Attentive technicians. Psychology: its methods and techniques - M.S. Levels of basal emotional organization

Counseling techniques are special techniques that a psychologist uses to perform certain procedures at each stage of counseling.

The main counseling techniques are as follows

• 1. Asking questions. Questions can be considered a basic counseling technique. In the process of counseling, the psychologist does not so much speak himself as asks questions and thus leads the client to understand his problem and solve it. Counseling questions may include:
  • open - questions that cannot be answered "yes" or "no", for example: "What do you think about the relationship in your family?";
  • closed - questions that can be answered "yes" or "no", for example: "Are you married?";
  • alternative - questions containing alternative answers, for example: "Did you feel resentment, anger or irritation?"

Open questions are used in the following cases:

• 1) the beginning of the consultation. At the beginning of the consultation, open-ended questions are more appropriate, as they provide an opportunity to obtain more information;
• 2) prompting the client to continue or supplement what was said ("What did you feel?");
• 3) encouraging the client to illustrate their problems with examples ("Tell me about a specific situation");
• 4) focusing the client's attention on feelings ("What do you feel?").

However, keep in mind that open-ended questions can increase the client's sense of threat and anxiety, so they should be asked at the right time and carefully worded.

Closed questions are used to obtain specific information ("How old are you?"), Clarifications. Closed questions are sometimes necessary to obtain more precise material for formulating advisory hypotheses, and are more often used in the hypothesis testing phase. However, the frequent use of closed questions can create a feeling of "interrogation" in the client, provoke his closeness and worsen the consultative contact. Therefore, excessive interrogation should be avoided. When asking this or that question, it is necessary to clearly understand the purpose for which it is asked, to test which hypothesis it is aimed at.

Alternative questions are used when the client is unable to answer the question because he has no experience of talking on this topic. Most often these are questions to clarify feelings. The question gives an example of how to talk about feelings, but the client does not have to choose from the alternatives proposed by the consultant, he can offer his own option.

The following problems may arise due to over-indulgence in questions.

• 1. The conversation turns into an exchange of questions and answers (becomes like an interrogation).
• 2. The consultant, by asking many questions, takes responsibility for the course of the consultation and removes responsibility from the client, thereby violating the principle of client responsibility.
• 3. A lot of questions often shift the conversation from emotions to facts, and this reduces the depth of the consultation.
• 4. The question-answer form destroys the liveliness of the conversation, makes it unnecessarily formal.

To avoid these problems, you must follow the rules for asking questions.

• 1. Open-ended questions should predominate in the consultation dialogue, and closed questions should be used with caution.
• 2. Fact-oriented questions beginning with "who, what" are used at the beginning of a client's interview.
• 3. Questions beginning with the word "how" are focused on the client's inner world and are used to refine and test advisory hypotheses.
• 4. A question starting with the word "why" can provoke the actualization of defense mechanisms, therefore it is better to avoid such questions in counseling (especially since they are useless - the client does not know why he does this and not otherwise, and can only express his own rationalizations ).
• 5. Avoid double questions and two questions at the same time, for example: "Why are you drinking and late for work?". Here, one question contains two questions at the same time.
• 6. You should not ask the same question in different formulations.
• 7. You can’t ask a question ahead of the client’s answer (for example: “Is everything going well at work?”. This question contains the answer - “it's going well.” It is better to ask: “How are things at your work?”).
• 2. Restriction of the consultant's speech in the dialogue. Approximation to the client's speech. Brevity and accuracy of the consultant's statement. The mistake of a novice consultant is the desire to talk a lot without allowing pauses. During the reception, the client should mainly speak. The consultant should minimize his statements, asking only the necessary questions. At the same time, the consultant's speech should not be perceived by the client as alien and incomprehensible, it should be built in the style of the client's speech. To do this, it is important for the consultant to use in his speech those words and expressions that are characteristic of the client's speech. It is important to be brief and precise.

The rules of the consultant's statement in the consultative dialogue.

• 1. You should not indulge in unnecessary explanations why this or that question is asked.
• 2. It is necessary to use short questions in which all words clear from the context are omitted.
• 3. The ideal structure of the question during the consultation process (especially at the stage of questioning, when the client talks about his problem): 1) an indication of some event that the client mentioned; 2) the interrogative word "what", "how", etc. For example: "You met ... so what?"

Sometimes only interrogative words can be spoken, as the rest is clear to the client from the context of the conversation. In this case, the client may not notice that he was asked this question. Thus, the consultant, as it were, is built into the client's internal dialogue, gently directing his story in the right direction.

3. Encouragement and support of the client is the basis of the consultative contact. If the consultant somehow expresses appreciation, disapproval of the client's actions, the contact may break down. However, providing support does not mean a positive assessment of the client's actions, which may indeed be immoral. This means that the consultant does not evaluate the client, but supports him in any way, such as he is. Short phrases are used to create and strengthen contact, indicating agreement and understanding (for example: "Go on", "Yes", "I understand", "Okay", "So", "Aha", "M-mm").

Support helps the client to believe in themselves and take risks, make difficult decisions, for example: "Very good", "Don't worry", "You are right", "It may not be easy". However, it is important not to abuse this technique, as it may limit the client's ability to solve problems and form the client's dependence on the consultant.

4. Reflection of content: paraphrasing and generalization. In the process of counseling, it is important for the counselor to accurately understand what the client is talking about. Without an accurate understanding, the correct formulation of hypotheses and the choice of further methods of influence are impossible. However, the client's story is not very coherent and confusing, so it is difficult for the consultant to understand the situation. In addition, there is always a difference in the semantic fields of the words used in the conversation, which can also lead to misunderstanding on the part of the consultant. To clarify the meaning of what the client said, content reflection techniques are used. More often, such techniques are used in the second phase of the questioning to test advisory hypotheses.

Paraphrasing (paraphrase) is a key technique for reflecting content. The meaning of this technique is that the consultant conveys in his own words the meaning of what the client said. Objectives of paraphrasing (paraphrase):

• show the client that the consultant is attentive and tries to understand him;
• crystallize the client's thought, make it clearer;
• check the correctness of understanding the client's thoughts.

Paraphrase rules.

• 1. The main idea of ​​the client is paraphrased, while its main meaning (or idea) is conveyed.
• 2. You can not distort or replace the meaning of the client's statement, add something from yourself.
• 3. It is important to avoid verbatim repetition of the client's statement, you need to express his thought in your own words.

Another technique for capturing content is generalization. Unlike a paraphrase, which is used to reflect a single thought, a generalization is an expression of the main idea of ​​several interrelated thoughts of the client or a confusing statement.

Generalization is used in the following cases.

• 1. To structure the beginning of a conversation so that it can be combined with previous conversations.
• 2. When the client speaks very long and confusingly.
• 3. When one topic is exhausted and a transition to the next stage is planned.
• 4. When trying to give direction to the conversation.
• 5. At the end of the meeting, in an effort to emphasize significant points and give a task.
• 5. Positive paraphrasing is a way of presenting the negative in a positive light. This technique allows the client to see their problem differently.

In positive paraphrasing, the counselor uses the client's complaint or remarks to change them so that what was negative becomes the cause of positive emotions. For example, a client says: "My son has completely stopped listening to me." The consultant paraphrases: "Yes, apparently, your son has matured and become more independent." Thus, the client sees that in the phenomenon that he considered absolutely negative (the behavior of his son), there is a positive moment - the manifestation of the independence and maturation of the son.

6. The reflection of feelings in the process of counseling is no less important than the reflection of the content.

In what the client says, one can always distinguish two plans.

The first plan is justifications, explanations, logically built details of the story (content).

The second plan is the emotions, feelings of the client and the people around him. It is the disclosure of this plan that helps to understand what is happening with the client, the essence of his problem.

We can say that the reflection of the client's feelings is a paraphrase with a focus not on content, but on feelings.

In the counseling process, clients are more likely to talk about facts, so questions about feelings need to be given much more attention in order to achieve a balance between reflecting facts and feelings.

Usually, the question is used to reflect feelings: "What did you feel when ..?" Sometimes you can name the feeling that the client experienced: "Did you feel anxiety?" But this can be done only when the client himself said this word, and the consultant wants to emphasize it, or when the consultant is absolutely sure that this is the feeling the client experienced in this situation. If the feeling is named incorrectly, this will cause resistance in the client, the feeling that the consultant does not understand him, and, accordingly, will lead to a deterioration in the consultative contact.

Just as the technique of generalization is used to reflect a piece of content, the technique of generalization of feelings can be used to reflect and demonstrate to the client his typical emotional reactions - to demonstrate to the client the real unity of opposites in the emotional sphere.

Principles of using the technique of reflection of feelings.

• 1. Identify the feeling as accurately as possible.
• 2. The expediency of using the reflection of feelings in the context of a conversation - not all feelings should be reflected, but only those that lead to the verification of an advisory hypothesis or lead to the moment of insight.
• 3. Be sure to pay attention to feelings, if they cause problems in counseling, they can support the client, help him.
• 4. The consultant can also express his own feelings, but only related to the topic of the conversation.
• 5. It is necessary to help the client control overly intense feelings.
• 7. Emphasizing emotional experiences. Another way of working with feelings in the process of counseling is to emphasize emotional experiences through the accentuation of so-called emotionally charged words. This uses the "echo" technique. This technique consists in the fact that the consultant repeats exactly the word that the client said. However

not just any word should be repeated, but the most emotionally charged one. Then the conversation will develop in depth, to an understanding of the main motives of the client. After all, it is known that emotions are markers of motives.

"Carriers" of emotions in the client's story are adverbs and adjectives, and if they are absent - verbs. It is adverbs and adjectives that indicate the client's attitude to something, the quality of the action. Emphasizing, clarifying this word, the consultant can reach the level of feelings. Consistent emphasis on feelings makes it possible to develop a dialogue in depth.

For example, the client says: "I slowly approached the house." The consultant asks, "Slow?" Thus, the key emotional word is emphasized, since it is this word that concentrates the emotions of the client. Such an echo question directs the client's story in the direction of explaining his feelings and his attitude to what is happening.

8. Pauses of silence. Many novice consultants are afraid of pauses. It seems to them that pauses in the conversation can be interpreted as a sign of low qualification of the consultant. Sometimes this is true - when a pause occurs because the consultant does not know what to say next. In this case, you need to contact the supervisor and work on the technique of counseling. But sometimes pauses can have a powerful therapeutic effect, and then they can be considered as special counseling techniques.

Pause time is perceived in the process of counseling in a special way. The pause is usually perceived as much longer than it really is. It is not so easy to sustain even a minute pause. A normal pause can last 30-40 seconds.

Silence during a consultation can have different meanings:

• meaningless silence - when the interlocutors feel awkward, most likely caused by the fact that the consultant does not know what to do next;
• meaningful silence - when silence is filled with meaning; such pauses are experienced as significant moments of counseling and can last much longer than normal pauses. For example, such a pause can mean comprehension, a generalization without words of everything that was said after an important semantic fragment of the conversation.

The therapeutic value of silence lies in the fact that silence at significant moments increases the emotional understanding of the consultant and the client, provides the client with the opportunity to immerse himself in himself and explore his feelings, attitudes, and also allows the client to understand that he is responsible for the outcome of the consultation.

The silence of the client during the counseling process can have different meanings.

• 1. Pauses at the beginning of the conversation can be caused by anxiety, confusion, poor health of the client. In this case, it is necessary to encourage the client, to remove the alarm.
• 2. The real activity of the client - he is silent, as he selects words, ponders what he will say next. In this case, you need to give him time to think.
• 3. The pause may be due to the fact that both the client and the consultant hope for a continuation of the conversation from each other. In some cases, the counselor may use this as a technique to demonstrate to the client that he is responsible for the conversation. However, this approach should not be abused either.
• 4. Both the consultant and the client were at a dead end, there was a loss of contact. In this case, the pause causes unpleasant feelings, awkwardness. Then the consultant needs to try to correct the situation, restore contact with the client.
• 5. A pause may mean the client's resistance, an attempt to manipulate the consultant ("Come on, and I'll see"). In this case, it is necessary to interrupt the manipulations by entering open communication, to work with the client's resistance.
• 6. Many pauses occur when the conversation is on a superficial level, i.e. client and consultant avoid discussing important issues. In this case, the counselor may use the confrontation technique or otherwise try to deepen the dialogue.
• 7. The meaning of the pause can be a deep generalization without words - in this case, it must be maintained for as long as necessary.

The general principle of working with pauses is to break an empty silence and not rush to interrupt a productive one.

9. Tone and volume of voice. It is important to choose the right tone of voice in a conversation with a client. The general principle is that the tone, volume, speed of the consultant's speech should approach the corresponding characteristics of the client's speech, i.e. it is necessary to "adjust" to the client in terms of para- and extralinguistics.

The consultant's toy should be friendly, at the same time consistent with what is being said.

A muffled voice helps create a sense of trust and intimacy. Varying the volume of the voice with changes in the client's state helps to maintain and strengthen the consultative contact, to create a sense of mutual understanding.

10. Providing information. The psychologist does not give direct advice during the consultation process, as this violates the principle of client responsibility. However, in some cases, the client needs additional information to make a decision or eliminate the problem, and such information can be provided to him by a psychologist. Providing information can be seen as a separate counseling technique.

Types of information that can be provided during the consultation process: information about the consultation process, the behavior of the consultant, the conditions of the consultation - the place and time of its conduct, payment.

Sometimes clients ask questions to avoid discussing their problems. This is a kind of escape from the counseling situation, for example: "What do you think about the modern family?" In this case, it is necessary to transfer the conversation to their own problems: “Why are you interested in this? What do you think about it yourself? What is happening in your family?”, - otherwise the consultant may move away from the topic of consultation into general discussions. But if these questions are an expression of the client's real anxiety, it is better to answer them briefly and then go to the client's personal problems anyway.

11. Interpretation is the transformation of meaning. The use of interpretation helps to establish causal relationships between the behavior and experience of the client, while the client sees himself and his difficulties in a new way.

We list the types of interpretation.

• 1. Establishing a connection between separate statements, problems, events.
• 2. Emphasizing the features, contradictions of the behavior or feelings of the client.
• 3. Interpretation of the methods of psychological defense, reactions of resistance and transference. ("From our conversation, escaping is your way of dealing with fear of failure.")
• 4. Linking current events, thoughts and experiences with the past.
• 5. Giving the client another opportunity to understand their feelings, behavior or problems.

Interpretation is the main technique of influencing, therefore it is used towards the end of the consultation, at the stage of influencing, but never at the beginning of the consultation.

Rules for the use of interpretation.

• 1. Interpretation should not be too deep, it only relates to what the client already knows.
• 2. The timeliness of the interpretation is important, the client's readiness to accept it.
• 3. The effectiveness of the use of interpretation depends on the personality of the client. Clients with high self-esteem and education are more sensitive to interpretation.
• 4. You should not use many interpretations in one consultation - this can cause the client's psychological defenses to be updated.
• 5. Interpretation should be formulated as assumptions, hypotheses, but not categorically. This wording facilitates acceptance of the interpretation by the client.

The effectiveness of the application of interpretation can be evidenced by the client's reaction to it. If the client reacts indifferently to the interpretation, not noticing it, tells something of his own further, this means that the interpretation was most likely erroneous, did not affect the key motives of the client; in this case, it is necessary to reconsider the advisory hypothesis. If the client reacts to the interpretation with hostility, rejects it, perhaps the interpretation got to the root of the problem, but was not expressed in a timely manner, the client is not ready to accept it. Accurate and timely interpretation causes an "aha-reaction" in the client, insight, a new look at the problem, while he may experience different feelings - from deep thought to delight, and sometimes he may burst into tears.

12. Confrontation is a demonstration to the client of his methods of psychological defense. The use of the confrontation technique is possible only with mutual trust, otherwise the confrontation may be perceived by the client as aggression on the part of the consultant.

We list the cases of using the technique of confrontation.

• 1. Confrontation in order to draw the client's attention to contradictions in his behavior, thoughts, feelings. This technique is performed in two steps:
  • a) a certain aspect of the client's behavior is stated;
  • b) "but (however) ..." - describes inconsistent behavior. In contrast to the interpretation, when using confrontation, it is directly indicated the causes and origins of the contradiction.
• 2. Confrontation to help see the situation for what it really is, contrary to the client's idea of ​​it in the context of his needs.
• 3. Confrontation to draw the client's attention to avoidance of discussing certain issues ("You don't say anything about your sex life").
• 4. Interruption of the client's narrative - also a type of confrontation, used when the client moves away from the topic.

Limitations on using confrontation:

• 1) not be used as a punishment for the client;
• 2) not to use confrontation to destroy psychological defense mechanisms;
• 3) do not use confrontation to meet the needs and self-expression of the consultant. The misuse of confrontation usually means that the counselor is dealing with their own personal problems.

Rules for using confrontation:

• 1) carefully characterize the content of the client's inappropriate behavior and its context, but do not express everything at the same time;
• 2) detail the consequences of the conflicting behavior;
• 3) help the client find ways to overcome problems;
• 4) confrontation should not be categorical and aggressive (use softening words "it seems to me", "if I'm not mistaken").
• 13. Self-disclosure of the consultant in the process of counseling is a rather controversial technique. In some theoretical orientations, self-disclosure is not allowed at all (for example, in classical psychoanalysis). In some, it is one of the main techniques. Self-disclosure means that the consultant demonstrates his emotional attitude towards the client, the problem under discussion, etc. - i.e. open presentation of self to the client.

We list the restrictions on the use of self-disclosure techniques.

• 1. When the client knows too much about the counselor, he fantasizes less about him, so self-disclosure is not used in psychoanalytically oriented counseling.
• 2. The counselor's frankness involves sharing his problems with the client, which is anti-therapeutic.
• 3. At the beginning of counseling, self-disclosure is unacceptable, as its use may increase the client's anxiety.

Types of self-disclosure:

• 1) the expression of their immediate reactions in relation to the client or the situation "here and now";
• 2) a story about his life experience, similar to the situation of the client.

Positive self-disclosure - when the consultant expresses support, approval of the client; negative - in fact, a confrontation with the client.

Self-disclosure rules:

• 1) self-disclosure must be sincere, otherwise contact with the client will be lost;
• 2) self-disclosure should not be abused, it should occur only under the control of a professional personal position, otherwise the consultation cannot be called professional consultation;
• 3) self-disclosure must be timely and consistent with the goals of the consultant, self-disclosure must not be unnecessarily delayed;
• 4) self-disclosure cannot be used at the beginning of the consultation, it is used in the later stages of the consultation if there is a good consultation contact.
• 14. Structuring counseling - this is the organization of the relationship of the consultant with the client, the allocation of individual stages of counseling, evaluation of their results, providing the client with information about the process of counseling, summarizing.

Structuring takes place throughout the consultation, step by step. Each new stage of consultation begins with an assessment of what has already been achieved. At the same time, it is important for the client to participate in planning the counseling process.

Structuring is also important because it ensures that the client is aware of what happened during the consultation and, accordingly, increases its effectiveness.

• See: Aleshina Yu. E. Individual and family psychological counseling

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Headings:

ASTRAKHAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Institute of Pedagogy and Social Work

Psychology faculty

Department of Developmental Psychology, Acmeology

Course work

in the discipline "Psychological counseling"

on the topic: METHODS AND TECHNIQUES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL COUNSELING

Performed:

student of the PP41 group,

correspondence department

Puchkina I.V.

Supervisor:

PhD, Associate Professor

Bryukhova N.G.

ASTRAKHAN 2011

Introduction

Chapter 1

1 Meeting a client in a psychological consultation

2 Relieve psychological stress from the client

3 Technique used in interpreting a client's confession

4 Consultant actions in formulating advice and recommendations

5 The final stage of counseling

Chapter 2. Basic methods of psychological counseling

1 Interview as the main method of psychological counseling

2 Individual counseling

3 Group counseling

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

This topic is of current importance, since psychological counseling is a special area of ​​​​practical psychology associated with the provision by a specialist psychologist of direct psychological assistance to people who need it, in the form of advice and recommendations. They are given by the psychologist to the client on the basis of a personal conversation and a preliminary study of the problem that the client has encountered in life.

Psychological counseling is an established practice of providing effective psychological assistance to people, based on the conviction that every physically and mentally healthy person is able to cope with almost all psychological problems that arise in his life. The client, however, does not always definitely and accurately know in advance what the essence of his problem is and how best to solve it, relying on his own strengths and capabilities. In this he should be assisted by a professionally trained psychologist-consultant. This is the main task of psychological counseling.

Psychological counseling differs from other types of practical psychological assistance in the following main features:

it implies a relatively short period and episodic nature of personal contacts of a psychologist-consultant with a client;

the psychologist-consultant basically only gives advice to the client, and their practical implementation becomes the business of the client himself, he retains an active role;

psycho-corrective work is most often carried out by the client himself in the absence of a psychologist, without direct or constant interaction with him.

psychodiagnostics at the beginning of work with the client is reduced to a minimum and is mainly based on the results of the consultant's direct observation of the client's behavior;

the psychologist-consultant is not directly responsible for the final result of the work (the consultant is not responsible for whether the client uses or does not use his advice).

The consultant is responsible only for the correctness of his conclusions about the essence of the client's problem and for the potential effectiveness of the practical recommendations offered to the client.

The purpose of this work is to consider the methods and techniques of psychological counseling.

Work tasks:

) describe the technique of psychological counseling;

) reveal the main methods of psychological counseling.

The structure of the work is an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion and a list of references.

Chapter 1

Psychological counseling techniques are special techniques that a counseling psychologist, acting within the framework of certain counseling procedures, uses to perform these procedures at each stage of psychological counseling. This technique can be universal, successfully used at each stage of psychological counseling, and specific, most suitable for one or another particular stage of psychological counseling.

We will consider the technique of psychological counseling in stages in connection with various counseling procedures, without particularly highlighting the methods of counseling, which are of a universal nature.

1.1 Meeting the client in a psychological consultation

Starting a conversation with a client

The process of psychological assistance begins with a meeting. Considering the process of the meeting in more detail, let us dwell on the characteristics of the procedural and procedural moments of the meeting in the provision of psychological assistance. [Abramova G.S. p.214]

When considering the initial moments of contact, it was found that the first 4 minutes of contact are decisive for the initial orientation in a partner in a communication situation, the formation of one's own self-awareness, which influences the choice of one or another strategy of behavior with an interlocutor. They are the most difficult for both partners. During this time, the psychologist-consultant most often develops unconscious, but strategically far-sighted decisions related to the acceptance of a partner, to assessing his personality and predicting possible relationships. The first minutes of the meeting are extremely important as a non-setting space for forming the first impression of a person and, in our case, assessing the personal (psychotherapeutic) potential of the client.

Of the three phases of any human communication - the beginning of a relationship, their development, dynamics and termination - the first phase is unconditionally the leading one, especially in situations of psychological assistance.

In living the first meeting with the client, there is literally not a single detail that is not important for the successful implementation of the first contact: from facial expression, gaze, intonation and distance from the client (optimal - 1.5 m) to introducing the client into the semantics of counseling and psychotherapeutic work. Of course, all subsequent psychological work cannot be determined by the first meeting, and the experience of psychological help as retraining, education or psychotherapy goes through several stages, but in counseling work, in particular, the matter may be limited to a single conversation. This is why the initial contact is given so much importance.

What is necessary and desirable for the successful implementation of the first consultation conversation?

Information. It is desirable (as the experience of consulting work in many countries shows) that even before the first meeting, for example, during the appointment for a consultation, the client should provide orienting formal information about himself approximately in the following volume: name and surname, age, profession and education, marital status who is directed, whether he has experience of communicating with a psychiatrist or psychologist. The presence of such formal information frees the working time of the psychologist and the client for fruitful work.

Psychodiagnostic examination. In some cases (professional consultation or other situation requiring non-medical psychotherapy), a preliminary personal diagnosis is useful. This facilitates orientation in the personal characteristics of the client and his condition. If the examination is carried out even before the consultation, it is preferable that it is not conducted by the consultant psychologist himself, but by his employees or colleagues.

What is undesirable and contraindicated for a successful first meeting?

It is undesirable to load yourself with information about the personality and life of the client, which does not come from him personally.

It is also undesirable to enter into a dispute with the client, to refute his statements (this does not mean, of course, that the psychologist must agree with the client in everything, share his delusions or obvious prejudices, but actively counteract unprofessionally); praise the client or give him hope for no apparent reason; make false promises; interpret his behavior or evaluate actions and deeds; ask the client additional questions about aspects of life or issues to which he is particularly sensitive; convince the client of the need to work only with you or another psychologist; support the client in his attacks on other persons (parents, children, spouse, other psychologist-consultant, etc.). [Nemov R.S. p.351]

In addition, trends in the perception of counseling psychologists should be taken into account. From psychological research, at least the following features of the perception of counseling psychologists by clients are known: physically attractive psychologists are perceived more positively than unattractive ones; the same psychologists are perceived differently depending on what problem the client comes with - personal or social (loss of job, professional consultation); people are more inclined to rely on those professionals whose sociocultural values ​​(religious, ideological) do not diverge from their own; people differ in their assessments of the degree to which a psychologist conforms to the social norms of well-being and status accepted in society (marital status, compliance with the "face of the profession", the degree of apparent well-being, etc.). These and many other circumstances, not to mention reputation and authority, play a role in the holding of the first meeting.

Let us now turn to the description of the actual consultative conversation. Let's start with a definition. Consultative conversation is one of the main methods of providing psychological assistance. A consultative conversation is a personality-oriented communication in which orientation is carried out in the personal characteristics and problems of the client, a partnership type of relationship is established and maintained (on an equal footing), the necessary psychological assistance is provided in accordance with the needs, problems and nature of advisory work. Consultative conversation, depending on the stage of work, is divided into initial, procedural, final and supporting.

The tasks of the initial consultative conversation are: the location of the client to himself and the removal of tension; establishing contact with the client; encouraging discussion of issues and identifying (if necessary) temporary and other opportunities for the client to work together; provision of information; establishing a trusting working (collaborative, partnership) relationship with the client - "working contact"; encouragement of self-understanding, own activity and responsibility; setting realistic expectations for collaboration.

The most difficult task for the consultant is to demonstrate a willingness to respond emotionally to the psychological needs of the client, to help him begin to talk about himself and his problems. If the client has a sense of trust in the psychologist-consultant and does not feel any interpersonal disagreements, it should be borne in mind that psychological defenses may be included, especially if the patient is worried about too personal, sometimes intimate, problems. If a person did not ask for help himself, but was referred by another specialist, a teacher, or acquaintances, or parents, resistance can be a significant difficulty for the consultant. It is certain that not a single person, no matter what age he may be, will come to another, a stranger, a person for no particular reason, just like that, heart to heart talk on topics that can not always be opened not only to a close friend, but also to oneself. yourself. [May R., p.132]

Speaking out, recognizing the subjective barriers that the client had to overcome, expressing respect and a positive, understanding attitude in this regard is one of the possible ways to reduce resistance. Questions that are related to the client's condition, to his sense of self in a counseling setting, also help to relieve tension. The initial task of the counseling psychologist is to serve as a catalyst by which the communication process will be facilitated. [Bondarenko A.F., p.289]

It is necessary to feel a person, to know his needs, experiences, aspirations. Usually during the meeting, the client will inadvertently express their needs and problems more than once. No wonder Freud said that "the secret of a person oozes through the pores of his skin." Although the client may not directly say what worries him most (in fact, sometimes he is not aware of his true problems), the very first meeting provides rich material for understanding the personality, probable problems and real, albeit latent, needs of the client. .

The completion of the first consultative conversation is no less important than its beginning. The criteria for a positive completion of the first meeting is so important that in modern literature they are singled out as the basis for preference in choosing a psychologist and psychotherapist.

Practice shows that it is the last minutes of the first meeting that can cause a feeling of discomfort, both for the consultant and for the person being consulted. The main reason for the emergence of a feeling of disappointment, a feeling of incomprehensibility or treatment to the wrong address most often - with all equal and professionally impeccable parameters - is a feeling of incompleteness of the situation. In fact, a patient receives a referral from a doctor for an analysis or a prescription, from a lawyer - a consultation and a guide to action, and from a psychologist - deceived expectations: they not only did not write out a prescription, but did not even give advice ... Therefore, a very significant point is precisely verbal, indicated completion of the meeting and conversation with the potential incompleteness of this situation.

The first meeting, the first consultative conversation introduces the client into the context of psychological assistance as specific in content and goals of psychosocial practice. Of course, it far from exhausts and even partially cannot cover the entire complex repertoire of psychotechniques that a psychologist uses, depending on the client's problems, the intensity and nature of psychological assistance, and his own preferences.

.2 Relieve psychological stress from the client

The term "confession" - a concept more religious than psychotherapeutic - was first used by psychologists from the beginning of the 20th century, when psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, imitating church confession, came into fashion. The client's story about himself, his problems, difficulties, his emotional state can be compared with a confession. The main task of the psychologist is to awaken the client to be sincere. This requires active listening.

In order to create this initiative, the counselor psychologist needs to use various techniques that support the sincerity of the client.

Active listening is the art of understanding. An active listener, in our case a psychologist, must assure the client that everything said will be correctly understood by him. An understanding listener, as it were, informs the speaker: “I care about you, I accept you. I want to understand your experiences, your feelings and especially your needs." Such a message, given to a person as the basis of a conversation, will influence the way he thinks and feels (towards himself and others). The main purpose of active listening is to maintain or create trust in a conversation. To do this, the psychologist must respect the speaker, accept him as he is. [Obozov N.N., p.207]

There are some conditions under which the use of active listening is simply necessary:

when you need to check whether you correctly perceive the emotional state of the client;

when you are dealing with strong emotions;

when the client's problem is emotional in nature;

when the client tries to force you to make the same decision as he / she himself / herself;

when there is research and interaction with an "open end".

All of the above will help you:

clarify for yourself the feelings of another person;

structure complex emotional states;

define the problem more precisely;

allow the client to solve the problem or understand in which direction it needs to be solved;

increase customer self-esteem;

reduce protection (if any took place at the beginning of your contact);

increase readiness to hear others;

Develop a client's sensitivity to others. Requirements for successful active listening:

sincere interest in a person and a desire to help;

great attention to the slightest manifestations of the client's emotional state;

temporarily discard any opinions, judgments, feelings;

believe in the ability of a person to make a decision on his own and cope with his problem, giving him time and creating favorable conditions.

Non-verbal means of communication. Non-verbal communication is communication between individuals without the use of words, i.e. without speech and language means presented in direct or any sign form. The body of a person, which has an exceptionally wide range of means and methods of transmitting or exchanging information, becomes an instrument of communication. At the same time, both consciousness and unconscious and subconscious components of the human psyche endow him with the ability to perceive and interpret information transmitted in non-verbal form. The fact that the transmission and reception of non-verbal information can be carried out at the unconscious or subconscious levels introduces some complication into the understanding of this phenomenon and even raises the question of the justification for using the concept of "communication", since in linguistic and speech communication this process, one way or another, understood by both parties. Therefore, it is quite acceptable, when it comes to non-verbal communication, to also use the concept of "non-verbal behavior", understanding it as the behavior of an individual that carries certain information, regardless of whether the individual is aware of it or not.

The main means possessed by "body language" are posture, movements (gestures), facial expressions, gaze, "spatial command", voice characteristics. [Rogers K.R., p.147]

In recent decades, interest in the world of psychological science in non-verbal ways of communication has increased markedly, since it has become clear that this component of human social behavior plays a more important role in society than previously thought.

Visual contact is a means of mutual regulation of the conversation process. The time devoted to eye contact in communication varies from 28 to 70%. Lack of eye contact can cause the client to feel that the counselor is not interested, while too much eye contact can make the client uncomfortable, dominated, controlled, infiltrated, and even absorbed by the counselor. The use of facial reactions allows you to see the psychologist's emotional response to the client's confession. Head nods are ways of showing the client that you are listening, this is also an element of active listening. Nodding is a direct confirmation to the interlocutor that you are following him step by step and understand what was said. This simple skill performs the function of feedback. However, it is worth noting that head nods require action, if there are too many of them, they are more likely to annoy and confuse than to promote dialogue.

Synchronization of interaction, i.e. coordination of movements of people in the process of interaction. Synchrony manifests itself as a similarity of movements, for example, when both people change their position at the same time, as if in a mirror, or when people speak at the same speed. If you are intensely involved in a conversation, then you may suddenly notice that the posture of your interlocutor is a mirror image of your own posture. Awareness of this phenomenon of mirroring can also occur if a change in posture by one of the participants leads to a change in the posture of the interlocutor, a kind of unconscious following. Such a "bodily attunement" is, as a rule, evidence of a fruitful contact between two people.

Repetition of the key phrase of the client - "paraphrase". It is necessary to clarify and detail the meaning of what was said. In addition, it shows that the counselor listens carefully to the client and understands what is said. The paraphrase manifests itself in the form of clarifying questions or statements: “You said that ...”, “Did I understand you correctly ...”, “your words about ...”, “You are talking about ...”, etc. d. In addition to the paraphrase, during the confession, a generalization of what was said by the client can be used, which usually begins with the words: “Did I understand you correctly ...”, “To summarize, then ...”, “To put it briefly ... is it so?” etc.

.3 Technique used in interpreting a client's confession

In order to correctly and comprehensively interpret the client's confession, the counseling psychologist needs to be well acquainted with various psychological theories. They should cover the various issues that the client may have. It is very important to draw the attention of the counseling psychologist to the need to develop several interpretations so that the conclusions are not one-sided, involving various theories. The interpretation should be one, but not the only one. There should not be too many options so as not to confuse the client. Immediately after confession, the client must be given time to rest, to distract him with some business. The psychologist-consultant should use this short pause in order to gather his thoughts, formulate recommendations and main conclusions. And the client needs this time to calm down and set up for a further conversation with a psychologist. During this break, the consultant psychologist should remember if anything significant was missed, since this circumstance may affect the illogicality of the recommendations given, and this cannot be allowed. If the psychologist's words contradict each other, this can undermine the client's trust in him. In addition, the psychologist must keep in mind previous meetings and ensure that the recommendations given earlier do not contradict and are consistent with the present. Ultimately, the advice given to the client must be accessible, not overly theoretical, and be specific in nature. [Sytnik S.A., p.215]

.4 Consultant actions in formulating advice and recommendations

The actions of a counseling psychologist in formulating advice and recommendations must be thoughtful, and in order to achieve this, various factors are taken into account.

When interpreting a client's confession, one should not adhere to any one scientific school or direction. Tips should combine various options for solving the client's problem. As a rule, there should be at least two or three of them so that the client himself can choose how to subsequently build his behavior. To do this, it is necessary to study the features of life well enough, typical situations of behavior, notice the main mistakes, etc. In addition, advice and recommendations need to be practical and consistent with the real life of the client. You cannot advise a man to go on a world cruise if he is "attached" to his paralyzed wife and cannot leave her alone for long. There are many such examples. If there is a first meeting with a client, and at this stage it is necessary to develop some initial recommendations, it is natural that the personality of the client, his mental characteristics have not yet been sufficiently studied by the consultant. In this case, you can advise to pay attention to the non-verbal features of the client's behavior. They are quite eloquent and, as a rule, are not controlled by a person. Alan Pease in his book "Body Language" formulated the following basic recommendations on the basics of non-verbal communication [Pease Alan, p.178]:

the “hands on the belt” pose is characteristic of a determined, strong-willed person;

tilting the torso forward, sitting on a chair, suggests that a person, as soon as the conversation with him ends, will be ready to act;

a person who sits with his legs crossed and his arms clasped around her often has a quick reaction and is difficult to convince in an argument;

ankles pressed together while sitting indicate that a person has negative, unpleasant thoughts and feelings at a given time;

picking up non-existent villi from clothes characterizes a person who does not fully agree with what is being said to him at a given moment in time;

a straight head during a conversation indicates a neutral attitude of a person to what he hears;

tilting the head to the side while listening indicates that the person has aroused interest;

if a person’s head is tilted forward, then this is most often a sign that he has a negative attitude to what he heard;

crossing the arms on the chest is a sign of a critical attitude and a defensive reaction;

sometimes crossing hands indicates that a person has a feeling of fear;

crossing the legs is a sign of a negative or defensive attitude;

the gesture "stroking the chin" means that this person is trying to make a decision related to what they have just been told;

deviation back on the back of a chair or armchair - a movement indicating a negative mood of a person;

if, after a person was asked to report his decision, he picks up an object, this means that he is not sure of his decision, doubts its correctness, that he still needs to think;

when the head of a listening person begins to lean towards the hand in order to lean on it, this means that he loses interest in what is being said to him now;

if a person rubs the back of his head with his palm and looks away, this means that he is telling a lie;

people who often rub the back of the neck tend to show a negative, critical attitude towards others;

those people who often rub their foreheads are usually open and accommodating;

laying hands behind the back indicates that the person is upset;

touching during the pronunciation of words to parts of the face and head is a sign that this person is not completely sincere and is telling a lie;

the position of the fingers in the mouth indicates that the person at this point in time needs approval and support;

tapping fingers on the top of the table or on something else while listening indicates impatience of a person;

open palms are associated with sincerity, trust and honesty;

hidden palms, on the contrary, speak of closeness, dishonesty, insincerity of a person;

an imperious person, when shaking hands, tries to keep his hand on top;

a submissive person during a handshake tends to keep his palm from below;

one who counts on equal relations tries to keep his palm at the same level with the person with whom he shakes hands during a handshake;

a person who is not quite confident in himself pulls the other’s hand towards himself during a handshake;

clasped fingers during a conversation can mean frustration.

A person's facial expressions may also contain a number of signs that, with a high degree of probability, may indicate his neuroticism. Let's take a look at these signs:

in an eternally smiling person, optimism is most often feigned and, as a rule, does not correspond to his real inner state;

one who outwardly demonstrates his supposedly impeccable endurance, in reality often covers up well-hidden anxiety and tension with this;

in a neurotic, the corners of the mouth are most often downcast, and on the face there is an expression of despondency and lack of interest in people. Such a person: usually indecisive;

the look of the neurotic is tense, and the eyes are opened wider than usual;

the facial expression of the neurotic is frightened, the color is pale and sickly;

it is not easy for a neurotic to laugh heartily, his smile often resembles an ironic grin or smirk.

In addition, the client may hesitate in favor of one or another recommendation, and the counseling psychologist must argue his position, show the negative and positive consequences of various options for solving the client's problem. The client must be aware that regardless of his choice, he will receive a positive result, acquire something new for himself, and receive the necessary experience. [Nemov R.S., p.219]

Thus, the client must independently come to a decision and be able to explain the choice made. This is one of the effective methods of providing psychological assistance in case the client is indecisive and cannot choose an alternative himself.

.5 Final stage of counseling

psychological counseling

When the consultation comes to an end, the client, regardless of whether a positive result is achieved, should retain the impression of the consultation and the desire to solve his problem. A counseling psychologist may ask the client to report on how things are going in solving his problem, how the recommendations are being implemented. Together with the client, at the end of the consultation, a program is developed for the implementation of the developed tips and recommendations, and the deadlines for the implementation of this program can also be set.

The client must develop confidence that he did not waste his time and that his problem can and should be solved. The consultant should make a favorable impression on the client at parting and leave the impression that he is ready for further cooperation, if necessary. After the consultation, it is necessary to fill out a personal card of the client, as well as to make questions for the next proposed meeting. All subsequent meetings are organized according to a predetermined plan, but correspondence, telephone conversations with the client are also allowed, when the consultant can check how the recommendations are being implemented, the client can receive additional support or an incentive to continue implementing the recommendations. It is recommended to draw up a plan for subsequent meetings together with the client, so that he knows and prepares for the upcoming meeting, and more carefully implements the recommendations.

Thus, the technique of psychological counseling is the special techniques that the psychologist-consultant, acting within the framework of certain counseling procedures, uses to perform these procedures at each stage of psychological counseling.

Chapter 2. Basic methods of psychological counseling

.1 Interview as the main method of psychological counseling

Describing the interview as the main method of psychological counseling, we proceed from the following preliminary considerations: the psychologist-consultant works with the client's order. If this order involves dialogical work, then it is carried out at a specially appointed time or by another psychodiagnostic specialist. A counseling psychologist does not make a diagnosis; he analyzes the client's situation as unique, applying special knowledge for this analysis.

The interview is one of the special methods of analyzing the unique situation of the client's order in order to create for him alternative options for actions, experiences, feelings, thoughts, goals, that is, in order to create greater mobility of his inner world.

What distinguishes the interview from other methods of work of a practical psychologist? First of all, the interview is always individualized, it involves the construction of the subject of interaction between the psychologist and the client. The subject of interaction will be the inner world of the client, and the modalities in which it will be described will form the theme of the interaction between the psychologist and the client. [Gladding S., p.199]

For example, the topic might be the client's experiences or actions.

But it is essential for the interview that the subject of interaction, which determines the relationship between the client and the psychologist, will be the client's inner world. The interview process is aimed at changing the client's attitude to his inner world in the discussion of various topics - making it more dynamic.

The topic of the interview is given by the client in a specific, strictly individual life context; the same topic, for example, experiencing one's parental incompetence, can be given in different contexts; for example, a single-parent family, remarriage, or a person with the rights of a guardian, and not a parent.

The interview involves influencing the client with the help of questions and special tasks that reveal the current and potential capabilities of the client. Questions are the main way the psychologist influences the client during the interview.

The literature usually describes a five-step model of the interview process. Let's dwell on it in more detail.

The first stage of the interview is structuring, achieving mutual understanding or, as it is often labeled, “Hello!”.

What goals are solved by the psychologist and the client at this first stage, which can last from a few seconds to ten minutes? The psychologist structures the situation, determining what will be the topic of his interaction with the client. It gives the client information about his capabilities. At the same time, the psychologist solves the problems of establishing contact, compliance, rapport with the client. Specific options for solving these problems depend on the individual and cultural characteristics of the client.

The client at this stage of the interview solves the problem of achieving psychological comfort, that is, the task of emotional and cognitive acceptance of the situation of the interview and the personality of the psychologist.

This stage of the interview ends when the correspondence between the psychologist and the client is reached, which can be expressed by them approximately in the following formulation: “I feel him, understand him” (psychologist), “They listen to me, I trust this person” (client). [Gladding S., p.200]

The second stage of the interview usually begins with collecting information about the context of the topic: the problem is identified; the issue of identifying the potential of the client is resolved. Marking this stage of the interview: "What's the problem?"

The psychologist solves the following questions: why did the client come? How does he see his problem? What are its possibilities in solving this problem? On the material of the stated topic, the psychologist understands the positive possibilities of the client in solving the problem.

When the client's goals are clearly understood, the psychologist returns to the definition of the topic.

After that, the third stage of the interview begins, which can be described as follows - the desired result. Marking this stage of the interview - "What do you want to achieve?"

The psychologist helps the client to define his ideal, to decide what he wants to be. There is also discussion about what will happen when the desired result is achieved.

Some clients start from this stage. If the client's goals are already clear to the psychologist, then recommendations should be given immediately.

The fourth stage of the interview is the development of alternative solutions. The marking of this stage is "What else can we do about this?"

The psychologist and the client work with different options for solving the problem. The search for alternatives is carried out in order to avoid rigidity and choose among alternatives. The psychologist and client explore the client's personal dynamics. This stage can be lengthy.

The psychologist must take into account that the right decision for him may be wrong for the client, at the same time, for some clients, clear directive recommendations are needed.

The fifth stage of the interview is a generalization of the previous stages, the transition from learning to action. The marking of this stage is "Will you do it?". The psychologist makes an effort to change the thoughts, actions, and feelings of clients in their daily lives outside of the interview situation. It is known from the practice of counseling that many clients do nothing to change.

The generalization that the psychologist makes takes into account the individual and cultural characteristics of the client, identified in the first stages of the interview. Let's take a closer look at each stage of the interview. The first stage "Hi!" - this is the establishment of contact and orientation of the client to work. If within 5 minutes the relationship did not work out, then the situation of counseling, as practice shows, is difficult to correct.

At this stage, the psychologist shows the client his position in the interaction. It can be, like any position in communication, described in terms of equality and inequality. The options here might be:

) the psychologist takes a position above the client;

) the psychologist takes a position of equality with the client;

) the psychologist offers the client to take a position above him, that is, he is ready to follow the client.

During the interview, positions can be changed, but this will be a situation of a professional interview if the psychologist reflects on the topic of interaction with the client and gives him the opportunity to track the logic of the interview.

.2 Individual counseling

Naturally, the content of individual counseling is determined by the client's order. Precise work to order distinguishes a professional psychologist from a non-professional one. [Nelson - Jones R., p.274]

An analysis of the work of a practical psychologist in a situation of individual counseling shows that this type of professional work requires a directed reflection of the psychologist on two most important scientific concepts - the norms of mental development and positions in interaction. Let us dwell on the reasons for the actualization of the content of these concepts in the work of a practical psychologist.

We see the main reason in the fact that professional interaction with the client requires making decisions about its content. In addition to the client's order, this content is structured by the psychologist's ability to navigate the actual and potential properties of the client's inner world. This orientation is impossible without a reflexive elaboration by the psychologist of the concept of the norm of mental development.

Naturally, the psychologist works in the key of his own generalized theory, which is why it is rather difficult to describe the whole variety of ideas about the norm of mental development that function in psychological practice. This problem comes out most prominently when solving professional problems of counseling prognosis, when the psychologist uses the content of the concept of the norm of mental development in his idea of ​​the periodization of mental development and its mechanisms.

Thus, the concept of the norm of mental development requires the use of a theoretical concept of the periodization of mental development in individual counseling.

In accentuations of the nature of clients, the psychologist will have to work with anomalies, which are determined by a combination of unfavorable hereditary factors and social impact factors. Among hereditary factors, prenatal, natal and early (first 2-3 years of life) postnatal somatogenic hazards (trauma, intoxication, infection, etc.) are distinguished. The unfavorable influence of the social environment - neglect, overprotection, a difficult moral atmosphere in the family - with prolonged exposure can disrupt the development of a person, even with a prosperous heredity.

In psychiatry, it is believed that the pathogenesis of accentuation is based on a partial breakdown of social adaptation, which blocks exactly the form of behavior towards which the accentuation is expressed.

In individual counseling, a practical psychologist must check the severity of accentuation in a client and make an informed decision on possible joint work with doctors (therapist, psychiatrist, neuropsychiatrist, neuropathologist, sexologist, and others).

The following types of character accentuation can be distinguished:

asthenoneurotic variant;

sensitive;

psychoasthenic;

epileptoid;

unstable;

infantile-dependent accentuation;

schizoid type;

hyperthymic option.

The asthenoneurotic variant is characterized by a tendency to low mood, increased fatigue and irritability; such people have had restless sleep since childhood, poor appetite, night terrors, capriciousness, tearfulness, stuttering, etc. The tendency to low mood - hypochondria - remains in most of them for life . [Abramova G.S., p.127]

Sensitive accentuation is resentment, indecision, a tendency to form obsessive fears, fears, thoughts, ideas and actions. Under the influence of failures, these people become wary and withdrawn.

Psychoasthenic accentuation (mental variant) - love of introspection, a high sense of duty and responsibility, high vulnerability, this type cannot stand rudeness and worldly cynicism. They find many shortcomings in themselves and often suffer from remorse, which leads to timidity and shyness.

The epileptoid variant is characterized by a tendency to affective tensions and explosions, viscosity, rigidity, inertia, which leaves an imprint on the entire human psyche. Malice, unstable mood are characterized by duration, dreary tone, boiling irritation.

Along with claims to leadership and the desire for power, epileptoids are thrifty, accurate, which often turns into an end in itself. Sexual desire with this type of accentuation is closely related to masochistic and sadistic tendencies, increased readiness to form various sexual perversions. Being overcorrect in one situation, in another they show extreme selfishness, spitefulness, aggressiveness and cruelty.

An unstable variant of character accentuation is determined by lack of will, which is clearly manifested in work, study, and the performance of duties at home. From childhood, they are disobedient, restless, climb everywhere and into everything, but at the same time they are cowardly, afraid of punishment. They easily and willingly obey other children, and passively leave the influence of teachers and parents, using any pretext for shirking. Early on, a craving for entertainment, pleasure, idleness and just idleness is revealed, they start smoking early, go for petty theft, indifference to their future is expressed. They are not capable of deep feelings and assimilation of moral and ethical standards.

Infantile-dependent accentuation is typical for adults - this is a protracted helplessness, selective dependence on one of the members of the parental family.

The schizoid type is distinguished by autism, isolation, isolation from the environment, inability or unwillingness to establish contacts, a decrease in the need for communication, an unexpressed ability to empathize - schizoid coldness or weakness of emotional resonance.

The lack of internal unity in this type of accentuation is manifested in a combination of coldness and refined sensitivity, stubbornness and pliability, alertness and gullibility, apathetic inactivity and unexpected importunity, shyness and tactlessness, rational reasoning and illogical actions, the richness of the inner world and the colorlessness of its external manifestations. [Stone J.L., p.258]

In the hyperthymic variant of accentuations, elated mood prevails with sharp outbursts of irritation. Forced idleness and a regulated mode of life are experienced by such people with difficulty, this leads to more frequent outbursts of irritation.

The study of character accentuation in individual counseling allows the psychologist to navigate in the choice of possible behavioral alternatives for the client, taking into account the stable and situational forms of his response. For example, when working with a hyperthymic personality, one can use his desire to apply energy, initiative, and establish wide contacts to develop alternative forms of behavior.

In addition to analyzing character accentuations, a practical psychologist, referring to his ideas about the mechanisms of mental development, should investigate such an important natural characteristic of a person as the state of his somatic health.

.3 Group counseling

The most common variant of work in a group counseling situation is the psychologist's analysis of child-parent relationships or relationships between adults in conditions of industrial conflict. As practice shows, orders for the study of the psychological compatibility of two people (most often newlyweds) are much less common. In modern practical psychology, there is a narrow specialization of counseling psychologists, and it rarely happens that an individual counseling specialist is also a group counseling specialist. This is due to the complexity of the subject of interaction between the psychologist and the client, which requires its comprehensive development in the light of the scientific theory chosen by the author.

In group counseling, regardless of the initial theoretical positions of the psychologist, he has to deal with a complex system, which is any group. Therefore, the foundations of a systems approach are implicitly present in any theory about group counseling.

So, the first thing a psychologist begins to work with in group counseling is a system of real-life relationships between people (which may not actually be present in a counseling situation).

The description of the whole variety of relationships that can exist between members of a group is difficult and often practically impractical, since not all types of relationships are included in the content of the psychological task that the psychologist solves - to single out the most significant relationships, to present them for the group as an object of interaction that unites the group . [Kottler J., Brown R., p.302]

The content of these relationships can be very different, but it is important for a psychologist to translate it into the language of describing the subjective modality of each member of the group, so that in the process of interviewing all members of the group, everyone can develop their own alternatives in the situation under study. The development of alternatives is connected with the need and ability of each member of the group to express their actual capabilities (“I can”), their feelings (“I feel”), their thoughts (“I think”), their desires (“I want”), and also their ideas about their change.

The task of the psychologist is to find the subject of interaction between the members of the group, in which the interrelated modeling of the inner world of each member of the group would be presented. To solve this problem, the psychologist must have psychological material about the type of relationship between members of the group.

Diagnosis of the type of relationship is built, as we have already noted, on the theoretical family model used by the psychologist. Since there is no generally accepted classification of family types, each psychologist can use his own classification. In most cases, the typology is based on the idea of ​​parental attitudes and parenting styles. The influence of these factors on personality characteristics has been described by many authors, including E. Bern, 3. Freud, A.I. Zakharov, V. Satir, E.G. Eidemiller, A.E. Lichko and others.

The identification of these stable relationships in the psychodiagnostic procedure is possible, for example, using graphic methods (examples in tasks for independent work) or through the study of the human condition. Indicators of the presence of permanent traumatic factors can be a state of global family dissatisfaction, a state of family anxiety, a state of guilt associated with the family, a state of unbearable, unbearable mental and physical stress. In all these cases, the family acts as a group that determines the stable state of the individual. The work of a psychologist with this condition is possible only when he works with the content of family relationships.

Other indicators of the presence of stable relationships, in this case, conflict, can be somatic diseases of a person; the presence of somatic diseases in one of the members of the group can create conditions for the reproduction in the group of the same type of relationship. In this case, the work of a psychologist with a conflict personality can become the basis for changing group relations. The types of stable personality conflicts in persons suffering from chronic somatic diseases are described, for example, in case of gastric and duodenal ulcer, a person has a constant conflict - dependence on others with intense fear of this dependence. In behavior, this can manifest itself as tyranny of others, constant dissatisfaction with them, which creates a stable content of relations with this person and determines the content of the interaction of all members of the group.

In people with hypertension, there is an intrapersonal conflict between aggressive impulses and the need to depend on significant persons, or another type of intrapersonal conflict - the desire to achieve high social goals and high standards of social life, which gives rise to a situation of chronic stress. [Osukhova N.G., p.155]

In coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction, intrapersonal conflicts are caused by haste, impatience, lack of time, and a sense of high responsibility.

Sustained intrapersonal conflicts of one of the members of the group create conditions for the stabilization of the group, they can deprive it of the psychological information necessary for the development of relations, which, as we have already noted, is characterized by relativity and dynamism.

The stable personal qualities of the members of the group, if they are opposite in content, create the basis for stable, stable conflicts, which, without developing, become a source that disorganizes the group. These qualities include, for example:

extroversion - introversion;

rationalism - romanticism;

dominance - subordination;

hostility - friendliness;

rigidity - flexibility;

irascibility - calmness;

stability - lability;

optimism - pessimism;

activity - passivity;

responsibility - carelessness, etc.

The presence of conflicting intrapersonal and interpersonal qualities among group members complicates the psychologist's work on creating a common object of interaction for all members of the group.

That one of the ways to create an object of interaction can be a graphical representation of the relationship between members of the group and a description by them on the basis of this content of the main modalities, both of their inner world and the modalities of the inner world of other members of the group.

Thus, the study of the structure of the group allows the psychologist not only to highlight the hierarchical relationships - who is the leader and who are the followers, but also to analyze the content of the impact of one member of the group on another. Impact, the measure of impact that each member of the group is capable of, is an important indicator of the content of psychological information that is available to each member of the group.

Conclusion

As a result of the work done, we draw the appropriate conclusions.

Thus, counseling can be carried out under the following conditions:

Providing prompt assistance to the client in solving his problems. People often have such problems that require urgent intervention, an urgent solution, such that the client does not have the opportunity to spend a lot of time, effort and money on solving them. For example, an employee of an enterprise may have a serious problem that he will have to resolve in communication with his immediate supervisor during a short meeting scheduled for one of the coming days.

Rendering assistance to the client in solving those issues that he could independently cope with without outside interference, without the direct and constant participation of a psychologist in his affairs, i.e. where special professional psychological knowledge is usually not needed and is only needed general, worldly, common sense advice.

Providing temporary assistance to a client who actually needs a long-term, more or less permanent psychotherapeutic effect, but for one reason or another is not able to count on him at a given time. In this case, psychological counseling is used as a means of providing current, operational assistance to the client, which restrains the progressive development of negative processes, preventing further aggravation of the problem faced by the client.

When the client already has a correct understanding of his problem and, in principle, he is ready to start solving it himself, but he still doubts something, is not quite sure that he is right, then in the process of conducting psychological counseling, the client, communicating with the psychologist-consultant, receives from him the necessary professional and moral support, and this gives him self-confidence.

Providing assistance to the client in the case when he has no other opportunity than to receive advice. In this case, when conducting psychological counseling, a specialist psychologist should make it clear to the client that he actually needs to receive more thorough, fairly long-term psychocorrectional or psychotherapeutic assistance.

When psychological counseling is used not instead of other methods of providing psychological assistance to the client, but together with them, in addition to them, with the expectation that not only the psychologist, but the client himself will deal with the problem that has arisen.

In cases where a counseling psychologist does not have a ready-made solution, since the situation is beyond his competence, he must provide the client with at least some, even minimal and insufficiently effective, assistance.

In all these and other similar cases, psychological counseling solves the following main tasks:

clarification (clarification) of the problem faced by the client;

informing the client about the essence of the problem that he has, about the real degree of its severity (problem informing the client);

study by a psychologist-consultant of the personality of the client in order to find out whether the client can independently cope with the problem that has arisen for him;

providing ongoing assistance to the client in the form of additional practical advice offered at a time when he has already begun to solve his problem;

teaching the client how best to prevent the occurrence of similar problems in the future (the task of psychoprophylaxis);

the transfer by the consultant psychologist to the client of elementary, vital psychological knowledge and skills, the development and correct use of which is possible by the client himself without special psychological training (psychological and educational informing the client).

List of used literature

1. Abramova G.S. Workshop on psychological counseling. Yekaterinburg. M., 2005

2. Abramova G.S. Psychological counseling. Theory and experience. M. 2007

Abramova G.S. Practical psychology. M. 2004

Bondarenko A.F. Psychological assistance: theory and practice. M.: Independent firm "Class", 2006.

Gladding S. Psychological counseling. SPb. 2007

Zakharov A.I. How to overcome fears in children. M. 2005

Kottler J., Brown R. Psychotherapeutic counseling St. Petersburg. "Peter" 2003 S. 464

May R. The Art of Psychological Counseling. M., 2002

Nelson - Jones R. Theory and practice of counseling. SPb. 2002

Nemov R.S. Psychological counseling. M. 2002

Nemov R.S. Fundamentals of psychological counseling. M.: VLADOS. 2005

Obozov N.N. Psychological counseling: Methodological guide. St. Petersburg, 2006

Osukhova N.G. Theoretical position and practice: A comparative analysis of two approaches to counseling. M. 2004

Piz Alan Body language. M.: EKSMO-Press, 2004.

Rogers KR A look at psychotherapy. The formation of man. M.: Progress. Universe, 2000

Rogers K.R. Counseling and psychotherapy. The latest approaches in the field of practical work. Moscow: Eksmo-Press, 2002

Serova I.V. Counseling work with fears in preschool children. M. 2003

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Hello dear readers!

In the last article we talked about the dangers of polite treatment of men, today we will talk about psychological manipulation

When you build relationships with any person, in fact you agree: what do you need from each other, what do you want from each other. If you did it right, then 80% of all relationship problems are solved by themselves, without the use of manipulation.

If any issue is outside the scope of a worked relationship, you usually try to negotiate. If it doesn't work, then use manipulation. Those. in a relationship with a more or less sane person, you rarely need manipulation. Plus, manipulation will be useful to you in relationships with unfamiliar people.

People love to be manipulated. And this is 100% true. The average normal person is not quite independent in life. Many people lack some kind of strong figure, they like it when someone tells them how to live, what to do. But not always, but only when it happens beautifully and imperceptibly, and the person himself agrees to this.

Influence can be for the benefit or harm of the person you are manipulating. Influence can be skilled (when you manipulate skillfully) or unskilled (when you are inept).

If you know how to manipulate for the benefit of people and do it skillfully, there is nothing wrong with that. The danger is unskilled manipulation to the detriment of a person.

Direct influence

How does direct influence occur? We distinguish 3 main stages:

• Attention capture. You must first get the person's attention before you can influence them. Make sure that this person listens to you carefully so that your words do not go somewhere into the void.
• . At this stage, we make the influence itself: request, suggestion, demand and order. Each technique is harder than the previous one, no need to use an influence technique unless you used an easier option before it (for example, no need to demand if you have not already asked). Example of a request: "Please turn on the light bulb." Example, orders: ask an employee to make a report for the month.
• Expectation. You are waiting for the person's reaction.

Often people make mistakes by neglecting one of the three steps. For example, without capturing the attention of the interlocutor, your influence goes "in the milk." Or: you influenced a person and did not wait for his reaction, thinking that your influence did not work, or the person deliberately sends you.

When is direct influence effective?

1. When you have the right. Let's take a situation: in the family you have understandable agreements (for example, the man decides on domestic issues), and the wife asks her husband to hang up the closet.
2. When your goals coincide with the object of influence. For example, you take a taxi for two with a stranger to get to the place cheaper.

Indirect (hidden) influence

This is a hidden influence in relation to another person. Here you are not giving the person a direct order (as opposed to a direct influence).

There are 5 stages:

1. Attention capture. Hidden influence also makes no sense without grabbing attention.
2. distraction. You drew attention to yourself, and then transferred to something else. That is, you redirect the attention of the interlocutor to the side that is not related to your real goal. For example, it can be a completely irrelevant question, holding an object, shaking dust off clothes, a non-standard thought or a joke. Those. anything that will distract the interlocutor.
3. Covert Influence Technique. There may be several techniques.
4. distraction. We repeat the stage of distraction.
5. Expectation. Waiting for the person's reaction. The wait may be longer - it depends on your interlocutor.

In the latent influence, there is no unambiguous certainty in the result. As a rule, for a complex change in the behavior of the interlocutor, you need to do several manipulations, techniques.

In order for the hidden influence to work, it must fall into the person's unconscious thinking. Those. if you made a direct order, the person will notice it; and you need the influence to get into the unconscious mind (this is what 2 distractions are made for).

Gradually, you will learn to insert all these influence techniques as a background in your speech. You will not need to scroll through all these 5 stages sequentially. You, just talking to a person, will be on autopilot to build in everything you need.

Conclusion: In fact, we throw the idea into the unconscious of our interlocutor. And the deeper we throw it, the better it will work. Then the indirect influence will go into the background. Those. you will master the techniques of "stuffing", and then you will build a hidden influence into the natural background of communication with your interlocutor.

Attention capture technique

The main task is to capture the attention of the interlocutor. You capture the attention of another person through the channels of perception. A person can visually perceive information by ear and body (sensations). And the more channels you use, the stronger the capture will be. Those. if you look into the interlocutor's eyes, speak loudly and shake your shoulders at the same time, then the grip will be very strong.

Basic capture techniques:

• Eye contact. Before talking to a person, make sure they can see you.
• Voice greeting.
• Ask a question. It can be applied to both a friend and a stranger.
• Unobtrusive kinesthetics - touch. Unfamiliar people can be touched in neutral zones: the outer part of the shoulder or forearm, the outer side of the arm.
• Join the action of the interlocutor. Thus, you automatically fall into the field of human attention.

Request is an optional influence, i.e. you can do, you can not do. Most people don't know how to use it. The request can be on an equal footing, from a position above or below. It may carry a veiled order or demand (i.e., by asking you, you are simply softening a more stringent instruction).

When is it effective to use a request? When it is easy for a person to do what you ask. Or you have significant authority. Or you have a formal right to ask for something (family and domestic issues). Or you have a good relationship with this person.

How to strengthen the request? You need to back up your request with something. It can be a light, compliment, smile, gratitude, touch.

Offer- a request to do something in exchange for something on your part (mutual exchange). A common mistake is that you do not understand why the other person should respond to your proposal. Those. you must know what to offer the interlocutor so that he agrees to it, show him the benefits of your offer for him.

Requirement This is a demand to do something, you do not offer anything in return. It is used much less frequently than a request or an offer. The effectiveness of the demand will greatly depend on whether you have a formal right to this, a trusting relationship, authority.

Disposition- when you have the right to order, and the person cannot refuse (example: employer - employee). The effectiveness of orders is usually 100%. Here the main difficulty is how to give an order in order to get exactly what you want from a person.

To enhance direct influence use the following techniques:

• "Broken Record". You repeat the same thing over and over and do not switch to discussing something else. Often people give up after 2-3 repetitions.
• "Logical Selling". This is a quality proposal, correctly presented, i.e. you sell a person some idea, action. This usually works when the interlocutor is logically stupider than you and he is easily fascinated by logic; or if the interlocutor is smart, open to new information and your goals partially coincide. You need to understand what problems the other person has + you need to understand what solution you can provide for these problems + what benefits he will get from this solution.

Most people do not understand the true problem of the interlocutor or cannot articulate benefits for him.

Indirect Influence Technique: Public Morality

These are all sorts of forms of phrases starting with "You must ...", "Men must ...", "A woman must ...", "Every mother must ...", "Every student must ..." and modal operators ("A smart person must ...").

Those. you take any category and add obligation. The interlocutor's head scrolls "I belong to this category, so I must too."

This also includes generalizations: "Everyone always does it", "People do it", "Nobody does it like that".

Indirect Influence Technique: Lost Performer

This is any science, statistics, experimental data: “British scientists have proven ...”, “According to statistics ...”, “Scientists have proven ...”, “According to the experiments ...”

Conclusion: you talk to a person and throw in that there are some statistics according to which ... And then you give statistics that reinforce the behavior you need.

For example, in a conversation with a manager, “Working from home is now popular in European companies, as the company’s budget is reduced, costs are reduced by 25%, etc.” This is where you tossed in the idea that working from home is a good thing. This works when looking for remote work for hire.

Hidden Influence Technique: Story-Metaphor

A very powerful technique. People from childhood are brought up on stories and fairy tales, so your stories enter the brain just fine.

What is the best way to use it? Tell a story in which someone does what you would like them to do. At the same time, such behavior leads to something good for the hero of the story.

So that this story does not look stupid and you are not exposed, you need some disguise. You are not talking about yourself, but about someone else.

You create a story (preferably a real one) that contains the target behavior that you want to impose on your interlocutor, and you build this story into a chain: ideally it would be a story about the fourth person from the third person to the second person. This chain reinforces the "amnesia" and better brings your command (hidden suggestion) to the unconscious level. People do not like being pressured, so we are creating some kind of informational environment.

We certainly cannot predict the result, but we can be sure that after using a metaphor story, a certain internal search is launched in a person. You threw a story to a person, then he processes it, thinks it over. And ultimately it will affect his behavior.

Hidden Influence Techniques: Compliments and Support

Any sincere compliment is better done about the merit of a person, and not about an innate quality: “What a cool hairstyle you chose!”, “You chose a beautiful suit.”

How to use it as a hidden influence? You need to compliment the behavior that you want to reproduce and recreate in a person. Those. you are complimenting the target behavior or the behavior that doesn't already exist.

For example, you want a woman to cook tasty more often, you say: “I like how you cook delicious borscht.”

Important point- we voice the compliment as a matter of course.

Covert Influence Technique: You

The essence of the technique: you give out the desired behavior as something that the interlocutor came up with himself. Why does it work well?

People love themselves and like to build up self-importance. Therefore, when a person understands, “What a fine fellow I am, what a good idea I came up with!”, Then it is much easier for him to agree with this idea if he himself came up with it.

Verbal options technology use:

• "You said that..."
• “I learned from you that…”
• "I remember you offered..."
• Admiration and admiration for the actions of the interlocutor: “I like it when you ...”
• "I liked your idea..."
• “I thought about what you said to me last time…”

As a result, the person sees that you liked his opinion and you further decided to act on the basis of this opinion. And now it remains for you to remind the interlocutor what kind of “his opinion” you liked.

Hidden Influence Technique: Aikido

The technique is similar to the previous two.

essence: we agree with any idea that the interlocutor gave us. And when we have already agreed, we use this moment as a starting point for our subsequent logic (where we need to). You lead the logic of consent not from your position, but from the position of the interlocutor.

Your task: learn to agree with people. You need to work out the skill of agreeing with the phrases of the interlocutor you need.

Word Manipulation:

• “I like your idea, and then, you know how best to do it ...”
• “I liked your idea, I suggest this…”

If you are forced to do something that you cannot agree with, you agree anyway, but then come up with the conditions under which this proposal should have gone well. But these conditions are far from today's situation. And you formulate it. It turns out that the idea seemed to be liked, but it becomes clear to the interlocutor that the idea does not fit into the current moment.

Let's summarize the technique:

1. Agree with other people. Not thoughtlessly, but find in their words something with which you can agree.
2. Then you begin to build logic to your position step by step. You begin to slowly lead the interlocutor from agreeing with his idea to your position. Those. you find for him what he can agree with in your position.

Hidden Influence Techniques - Emotional Impact and Emotional Background

If emotions are difficult for you, then these techniques will require significant labor costs from you, you will be terribly exhausted (if you repeat the technique often).

Emotional Strike Technique- this is a sharp release of a large amount of emotions that contrast strongly with your calm state before. Those. you throw out all your experiences, emotions, feelings. No logic, no accusations or suggestions. You just dump KAMAZ pain on your interlocutor.

At the same time, carefully monitor the reaction of the interlocutor. Often, if this happened unexpectedly for a person, he temporarily turns off logical thinking, the manipulations that he used to do. And your task is to quickly orient yourself and take the next step (for example, apply some kind of action or technique) to bring the situation to where you need it.

Ideally, react with the wrong emotion that was expected of you; it is good to know the reaction of the interlocutor. But this technique may not always go smoothly for you - in this case, the situation will not improve.

Conclusion: i.e. Emotional shock alone does not solve the problem. It creates an opportunity for you to solve the problem. He knocks your interlocutor out of the rut in which he was driving. At this moment, you gain control over the situation and can pull the interlocutor to where you need.

Technique Emotional background- this is when you create an emotional background with your non-verbal, and you do not show anything on verbal. Those. you don't verbalize the emotion, but just show it bodily (for example, show anger with sudden movements, no eye contact). Example: show resentment or sadness with the help of a pulled head, nervous tension, lowered shoulders, a meaningless look into the distance.

Those. you show emotion, you create such a “quiet emotional theater”.

This technique is quite "dirty" because it exploits your partner's guilt. If you use it often, it will have negative consequences for your psyche and for your relationships. This technique hurts your partner as it you deliberately cut off contact with him and this force you to act.

If you have not calculated the pressure in this technique, then you can make it worse. The partner will respond to you with their emotions or outplay you when you find yourself in a position guilty(-oh).

The technique is very complex and does not always work. It is more common in couples where one partner is emotionally virtuoso, and the second is an emotional “tree” (male-female).

Hidden Influence Techniques - Information Environment

This is a complex technique that integrates the rest. It is usually used when we want to push into the unconscious of the interlocutor some non-obvious idea, a proposal with which it is difficult for him to agree. And we still don't know how he'll react to it.

You start throwing small pieces to your interlocutor, which form a certain information environment for him, a certain information environment. How to make these injections? History techniques - metaphor, duck, small pieces of information. Those. you gradually surround a person with the information that will form his ability to make the decision you need.

A classic example of the Star Wars 3 technique when Anakin Skywalker turns to the dark side of the force. He meets Chancellor Palpatine and worries about Padmé. The Chancellor slowly pumps information into the young Jedi's mind. And at the end sums up: go to the dark side and save Padme, I have the power to raise the dead. The formula worked problem -> solution -> benefit: you have a health problem with your wife, I have the power, go to the dark side, and we will save her.

You prepare an unobvious proposal, but do not roll it out right away, but throw in pieces of information ahead of time. Ideally, the interlocutor should come to your proposal himself.

Open Loop and Fractal Loop Techniques

These techniques introduce a person to susceptibility to influence, manipulation, suggestion.

Technique Open Loop. The purpose of this technique is to interest and arouse curiosity. Those. you create an internal need within a person to either communicate with you further, or learn something about your question, or learn something about a specific product.

The essence of technology open loops. The human brain has such a property that it tries to finish any thought it has begun. For example, it makes you watch an uninteresting movie or finish reading a boring book (you want to know how it ends at the end).

And we can use this thing. We create in the head of the interlocutor open loop and some kind of distraction(examples: “We need to talk, but not here and not now, come on later”, “I know something about you, but it’s better to talk about it in another place in private”). And the interlocutor's brain tries to close this cycle. And the interlocutor himself will initiate the continuation in order to close the cycle.

Depending on your goals, you can close this cycle or pull it further. You can take time for the interlocutor to ask you himself.

Classic examples of the application of technology:

• This is how Apple products are sold. First, there are news, expectations, reviews, pre-orders, and then the product is released to the market (iPhones, iPads).
• Trailer before the release of the new film.
• Almost any series. For example, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones. Each series ends with an open loop-cycle.

If you don't close the cycle for too long, or if you open too many cycles and don't close them, then you can get the opposite effect, loss of interest or aggression.

To make the technique work even stronger, create open loops that will be of interest to the interlocutor.

Conclusion: these open loops force our interlocutor to initiate what we want. Those. we want him to be interested in something, we create an open cycle for him on this topic, and he himself asks us about it. This works great for creating curiosity and interest.

Fractal Loop Technique. Very similar to the previous one, but there are differences. The essence of the technique: you open a phrase without finishing it, start the next phrase without finishing the second, start the third, and so on in a spiral.

The brain of the interlocutor at the same time tries to keep several open loops at the same time. And it burns out.

Reaction Technique

These are simple variations on how you can respond to manipulations addressed to you.

Dead End Technique is an unpredictable response. The task is to knock the interlocutor out of the template in which he is now located and put him in a dead end; then you seize the initiative and you can do whatever you want with it. For example, you respond positively to negativity, ignoring a question, answering a question with a question or humor to a phrase, a quote to a phrase.

This technique helps to stop someone's influence on you. You can prepare in advance for yourself quotes or unexpected phrases that always baffle.

Conclusion: by confusing the interlocutor, you do not solve the problem, but you have time to further take control of the situation and bring it to where you need it.

Brick Face Technique. Technique, reactions to requests or suggestions to you that you are not interested in. You make your face a brick and with this facial expression silently look at the interlocutor. You can say some monosyllabic answers, but with the same facial expression.

How it works: the interlocutor expects some kind of reaction, emotion, justification from you, but there are none. The person just falls into a stupor, and you can do whatever you want with him.

This technique should not be used with close people, but it works great with unfamiliar people.

Conclusion: Technique handles those situations where people expect a stereotyped reaction from you. As a rule, you are asked for something or something is offered, and emotions, explanations, excuses are expected from you, but none of this happens. Plus you still have a brick face. This generally kicks the interlocutor out of the template, rejects the manipulation and transfers the initiative to you.

Once, in a dark room, people who did not know what an elephant was were shown this animal. One entered the room where the elephant was, felt the trunk with his hands and said: “The elephant is like a snake. It's long and flexible." Another felt the elephant's side and said, "The elephant is like a wall - it's big and flat." And the third, grabbing the elephant by the tail, shouted: “You are all mistaken! The elephant is a long rope!”

And none of them knew it was Just an Elephant, because each of them knew only a Part.

Although many people think that psychology is either a science or just testing, I don't think so. In my opinion, psychology is an art. And also, psychology is a practical action. That. psychology is the art of practically working with people: with relationships between people, with the attitude of a person himself to himself, to others, to the world. "Psyche" is a soul that lives and develops, therefore psychology is also the art of working with a person's soul, I would even say, with his heart. A psychologist, for example, unlike a doctor in traditional medicine, does not give any pills - this is a non-drug art of helping a person. To help a person open up, to help him show the whole gamut of feelings, to feel alive, able to live life to the fullest and breathe in deeply, to help gain clarity in his life, to help build relationships and raise himself - that's what psychology is. Through a word or a creative action, whether it is focusing on the body, dance movements or drawing, the psychologist influences a person imperceptibly, gradually. A psychologist helps a person to see himself from the outside. The psychologist is not above the client, pulling him by the hair out of his problems, but is next to the client, giving support and showing the directions in which the client could move, finding himself, discovering more and more new ways to interact with himself and the world.

Psychology has many branches, for example, child psychology and educational psychology talk about how a child develops and how to take this development into account in education; family psychology tell about how, according to what laws a family is built and how to make family relationships harmonious; clinical psychology understands severe cases of distortion of the human personality (schizophrenia, etc.); social Psychology will let you understand the structure of society and will not let you lose yourself in this society. There are also areas of psychology in business, for example, this organizational psychology, which allows you to learn more about the organization, its development, the interaction of its members and good leadership.

Psychology also has many practical techniques for working with a person. I will name just a few. This, of course, Freud's psychoanalysis which is designed to understand the problems that occur in human life. NLP- a technique for programming a person for the best performance of tasks. Perzl Gestalt Therapy- the so-called "contact therapy", which considers a person as a whole, and works with his feelings and awareness. There are also bodily techniques, which are aimed either at working with unconscious emotional tensions in the body (Alexander technique), or at awareness of one's own movements (Feldenkrais method), or at restoring the body to its natural spontaneity through a system of exercises (Lowen's bioenergetics). Psychology has not forgotten about the use of such art as dance: there are a lot of techniques here, because every dancer who turned to psychology left his own unique contribution to work with a person - the freedom of his movements and feelings. Even drawing can be applied as a technique of psychology - it is art therapy, which, with the help of a drawing, helps a person to open up creatively and see something new in himself. There are even techniques taken from theatrical art - psychodrama Moreno, - which uses improvisation to change the inner world of the client, where he plays, as if truly living, many roles, working on his problem in order to better understand it. There are similar to psychodrama "Hellinger arrangements", there is a method of working with the body and its reactions "bodynamics", - in general, a lot of techniques and methods! All of them can vary and depend on what technique the psychologist has learned himself, what technique he is better at. Also, the methods of group work can be different and depend on the preferences of the psychologist - from a simple so-called "therapeutic group" to serious large trainings and seminars.

So, psychology today has very, very many techniques and methods, both individual and group, and at the beginning of his professional path, the psychologist chooses between them, but with the growth of his experience, he begins to look at psychology as a whole. From this moment, the psychologist either begins to use all the techniques and methods - i.e. any technique that fits the personality of the client, or he remains in his chosen direction of work - and this direction begins to spread and include a multitude of techniques and methods. And the psychologist then becomes a kind of artist, the creator of his path. And as in the epigraph to this article, psychology for him becomes not a set of techniques and methods - “trunks”, “sides” and “tails”, but a single whole - “Just an Elephant”.

Maxim Sviridov
psychologist, consultant, coach