, different approaches, they have different temperaments and each has its own energy (I hope this word doesn’t sound too “pop”, but “you won’t get the word out of the song”). And each client is looking for a psychotherapist who, according to all these parameters, is right for him. After all, not every person can open up. And the level of qualification here does not play the first, and not even the second role. Imagine that somewhere there is a client who is waiting for you: with your temperament and your qualities; you - exactly as you are now. And you are separated only by your unwillingness to talk to him: to talk about yourself, share your thoughts on the Internet, social networks and YouTube.

Stop being selfish and thinking only about yourself: how not to become "pop". Promotion tools are just marketing tools. Not for everyone: superficial and deep, charlatans and specialists, psychics and trainers, fortune-tellers and psychotherapists. And if you have depth, share it. Use versatile tools to introduce yourself as a psychotherapist. Take the grains and discard the husks. Take the promotion tools and throw away the content that you don't like, fill them with your content, your knowledge, yourself, the way you are. And let the world know about you. Who knows, maybe this will help someone right tomorrow.