2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43
Turning to specialists and experts is a normal practice these days. To fix shoes, change oil in a car, heal a tooth - there are quite a lot of such narrow specialists even in small towns. Everything is simple and clear with their services: you contact them when necessary, and the result of their work is visible and tangible. There are also more complex areas where you may need the help of a consultant - legal and financial issues, as well as issues of your health in general. It is to this area that the work of a psychologist-consultant belongs. What can you expect from a psychotherapy session? I noticed that, thanks to films, TV shows, articles in popular publications, many people have already formed stereotypes about the work of a psychologist. An office with a couch, a silent doctor who constantly takes notes, stories about childhood and relationships with parents. As a practicing consultant, I would like to dispel several myths about the essence of the work of a psychologist, psychotherapist, mental well-being consultant. From time to time I encountered such ideas in my work with clients, as well as my colleagues. Perhaps you will recognize your position in these statements, and you will also be able to look at our work from the other side.
Myth # 1. The psychologist finds problems that don't exist
The concept of "problem" has indeed been actively used by many generations of psychotherapists. But today this term is already outdated. As a rule, it is not the consultant who finds the problem, but the client himself. The person who feels some kind of dissatisfaction or conflict in his life. With the feeling of this problem, he comes to the session. A professional consultant, using his knowledge and tools, creates a task or a set of tasks from a problem … The problem is fundamentally different. The problem is an impasse (you must admit that if you saw a way out of the impasse, you would hardly seek professional help). And the problem can be solved! If the solution to this problem is associated with mental factors, the psychologist selects the keys and ways to solve it. If the solution to this problem relates to another area of your life - household, economic, medical, then a competent and responsible psychotherapist will refer you to the appropriate specialist. Each task, by definition, has a specific result: getting a new job, stable states for a certain period of time, equal relationships with people, etc.
Having successfully solved one problem, you can switch to others - more complex and promising ones, which will contribute to positive changes in your life and development. And the decision to continue such work you make yourself.
Myth # 2. The psychologist will tell me what to do
Even if you are not yet 18 years old and your parents and guardians are responsible for you, even in this case the psychologist cannot make a decision for you. Each of us is destined to go through our life route. A counselor can show you the best ways to achieve your goals, teach you useful skills, guide you through trials and lessons. But the choice in which direction to turn is yours.
Myth # 3. Only psychos and abnormal go to psychologists
This misconception has arisen as a result of confusion in concepts. Let's take everything in order. There are several professions, in one way or another, related to the work on human mental health. So,
- psychologist is a specialist with higher psychological education … He has the right to engage in individual and group psychological counseling, as well as to be a teacher of psychological disciplines in secondary, specialized secondary and higher educational institutions. Psychologist works with mentally healthy people who are in difficult life situations. The psychologist does not make a medical diagnosis or prescribe drugs. He does the accompanying work. The main tools of his work are psychological conversations, diagnostic techniques.
- psychologist - psychotherapist. In order to conduct psychotherapeutic work, a psychologist in addition to a diploma in higher psychological education, it is necessary to undergo additional training in line with one of the psychotherapeutic directions recognized by the world community (psychoanalysis, gestalt therapy, body-oriented therapy, NLP, etc.). The training must be led by a practitioner (at least 10 years), a specialist who also supervises the work of his ward. Since in Russia the Law on the conduct of psychological and psychotherapeutic activity is at the stage of approval, then international law comes into force, namely Strasbourg Declaration on Psychotherapy (1990).
More information about the requirements for psychologists-psychotherapists, imposed by the Strasbourg Convention, you can see here:
Psychologist-psychotherapist also does not prescribe drugs or make a medical diagnosis, but conducts therapeutic sessions based on the tools of his psychotherapeutic direction (technology, exercises, eriksonian hypnosis, etc.) The range of requests of a psychologist-psychotherapist is also much wider: therapy of negative states, management of emotions and mood, stabilization of mental well-being, family therapy, etc.
- psychiatrist - a specialist who received higher medical education diploma with the passage of the profile specialization "Psychiatry". It is psychiatrists and psychotherapists work with mentally ill people, make a medical diagnosis (schizophrenia, hysteria, manic-depressive psychosis, etc.), prescribe medications, register, decide on hospitalization of their patients. Doctors-psychotherapists combine in their practice therapy with medicines and psychocorrectional techniques.
About where the norm ends and pathology begins, representatives of the psychological community are still arguing
Myth # 4. The psychologist is a paid "vest for tears"
Most likely, having found yourself in a difficult situation, you have already heard compassionate advice: "Cry, and it will become easier for you." Perhaps you really felt better. For a short time. And then, through a series of such tears, you became convinced of the veracity of the Russian proverb that tears of sorrow will not help. Sometimes you really need to throw out your feelings, relieve emotional stress, free yourself from negative experiences. And tears are just one of the ways to do it! There are others that are more beneficial to health. At psychotherapeutic sessions, the consultant selects technologies and methods of the most suitable ways for you to stabilize your conditions. And as a consultant, I am convinced that in many cases it is not enough to just calm the soul! The life of an adult requires firm decisions, active actions, efforts, attempts leading to development. Finding those responsible for failures and regretting missed opportunities is a waste of time and energy. When do you need to seek professional psychological help? When you have exhausted your available resources, do not see suitable solutions, you doubt the correctness of your choice. The essence of the work of a professional consultant is to open such resources for you, add strength and determination to your actions, share the reality in which you live.
If you have any other questions about how psychological and psychotherapeutic counseling proceeds, what trainings are needed for, what request you can apply to - send them to the mail of our website! The center's consultants will answer you personally, and I will publish the most interesting questions and answers to them on the site.
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