Questions from a psychologist consultant. Types of questions and their use in psychological counseling. Stage of implementation of psychocorrectional influence

Lecture 5. Basic techniques and stages of the counseling process. 1) Review of basic counseling techniques. 2) Techniques for regulating the client’s emotional state. 3) Stages of psychological counseling. 4) Models and algorithms of consultation. 5) Specifics of the first conversation with the client. 6) Formation of strategy and tactics for long-term advisory support and short-term consultation.
Review of basic counseling techniques.
What is psychological counseling technique?
The technique of psychological counseling is a systemic procedure specially organized by a psychologist, which includes a set of techniques, instructions, and actions carried out by him in relation to the client as part of the advisory process. The technique has a specific purpose and is aimed at solving one or more advisory tasks. Most techniques can also be used for diagnostic purposes to obtain information about the client and the way he or she functions psychologically.
What techniques are used in the counseling work of a psychologist?
Building rapport with the client using questions. The questions that the educational psychologist asks the client are aimed at solving a number of problems: 1) maintaining contact with the client; 2) obtaining information; 3) identification of feelings; 4) testing or clarifying hypotheses.
Open-ended questions usually begin with the words “what,” “how,” “why,” “could,” and “what if.” They require a detailed answer from the client, since it is difficult to answer “yes” or “no”.
Closed questions contain the wording of the answer or its variants. They can be answered “yes” or “no”. Closed questions are used to collect information, as well as to find out something, concentrate attention, and narrow the scope of judgments.
Paraphrasing (paraphrase) is the formulation of the client’s thoughts in other words. Paraphrasing is always a certain risk for an educational psychologist, since you can never be sure that you understand the other person correctly. The purpose of paraphrasing is to check how accurately the therapist understands the client. There are standard statements with which paraphrasing often begins: “As I understand ...”, “Do you think ...”, “In your opinion ...”, “In other words, you think”, “If I understand correctly, you are talking about ...” and etc.
Clarification (clarification, clarification) is a microtechnique that helps make the client’s message more understandable for the educational psychologist. The psychologist turns to the client with a question or request to clarify what he said. You can use the following key phrases: “Would you say that again?”, “I don’t understand what you mean,” “I’m not entirely clear what you’re talking about,” “Could you explain this in more detail?” and etc.
What are listening techniques?
Non-reflective listening (passive listening, principle of silence) is the most basic type of listening. It consists in the ability of the educational psychologist to remain silent, remaining attentive and without interfering in the client’s story or activity. This process can be called passive only conditionally, since it requires enormous attention from the educational psychologist. “Non-reflexivity” is also a conventional concept, since in this case the educational psychologist remains in contact with himself, his feelings, and continues to build therapeutic hypotheses or think about a further strategy for working with the client.
Empathic (active) listening is a technique used in the practice of socio-psychological training, psychological counseling and psychotherapy, which allows us to more accurately understand psychological states, feelings, thoughts of the interlocutor with the help special techniques participation in conversation, implying the active expression of one’s own experiences and considerations.
We should briefly talk about one more type of listening.
Directed, critical listening. With this type of listening, the participant in communication first carries out a critical analysis of the message (often in advance, coming with an attitude towards critical perception of information), i.e. determines how true, reliable or probable the information may be, and only after that understands whether he agrees with it and wants to perceive and respond.
What are influence techniques?
In addition to micro listening techniques, there are techniques for influencing the client. Influence techniques are methods for actively involving a teacher-psychologist in the process of resolving the client’s current life problems. All counseling theories are based on the fact that the psychologist acts as an agent of change and personal growth in clients. In the case when an educational psychologist uses special influence techniques, changes can occur faster and more effectively.
The directive is the most powerful of the influence techniques. When using a directive, the psychologist tells the client what action to take. Different theories use different types of directives, e.g.
1. free associations: “Remember and tell us what moments from your childhood this feeling is associated with...”;
2. Gestalt method of working with an empty chair: “Imagine that your partner is sitting on this chair. Tell him everything you think and feel. Now sit down and answer yourself on his behalf”;
3. fantasy: “Imagine that 5 years have passed... You are in the future... In front of you is a young woman... This woman is you... Come closer to her... Look at what she is wearing, what she looks like... What is she doing? How does he live? You can ask her about something important..."
4. relaxation: “Close your eyes... Feel your body... Relax your facial muscles...”
5. wish: “I would like you to do the following...”
Confrontation. During confrontation, the psychologist draws the client’s attention to those facts in his story that are contradictory and inadequate. The concept of “mismatch” is important for understanding confrontation. The client gives double messages during the interview (yes...but); demonstrates opposing or contradictory feelings and thoughts. The psychologist points out these double messages to the client and thereby confronts the client with the facts. The purpose of counseling is to identify and confront the client's main contradictions. Having noticed contradictions in the client’s story, the psychologist can use the following template: “On the one hand you think (feel, act) ..., but on the other hand you think (feel, act ...).”
Self-disclosure is an influence technique based on the fact that the educational psychologist shares personal experiences and feelings or shares the client’s feelings. It is related to the feedback technique and is based on the “I-statements” of the specialist.
Techniques for regulating the client's emotional state.
What techniques are used when working with a client’s emotions?
Before you begin to discuss the content of his problem with the client, it is necessary to release the feelings and emotions associated with it and allow them to flow freely. One of the most well-known ways to do this is verbalization emotional states- was proposed by K. Rogers. The point is that the consultant gives the client the opportunity to “let off steam”, relieve tension, and speak out in the presence of an attentive and empathic listener (this technique is based on the idea of ​​catharsis - a “cleansing experience”). K. Rogers noted his own internal therapeutic nature of reprimanding, since the unrestricted flow of negative emotions gradually changes by itself to positive ones. During verbalization, the client independently moves towards achieving psychological balance. The same effect can be achieved if you offer the client to conduct homework diary entries, “talking out” to yourself in writing. Gradually freeing himself from the captivity of emotions, the client becomes able to discuss the essence of his problem more rationally and balancedly, and the feeling created by the consultant that he understands not only the essence of his statements, but also internal experiences, strengthens the atmosphere of trust and facilitates further self-disclosure client. In work with emotional sphere It is important for the consultant to identify and understand himself and make the client aware of exactly what feelings accompanied the emergence of the problem and are associated with its current experience.
The technique of alternative formulations is a specific form of “hints” of 2 - 3 options for experiences that could arise in the situation experienced by the client. This technique allows you to stimulate the client’s activity in relation to his own inner world, giving him an example for a possible description of his experiences. The initial idea here is that in relation to significant issues of his life, especially those related to mental pain and suffering, a person knows and feels much more than he is sometimes able to express independently in words, but “recognition” of feelings is easier for him, than their naming and description. This technique “pulls out” unexpressed experiences, giving the client a more subtle and differentiated sense of himself, and the consultant more reliable material for analysis, colored by the client’s personal meanings. In many cases, only a small, but unusual for the client, push is enough to encourage him to think about something that previously did not raise doubts or internal interest.
The technique of emphasizing experience allows one to identify and accurately name the experience experienced in relation to significant circumstances and persons in order for the client to understand its meaning. The consultant should notice and draw the client’s attention to adverbs and adjectives in the client’s text, to verbs denoting the attitude and quality of action: “When he calls me into the office, my legs give way,” “I don’t want to come back in the evenings.” home, I sit late at work until the janitor starts rattling his keys,” “When father comes drunk, we all try to remain silent” - behind these emotionally charged phrases there are deeper feelings than it seems at first glance. And here it is enough to push the client to further conversation, concentrating his attention on the word used: “My legs are giving way... why?”, clarifying what this means for him.
Clarifying the depth of the experience, allowing the client to take an important step from “I should feel...” to “I feel...”. The opportunity to realize one’s own true feelings is created by the consultant through internal strengthening, additional “recharging” of the experiences already somehow indicated by the client (“How quickly were you able to come to your senses after these words?”, “Did this unsettle you for a long time? "). The purpose of the technique is to “lure” the client deeper into his own experiences and help him understand their individual significance for further actions.
This technique brings the psychologist closer to a cautious interpretation through formulations “That is...”, paraphrasing “So it means...” and questions “And how exactly did you...”. Being simple in form, they require the psychologist to have a good understanding of the client’s feelings and contribute to a deeper understanding by the client of the individual meaning of his own experiences. It is important that the consultant’s comments do not provoke confrontation or resistance, but expand the client’s awareness, preparing him for corrective action.
Stages of psychological counseling.
How can a consultant plan a meeting with a client?
Consulting must begin with planning time. The optimal temporary work schedule allows the consultant to perform his professional duties at a high technological level, maintain professional skills and improve his professional qualifications.
Structuring the counseling process begins with scheduling a meeting with the client. Preparation for it consists of a number of stages:
1. Drawing up a preliminary idea about the client and his problem. The information received by the consultant before starting work with the client will help implement the following stages of preparation for the consultation.
2. Systematization of knowledge on the existing problem. At this stage, the consultant can review the literature on the issue; consult with colleagues; get acquainted with new research.
3. Development of a consultation plan. It should be noted that having a plan can have positive and negative sides. The consultant needs to be able to change the planned plan depending on the situation, otherwise he may miss important points for the client, the main directions of further work.
4. Selection of psychodiagnostic tools.
Following this algorithm will allow, especially novice consultants, to feel confident in the process of work.
The counseling process can also be represented in the form of successively changing stages. Scientists suggest various models counseling.
What is the five-step counseling model?
Most specialists in practice use a five-stage counseling model:
Stage I. Establishing and consolidating a trusting relationship with the client (the consultant must maintain a trusting relationship with the client throughout the entire counseling process). The consultant supports the client, creates conditions for psychological safety and instills in the client confidence in himself as a professional.
Stage II. “Confession” of the client to the consultant (subjective emotional verbal presentation by the client of his psychological and socio-psychological problems). The consultant has a general understanding of the internal and external reasons psychosocial problems of the client, and the first working hypotheses appear - a presumptive judgment about the natural (causal) connection of phenomena. Thanks to advisory hypotheses, the consultant can formulate the range of psychosocial problems with which the client came to him. The specialist begins to formulate a preliminary professional advisory opinion.
Stage III. Analysis (comprehension, reflection) of the client’s socio-psychological problems; testing the general working advisory hypothesis.
Stage IV. Comprehensive professional study by the consultant of the client’s significant problems, the consultant’s search, together with the client, for optimal solutions to the client’s problems and finding resources (in order to resolve the client’s socio-psychological difficulties and get out of his difficult life situation).
V stage. Recommendations to the client and completion of the advisory process, a brief summary by the consultant of what happened during the entire consultation process, repeated “speaking” (for the client) of the options for solving the problem chosen together with the client.
The final part of the counseling process also discusses, if necessary, subsequent communication (professional interaction) between the consultant and the client.
What steps are central to the counseling process?
IN social work The consultant helps the client in solving a specific problem. In this regard, it is convenient to consider the stages of consultation using J. Egan’s model. This model views counseling as “problem management,” which means managing rather than solving, since not all problems can be definitively resolved. The central stages of the model are:
1. defining the problem (helping the client tell his story; focusing; activation);
2. formation of goals (development of a new scenario and set of goals; assessment of goals; selection of goals for specific actions);
3. implementation of actions (development of action strategies; implementation of strategies).
The first stage, where trust is established, is aimed at creating a picture of the “current scenario”, i.e. problematic situation. At the second stage, the consultant, together with the client, creates a “new scenario” with the help of which the situation can be improved. At the third stage, strategies for achieving goals and actions necessary to move from the “current scenario” to the “desirable” are developed.
There are cultural and individual issues that arise at different stages (phases of counseling) that the counselor needs to consider. You cannot follow strict standards in conducting a counseling conversation, but it is necessary to structure the counseling process. The novice counselor especially should learn to plan the consultation and the counseling process according to the stages of counseling.
Models and algorithms of consultation.
What is meant by a psychological counseling model?
The specific counseling model is often chosen depending on the overall theoretical orientation:
- psychoanalytic,
- person-centered,
- behavioral,
- cognitive, etc.
Among the counseling models there are 1) life skills training, 2) human relationships and communication skills training, 3) problem solving and decision making training, 4) support training healthy image life, 5) orientation and development of abilities, 6) assistance in the formation of self-identity and personal development.
At the present stage of development of the theory and practice of psychological counseling, we can highlight the emergence of a number of new models of counseling:
. short-term positive counseling,
. counseling using psychotechnology of neurolinguistic programming,
. counseling on personality reassessment, etc.
Counseling models can be specified in accordance with life situations that cause mental maladjustment. Thus, in recent years, special models of counseling have emerged on the problems of alcoholism, drug addiction, domestic violence, learning difficulties, etc.
What does the psychological counseling algorithm look like?
The main task of the consultant in a conversation is to bring the client to understanding, awareness of himself, his behavior, his leading motives and values, his resources and limitations. The client’s progress towards the goal can occur at different speeds - faster, slower, which depends on many reasons. Sometimes the client gets stuck in his own insights about himself. “Scattering,” lack of concentration, and incoherence destroy the counseling process. The art of the consultant is to regulate the intensity of progress towards the goal in accordance with the individual capabilities of the client. Psychological counseling is a process that has a number of stages. Counseling has a beginning, middle and end, and the counselor must know how to begin counseling, by what means to continue it, make it intense and productive, and how to end it
Its staged nature can be clearly seen in the main method of psychological counseling - interviews.
An interview is a special method of analyzing a client’s unique situation in order to increase the dynamism of his attitude towards various aspects of subjective mental reality.
The literature usually provides a “five-step” model of a consultative interview, which is an algorithm for the consultation process.
1. Establishing contact and orienting the client to work.
2. Collecting information about the client and identifying the “problem”.
3. Formulation and awareness of the desired result.
4. Development of alternative solutions.
5. Summarizing the results, moving to action.
Specifics of the first conversation with the client.
How does the first meeting between a client and a psychologist begin?
The consultant should pay special attention to the first meeting with the client, even if there were many visitors that day. A client comes for psychological help with two strong feelings - fear and hope. It is the responsibility of the counselor to reduce fear and increase hope.
The first meeting begins with introductions. What immediately catches your eye and testifies to the client’s character is the way he enters the office - with a firm step, demonstrating determination and courage, or hesitantly, reluctantly, which speaks of fear, shyness, and doubt. With a handshake, the consultant shows friendliness, interest and willingness to help from the first minutes of the meeting, since a handshake is considered to be a symbol of the unity of two people. Having introduced himself, the consultant finds out the client’s first and last name and can spend a couple of minutes using generally accepted phrases that reduce the anxiety and tension of the first meeting.
How to deal with client anxiety?
Even if there are no noticeable signs of anxiety in the client’s behavior, it should not be forgotten, because the counseling situation itself provokes anxiety. Finally, the client’s anxiety is caused by his own problems, as well as doubts about whether the consultant’s qualifications are sufficient, whether he is ready to truly help, what will happen during the consultation, etc. Anxiety and tension prevent the client from speaking, so the first task of the consultant is who notices the client's anxiety - help him feel safe. First of all, it is necessary to be active both at the beginning of the conversation and during the entire first meeting. The client hopes that the consultant will be the first to initiate the conversation. If the consultant sees obvious tension in the client, it is useful to identify and comment on this state: “You are very worried”! or “You seem scared”; “What do you care about?” Talking about your worries helps relieve stress. The counselor might ask the client, “Are you worried about something you need to talk about today?” or “Aren’t you afraid of my questions that you wouldn’t want to answer?” Sometimes the client is afraid of the assessment, diagnosis, and is worried about the possible detection of mental disorders. To find out, the counselor might ask, “Are you worried that you will be given a psychiatric diagnosis?” or “Some people are afraid to turn to psychologists and psychotherapists, assuming that they will be mistaken for mentally ill. Do you experience similar anxiety? This type of concern should be addressed at the beginning of the conversation. The consultant must explain that the client chooses what and how much to talk about, that most people turn to psychologists and psychotherapists because of life problems, and they cannot be considered illnesses.
The anxiety of the first meeting decreases as the client becomes familiar with the counseling procedure. Most clients feel insecure due to lack of awareness of the consultant's actions. Some clients understand counseling as magical help, and perceive the consultant as a magician who reads minds. For other clients, counseling is a kind of first aid, dispensing wise advice or work for which the consultant bears full responsibility, etc. Such unrealistic expectations partly reflect social stereotypes associated with psychotherapy. Proper explanation of the counseling process, emphasizing the complete dependence of success on the cooperation of counselor and client, adjusts client expectations and reduces anxiety. Anxiety can be reduced by simply asking the client to sit comfortably in a chair and relax.
How should you listen to a client at the first meeting?
During the first meeting, we listen carefully to the client and try to determine the main topic of the conversation, the range of problems and difficulties. First of all, you should pay attention to the client's understanding of the problem, the probable causes of its occurrence, attempts to solve this problem, the difficulties associated with it and related factors. The consultant should allow the client to talk freely, sometimes inserting the following phrases: “So, all attempts to solve the problem were unsuccessful...”, “Do you associate your problem only with these matters?” etc. You should not interrupt the client and show your personal agreement or disagreement, you should avoid ridiculing and humiliating the client, you should not show your sympathy (rather, the client should feel the empathy of the consultant), you should not offer hasty interpretations and rush to conclusions.
The consultant should not persistently and intrusively encourage the client to “tell everything.” If we somehow force the client to talk about his life, relationships, feelings more than he is ready, then another time the client may not come, experiencing anxiety, guilt and shame due to excessive frankness with a stranger.
Often during the first meeting the client will talk about many problems, because there is almost never only one problem. The difficulties at first glance seem disjointed. However, if the consultant listens carefully to the client, he will see various kinds of connections between the events, feelings and attitudes described. During the conversation, it is important to note repeated elements in the client's speech. They indicate the most intense reactions, the most emotionally charged areas of experience. Such repetitions act as specific “keys” and help the consultant to conduct the conversation more effectively.
From the very beginning of the first meeting, the counselor must ensure that the client accepts responsibility for his problems, i.e. recognized his authorship in their origin. The client is also responsible for making meaningful use of counseling time. The consultant shares responsibility with the client and indicates that he is interested in discussing the client's problems and possible alternatives for solving them. Our upbringing often contradicts the requirement of shared responsibility for counseling with the client. The consultant believes that he can better cope with his responsibilities by worrying about the client’s problems more than the client himself. However, we will be of great benefit to the client by encouraging him to think more deeply about his problems. At the same time, one should not try to completely relieve the client of the anxiety associated with taking responsibility. The client should learn to tolerate some amount of anxiety because life is full of situations in which one must be personally responsible.
Sometimes they think that every time a client should leave a consultant happier than when he arrived. In reality, he should leave the consultant more self-confident, but with a painful understanding that something needs to be changed in himself and his life. The consultant is obliged not so much to free the client from suffering as to give his suffering a constructive direction. Suffering can be used as an important force in bringing about personality change in the counseling process.
What tasks are solved in the context of the first meeting with a psychologist?
1. Encourage open, frank and inclusive communication about the issues the client wants to discuss during the meeting, revealing the factors causing those issues.
2. Move towards a deeper understanding of the client, greater respect for him and mutual understanding.
3. Set the client up for the specific usefulness of each consultation meeting.
4. Convey to the client the understanding that he must be an active participant in solving his problems.
5. Identify problems for further work.
Sometimes at the end of the first meeting, clients ask why they need to meet with the consultant several or even many times. In such cases, the consultant should explain: “Your problems did not arise immediately; they developed gradually, and you have been living with them for some time. To understand the problems, you first need to familiarize yourself with them in some detail. This takes time, as does discussing and solving problems. It is impossible to eliminate in one hour what has been accumulating for years.” This explanation helps the client understand that problem solving is not a one-time action, but rather a long-term process.
Formation of strategy and tactics for long-term advisory support and short-term consultation.
What are the features of developing tactics and strategies for long-term counseling?
Let us dwell in more detail on the principles and methods of providing long-term psychological assistance to adults experiencing an age-related crisis. As a rule, the age crisis in adults is aggravated by certain non-normative factors. These are strong emotional experiences and major failures - the loss of important family ties, the death of a child, relative, the end of significant love relationship, divorce; physical factor - illness, accident, surgery, childbirth, miscarriage, abortion, extreme physical stress, prolonged food deprivation, excessive sexual experience etc. At the present stage, the number of people experiencing certain crisis conditions is steadily increasing. On the one hand, this may be due to sudden changes in living conditions (instability of social structures, illness, changes in the social environment), on the other hand, with a certain evolutionary stage in the development of the psyche of people as a whole.
The duration of crisis experiences, the possibility of a constructive or destructive way out of the crisis are largely determined by the type of coping, the individual’s attitude towards an unfavorable life situation. The most typical options for a person’s attitude towards crises: ignoring; exaggerating; demonstrative; voluntaristic; productive.
The goal of psychological counseling in crisis conditions is to bring the individual to an awareness of the events that are the cause of the state of imbalance, to greater integrity, to less conflict, fragmentation of consciousness, activity, and behavior. The psychologist faces the following tasks:
1. Help the client survive conflicts and other traumatic situations;
2. Help the client activate creative, intellectual, personal, spiritual and physical resources to overcome the crisis;
3. Contribute to strengthening the client’s self-esteem and self-confidence;
4. To help expand the client’s range of socially and personally acceptable means for independently solving emerging problems and overcoming existing difficulties;
5. Mitigate the impact of a stressful event by providing direct emotional assistance and mobilizing the client’s efforts to overcome the crisis.
What should be taken into account during long-term psychological support?
Psychological counseling of clients who are in a state of psychological crisis and require long-term counseling should be built on the principles of an existential-humanistic approach; it is necessary to provide the client with a sufficient amount of information about what is happening to him as a consequence of individual spiritual evolution. Strategies for professional interaction with a client showing signs of crisis should take into account the following points:
1. Counseling of persons in crisis should be based on models that take into account changes in the psyche and its potential ability for self-healing and self-renewal;
2. Taking into account the integrative capabilities and energy resources of the individual; a long-term crisis, especially against the backdrop of the use of strong psychotropic drugs, depletes the individual’s potential and reduces the possibility of positively overcoming psychopathological disorders when using intensive psychotherapy;
3. The psychologist’s willingness to encounter, in the course of working with a person in crisis, phenomena that are far beyond the boundaries of established (including professional) ideas about the mental norm, and the ability to regard them as potentially healing for the person as a whole.
What are the main principles in short-term counseling?
The main organizing principles of a short-term consultant are the confidence that the client is able to solve his problem, and that a brief contact with a consulting psychologist is sufficient to start this process. Thus, he begins his work, being determined to complete it himself and preparing the client for this. To do this, the consultant must be able to:
. identify the most relevant aspects of the client’s problem situation,
. consider the request presented by the client in a broader system context than the client represents it, and has already resolved it independently,
. shift the client’s attention to those levels of his system of relationships where the solution to the problem can be carried out most constructively, i.e. quickly and efficiently,
. place in the therapeutic focus those aspects of the situation that are most accessible to change by the client at the moment.
The frequency of meetings depends, firstly, on the nature of the request, and secondly, on the capabilities of the client and the psychologist. In practice, this is once a week, less often - once every two or four weeks. Sometimes separate meetings are held, each based on a new client request. Then, on the one hand, they are constructed as the only ones, and on the other, in each subsequent meeting it becomes possible to rely on the material of previous meetings and the results achieved by the client between sessions.
What are the characteristics of short-term psychological counseling (SPC)?
1st session: Introductory
The first meeting with a client has several key tasks:
. establishing contact and then trusting relationships,
. collecting information about the client’s current situation
. identification of complaints, problems and persons responsible for their development - in the opinion of the client,
. formulating expectations, desires, intentions and goals from meetings with a psychologist (from this session and from all work with him in general),
. conclusion of a contract for conducting the CPC.
The main difference between short-term work with a specific client is the focus on how he thinks about his current situation - as intractable or as accessible for its favorable change. If the client is immersed in his problem, then the first session should be organized in the form of the (emotional and intellectual) psychologist joining the client’s experiences and cognitive constructions. If the client, already at the first meeting, is able to talk about the solution he desires to the problem, then counseling can immediately be organized in the paradigm of a conversation about the goals and planned results of the PDA.
Session 2: Psychocorrectional
At this meeting, the main work is carried out to change the client’s thinking regarding the current situation and the possibilities of changing it. The therapeutic approach and psychotherapeutic techniques used by the psychologist correspond to his qualifications, competence and choice in accordance with the client’s request. Thus, the principle of “selecting therapy for the client, and not adjusting the client to the type of therapy” is implemented. To do this, the psychologist is required to possess a wide range of psychocorrectional techniques, which is ensured by his special training for conducting PDA and ongoing professional growth.
Session 3: Completion
This meeting represents a stage, firstly, of summarizing the client’s achievements in resolving a problem situation during the CCP period, and, secondly, of making plans for the future, when the client will manage his life independently (without the help of a consultant). The entire process of CCP is aimed at completion, so the implementation of this stage is its quintessence. Consultant builds last meeting, directing the client’s attention to the results already achieved and the positive dynamics of his situation. It is on the client’s demonstrated achievements and abilities in their organization that the psychologist builds a conversation about the possibilities of transformation and future life. Using the power of psychological counseling, he creates a context for guiding the client's thinking along the path further development his abilities and opportunities to improve his life situation. Thus, the psychologist addresses the client as the author, creator and expert in building his life. Such professional support is retained by patients for many years, helping them cope with difficult life situations.
Recommended reading:
1. R. Kociunas “Fundamentals of psychological counseling.” Moscow, ed. "Academic Avenue", 1999
2. Yu. Aleshina “Individual and family psychological counseling.” Moscow, ed. "Class, 2004
3. S.V. Frolov "Counseling psychology: theory and practice." Saratov, ed. Saratov University, 2010
4. A.N. Elizarov “Fundamentals of individual and family psychological counseling.” Moscow, ed. "Axis-89", 2000

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Structure of the consultation process (4 hours)

1. Conversation in psychological counseling.

2. Stage of getting to know the client.

3. Stage of questioning, formulating and testing hypotheses.

4. Stage of implementation of corrective actions.

5. Stage of ending the conversation.

6. Models of the structure of psychological counseling.

1. Conversation in psychological counseling.

For effective psychological influence, the spatial and temporal organization of the conversation is essential.

۞ Space of conversation

The ideal situation for counseling is when a psychologist has the opportunity to receive a client in a specially equipped room for this purpose, where privacy, convenience and comfort are ensured as much as possible, where nothing attracts the client’s undue attention or distracts him from the conversation. But even if this option is not available - there is no comfortable furniture or special room - a consultation can be successfully carried out by specially organizing some part of the space, preferably in a corner where the client could be seated with his back to the door, limiting his field vision and thus focusing it as much as possible on the consultant.

ANDideal option for boarding a psychologist and a client- opposite each other and slightly obliquely, so that each of them could easily see the face of the interlocutor, but, if desired, could also look away to the side without much difficulty. It's best if they don't sit too close together and have enough legroom to stand up or sit down comfortably. It can be useful when there is something like a coffee table between them, where you can put something or, if necessary, write down. But a large table can become a hindrance and be perceived as a barrier between the client and the consultant.

۞ Conversation time.

Time is a very important characteristic of a counseling session. First of all, right choice the time of conversation, when both the client and the consultant have the opportunity to talk calmly, slowly, with a fresh mind, largely determines how effective and successful the advisory influence will be.

In addition, time is of great importance for the conversation itself, which should have a clearly defined beginning and end. A clock on the table or on the wall is an important attribute of the psychotherapy room, reminding the client and the consultant that time is passing and they both need to work actively and dynamically. Much in a consultative conversation is subject to the passage of time. In order for any remark or interpretation of the consultant to be truly understood and accepted by the client, it must appear neither too late nor too early. The conversation unfolds gradually, but each part, each stage must occur within the allotted time period. Otherwise, the consultant may not be on time, not meet the appointment time, and, therefore, not only will not help the client this time, but may also undermine his faith in the effectiveness of psychological influence.

Quite conventionally, a consultant’s conversation with a client can be divided into four stages: 1) getting to know the client and starting the conversation;

2) questioning the client, formulating and testing advisory hypotheses; 3) corrective action;

4) ending the conversation.

The duration of the appointment, during which the conversation actually takes place, varies significantly depending on the goals and objectives of the consultation, organizational forms, within the framework of which it is carried out, as well as the theoretical orientations of the consultant. But still, in most cases, the appointment time is one hour (both here and abroad). Approximately this hour can be distributed among the stages of the conversation highlighted above, as follows: 1) the beginning of the conversation - 5-10 minutes;

2) questioning the client - 25-35 minutes;

3) corrective action - 10-15 minutes;

4) completion of the conversation -5-10 minutes.

Let us dwell in more detail on what each of these stages is, what goals to achieve and what tasks the consultant must manage to solve in the allotted time, what are the simplest techniques for organizing the conversation process.

2. Stage of getting to know the client.

The first thing a consultant needs to do during an appointment is to meet and seat the client. The success of the conversation largely depends on how, from the first minutes, the psychologist is able to prove himself to be a friendly and interested interlocutor. The consultant can demonstrate his interest and friendliness from the very first minutes of the meeting, rising to meet the client, or even meeting him at the door of the office; if necessary, you can help remove outer clothing, show where it is more convenient to put the bags, and then offer to sit down. It is better if the consultant encourages the client from the very beginning with remarks like: “Please come in,” “Make yourself comfortable,” etc.

Mistakes of a novice consultant.

Ne should too fuss, flirt with the client, from the first minutes try to enter into active contact with him, offer and promise your help. The situation at the beginning of a conversation for a person who comes to a psychologist for the first time is full of discomfort; he needs to be given time to look around and come to his senses. It's good if the consultant is not too verbose; immediately before starting a conversation, it is better to pause (not too long - 45-60 seconds, otherwise the client may experience a state of tension and confusion, but enough for him to have time to collect his thoughts and look around).

A very important point in starting a conversation is getting to know the client by name. In principle, the client can refuse to identify himself, but forgetting or not inviting him to introduce himself means, in many ways, dooming the consultation to failure. The optimal position of a consultant in relation to a client is a position of equality, one of the manifestations of which is equality of names. This means that it is better if the psychologist introduces himself in the same way as the client - by first name and patronymic, just by name, etc. (there may be exceptions to this recommendation related to the age of the interlocutor, as well as the specific conditions in which the consultation takes place). It is difficult to predict exactly how the client will introduce himself, so it is better if the consultant gives him the opportunity to identify himself first, using a remark like: “Let’s get to know each other, what should I call you?” After the client identifies himself, the psychologist, focusing on his form of presentation, will be able to name himself accordingly.

Bhappens that at the beginning of the conversation the consultant is faced with a situation where the client it is necessary to explain what psychological counseling is what he can count on when asking for help. This question can be asked even by a person who came for a consultation on his own initiative, but more often the need to explain the goals of counseling arises in a situation where a psychologist has to conduct a consultation outside the walls of a counseling center - at an enterprise, at a school, at a hospital. In such cases, people who are not sufficiently informed about the possibilities and limitations of psychological influence often seek psychological help. It is difficult to offer any universal formula for all occasions. So L.Ya. Gozman came up with the following formulation: “We are psychologists, we don’t give advice, we don’t prescribe any medications. Our help to people is that we talk to them and try to help them see their own situation from the outside, from a different point of view, treat it differently and, if necessary, make a decision or change their behavior based on this.” To such formulations it is never superfluous to add a guarantee of anonymity of everything that happens behind the doors of the psychological office.

WITHnext step, What needs to be done is to move directly into the counseling process. It is natural to assume that first it is necessary for the client to talk about himself and his problems. This move is so logical that clients often start talking about themselves without a special invitation, sometimes in such a hurry that they forget to introduce themselves. In such a situation, it is better to interrupt the interlocutor and offer to get acquainted first, at least so that he will move a little away from the story prepared in advance, look around, and tune in more to working together with a consultant, and not for a monologue.

Eif the client is silent, waiting for what the consultant will say, you can help him start talking about himself remarks like: “I’m listening to you carefully” or “Tell me what brought you here.” When the client expresses uncertainty about what and how to talk about, where to start, you can add: “Tell what you consider important yourself, and if I need to know something, I will ask you myself, if suddenly the need arises.” Sometimes the client can be specifically reassured: “Take your time, you have enough time.”

From the very beginning of the conversation, one should not forget that advisory influence is, first of all, influence through the word: one inaccurate wording or remark - and the client can be unsettled for a long time, take offense at the consultant, become withdrawn, feel insecure and lonely. And then the psychologist will have to spend a lot of time correcting the situation and restoring contact.

TO Such unfortunate words, which, unfortunately, are often found in the speech of a consultant, include, for example, the word “problem”. Using this word at the beginning of a conversation, before the client himself has used it in relation to himself, can cause a negative reaction.“Problem” may sound like a sentence or diagnosis to a person, while he may assess his situation completely differently.

Another common mistake novice consultants make is excessive fixing the client's attention on the features of the counseling situation remarks like: “Don’t be afraid”, “Don’t tense up”, “Even if you are ashamed to talk about something, you...”. Whatever form such remarks may take, it follows from them that here one can be afraid of something, ashamed, tense about something, etc.

Install good contact with the client, correctly organizing the conversation from the very beginning - this means, in many ways, ensuring the effectiveness of the consultation. Unsuccessful contact with a person or issues not resolved at the beginning of the conversation can become an obstacle to the development of the conversation just when it would be especially undesirable. Most often, they serve as fertile ground for the formation of client resistance psychological impact, which may manifest itself as a reluctance to continue the conversation, complaints against the consultant, a feeling of the meaninglessness of what is happening, etc.

WITHresistance to counseling is common at the beginning of a conversation when the client, already in the psychologist’s office, still asks himself the question of whether he should have come here or not. So, For example, finding himself face to face with a consultant, he may begin to express doubts about whether the consultant is suitable for him or not based on age, gender, professional experience, etc. What can be done in such a situation? When discussing this with a client, you can bring in some arguments: “Practical psychology is a science, so my personal characteristics do not play such a big role, it is much more important professional qualification, which you will only be able to appreciate once you start working with me.”

It happens that someone asking for help a person starts a conversation with general topics and questions, which have nothing to do with him personally - why there are so many divorces now, how the peculiarities of the current situation in the country affect relationships between people, etc. Of course, you shouldn’t completely ignore the client’s questions, but the consultant’s time is limited, and the conversation is limited common topics can “eat up” valuable minutes, which later, when the person starts talking about himself, will not be enough (you can only blame the consultant for this, not the client). It must be remembered that such a discussion most often represents one of the manifestations of resistance, fear of starting a conversation and its possible consequences, so it is better to take advantage of the opportunity and help the client overcome this situation by asking the question: “Why are you concerned about these questions, what brought you here?” you personally?” The client may avoid a direct answer, but the psychologist should make such an attempt, and the sooner this happens, the easier it will be for both to change the topic of discussion.

It happens that a person who comes to a consultation asks the consultant to help not himself, but someone else. His request could be, for example, this: “Invite my wife (husband), daughter (son) here, he (she) doesn’t want to go on his own, but he (she) needs help.” The situation can get funny when the client starts asking for a certificate confirming the diagnosis for one of the relatives, a letter to the court, etc. In such situations, the psychologist should be firm: he works only with those who directly seek help and who are ready to discuss and analyze their life situation from the point of view of their own responsibility for it. Call, invite to a consultation, write letters, etc. - it means to interfere with privacy people, knowing quite little about it and not imagining what the other side thinks about what is happening. At the same time, it is worth asking someone who has already come to the consultation to focus on the work, recalling that in any conflict there are two sides, and even if the influence of one of them on how events unfold is, at first glance, insignificant, it undoubtedly exists . Having figured out what it is, you can try to at least change the situation in some way.

1. Stage of questioning, formulating and testing hypotheses.

At this stage, the consultant’s main task is to understand the client’s problems as best as possible, to understand what the main conflicts and anxieties are associated with. Let’s conditionally divide this stage of the conversation into two substages, in the first of which the psychologist still knows nothing about the client and therefore is most interested in the latter talking as fully as possible about himself and his situation. The second stage begins when the consultant already has enough information to formulate psychocorrectional hypotheses and begin testing them.

۞ The first phase of questioning the client.

Since at this phase the main goal of the consultant is to “talk” the client, its implementation will best be helped by questions and remarks that maximally stimulate him to tell a story. These are “open” remarks like: “Tell me about your relationship...”, “What is your family like?”, “When and how did it start?” etc. Answering questions like these is simply inviting the client to speak.

Naturally, while the client is talking, the psychologist is not just listening, but working. Conditionally we can distinguish Several areas of work at this stage of consultation.

Consultant 1) maintains contact with the client (the most effective way to maintain contact with the client while he talks about himself is through attentive, empathic listening. In order for the client to feel that he is being listened to carefully, it is usually enough for the consultant to encourage and approve him, nodding or expressing agreement with inserts like: “Of course,” “I understand,” “Yes, yes”); 2) stimulates him to further tell the story (useful information for the psychologist should include, first of all, the history of the problem (when and in connection with what it appeared); the client’s relationship with all the persons acting in his story, their attitude to the problem; the idea of what exactly caused the problem from the point of view of the person himself and the people around him); 3) promotes the purposeful development of the conversation (do not allow the client to talk all at once; in order to better concentrate attention on the material, the consultant can repeat out loud or silently the client’s last words before the pause. Such repetition is good way encourage storytelling and maintain contact); 4) comprehends what the client says.

The questioning process, based on the model used here, takes 25-30 minutes, but 15-20 minutes after the start of the conversation, the consultant should already have a fairly good understanding of the client’s problem and situation, be ready to move on to the second phase of the questioning - formulation and testing advisory hypotheses. What are hypotheses in psychological counseling, how exactly are they formulated and tested.

۞ Hypotheses in psychological counseling.

Each hypothesis is an attempt by the consultant to understand the client's situation. At the same time, surveys about what is REALLY happening, what the REAL difficulties of the client’s relationships with others are, are absolutely meaningless. Each participant looks at what is happening from his own point of view, based on his life experience, his own needs, interests, etc.

Hypotheses in psychological counseling are options for more constructive positions in a situation, probable ways to reorient the client in his attitude towards his problems.

The consultant's hypotheses are based on what the client tells about himself and his problems. But this is only the basis for their construction.

Before giving an interpretation, the client’s idea of ​​what is happening should be changed; the consultant must first formulate for himself quite unambiguously what is happening in the client’s life, that is, testing the hypotheses that have arisen in his mind, he must settle on the one that is most suitable for the given person in a particular situation. situations. Testing the emerging hypotheses is the main content of the consultant’s work at the next stage of the conversation.

۞ Second phase of questioning the client

This is the hypothesis testing stage. If in the first phase of the questioning the consultant asked broad questions that provoked the client into a monologue, then in the second phase the nature of the questions changes fundamentally. They are aimed at clarifying the consultant’s ideas (hypotheses). These are substantive questions: “How many times a week does he come back after twelve?”, “When exactly did you first have the feeling that she was unwell?” The counselor should strive to ensure that the client's answers are accurate and specific. Formulations like “often” or “for a long time” are not suitable here. For some it is often once a week, for others it is every day.

The main and, perhaps, most reliable approach for a consultant to work at the second stage of questioning is an analysis of specific situations from the client’s life, which clearly demonstrate his relationships with people, behavior in problem situations, and the characteristics of the chosen interaction patterns. Working with specific situations is one of the most reliable ways for a consultant to test his hypotheses. It is known that the more detailed a person talks about something, the more specific details in the story, the less the imprint of subjectivity and one-sidedness and the more opportunities for the consultant to understand those aspects of reality that are not perceived or not noticed by the narrator. Small details of a situation are more difficult to invent or distort, and they become a kind of filters through which information that is unconscious or underestimated by the client passes.

But what is it - a complete, detailed story about a specific situation.

A detailed story should reflect exactly when and why the described situation arose, where exactly it happened, who took part in it, what exactly the client and other actors said and did, what he thought and felt at the time events unfolded, what, from the client’s point of view, other participants in the situation thought and felt at that time, how this situation ended, what consequences it had and what it influenced.

Example: Let’s imagine that at a psychologist’s appointment the conversation turned to a family conflict, and the wife talks about it. In order for her story to be considered as a specific situation, the client must report what each spouse did before the quarrel began, how the quarrel went, when exactly the client felt that she was wound up and in connection with what, because of what, with her point of view, this feeling arose, what she said and what her husband answered, what caused the quarrel from his point of view (according to the client’s assumption), as well as in connection with what the quarrel was stopped, how events unfolded further, how long the relationship were tense, what were the consequences of this quarrel for their relationship.

Hearing full story, the consultant can confirm or refute the hypothesis, for example, that the wife herself is the first to provoke conflicts, in order to then use them as a means of putting pressure on her husband, posing as a victim. The clients' self-report is never so complete as to immediately satisfy the psychologist, and usually the description of the situation is followed by a detailed questioning.

The client does not always easily answer the questions asked by the psychologist. Often you have to spend quite a lot of effort to ensure that the answers are detailed and describe real feelings and experiences, and not be discussions on the topic. If at the first stage of questioning the psychologist’s position can be characterized as passive, then here it becomes, if possible, active, the consultant offers alternatives, asks detailed questions, stimulating, if possible, the client’s memory. It happens that the client believes that he has completely forgotten some points. In such a situation, the psychologist should encourage him: “Remember at least something,” “It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t correspond somewhat to what actually happened, but you can, knowing your life, imagine as fully as possible how it could have been.” "

Another common difficulty for the client in such a story is describing his own experiences and the feelings of other people. It is the feelings and experiences that should, first of all, interest the consultant, since they usually reflect reality more deeply and speak more about poorly realized, often hidden for the client, desires and conflicts that lie at the heart of his problems. Most people listen little to themselves and do not know how to analyze their experiences. But the psychologist should be persistent, helping the client in every possible way. For example, offer various alternatives, encourage: “So, did you get angry or scared when you heard this?”, “Describe your feelings. After all, even if you didn’t pay attention to it special attention, yet you simply could not help but feel anything at that moment. In a person’s life there are always not only thoughts, but also feelings.”

It is especially common to hear from clients: “I find it difficult to answer” when it comes to their experiences and condition others. In this situation, the client can be assured that the consultant's guesswork is sufficient. And this is true, since the psychologist needs the peculiarities of the experiences and behavior of other people, first of all, in order to understand how the client perceives and evaluates them.

In order for the consultant’s hypothesis to be confirmed or refuted, discussing one specific situation is not enough; at least two or three such examples are needed. And only if in all the situations discussed the same pattern of behavior and experience can be traced, the consultant’s hypothesis can be considered confirmed or refuted.

Each story requires time and hard work, therefore, its selection should certainly not be random. WITHThere are some principles for selecting situations about which you should ask the client:

1. The situations chosen should be closely related to the content of the client’s main complaints, to those moments of interpersonal relationships that are difficult and problematic.

2. The situations discussed should be typical, often encountered in the client’s life, so that they can be used to judge the characteristics of the relationship as a whole.

3. It is desirable that these situations be sufficiently detailed, describing holistic patterns of interaction, that is, negative, positive and neutral characteristics of relationships.

Thus, a mother’s complaints that her daughter does not care about the order in the apartment and usually throws her things everywhere cannot serve as an example of a specific situation. As such, a conversation between mother and daughter can be chosen here, which begins from the moment when the mother, having arrived home, finds books and clothes scattered, begins to get angry with her daughter, feels offended and, approaching her, says: “Everything is the same again.” old." A skilled professional can easily expand this situation further, finding out why exactly she was offended by her daughter, what she answered and thought, etc.

Most often, it happens that after two or three such specific situations have been discussed, the consultant can say with confidence which of the hypotheses turned out to be the most suitable, what kind of behavior of the client leads to problems arising in his life, how he can be helped to treat to what is happening differently and behave accordingly. This means that you can move on to the next phase of the advisory conversation - to providing psychocorrective influence, to interpreting what is happening.

4. Stage of implementation of psychocorrectional influence.

Perhaps the simplest way to exert influence, which is effective when the conversation is well organized and logically structured by the consultant and the capabilities of analyzing specific situations are fully used, is - this is emphasizing contradictions in the client’s story, reframing (reformulating) and restructuring the reality around him using comments like: “At the beginning of our conversation, you complained that your husband often conflicts with you, but you just talked about several situations in which you yourself initiated conflicts, and your husband not only did not try to blame you for anything - then, on the contrary, he was looking for ways of reconciliation. What do you think about this?” Since during the reception not only the consultant, but also the client actively works, thinking about his life in a new way, even such a minor push can be enough for the client to see what is happening differently. With this statement, the consultant offers a different, unusual for the client, vision of his life situation. The wife turns from a victim into a persecutor, and the husband no longer looks insidious and ruthless, as the client imagined him at the beginning of the appointment.

Even if the client’s response truly indicates a new vision of the situation, this does not mean at all that the psychologist’s work is over. The consultant’s task at this stage is to once again carefully analyze the characteristics of the client’s behavior that underlie the problems, without missing the fundamental question: what exactly is the client trying to achieve with his behavior, what needs are being satisfied by the conflict. Any inappropriate neurotic behavior is always at some level beneficial to the client, since in one way or another it satisfies those unconscious needs that for some reason cannot be satisfied in another way.

The tasks of psychocorrectional influence can be considered realized only in the case when a unique chain of events is built not only in the mind of the consultant, but also in the mind of the client. The client’s feeling or experience, which exists for a long time or periodically arises in connection with the logic of the development of relationships, pushes him to achieve his goals and needs (love, power, understanding, etc.) - inadequate means chosen to realize these goals leading to difficulties in relationships: a negative reaction from a partner, often aggravating the client’s problems.

Usually, at the stage of psychocorrectional influence, the client has a fairly good idea of ​​how his behavior and methods of response contribute to the destabilization of relationships. But whether there are positive options for behavior in such situations, and what they are, it can be difficult for him to decide on his own. A consultant can be of great help with this, but, of course, without offering specific advice and recommendations. Only the person himself can understand and evaluate what will really work. The role of the psychologist in solving this problem is, first of all, to help the client formulate possible alternatives of behavior, and then, critically evaluating them, choose the most appropriate option.

In various psychotherapeutic schools and approaches, there are significant differences in ideas about what and how a professional should do in order for the client’s situation to truly change. For example, in systemic family therapy, clients will be given detailed instructions on what and how they need to do. In psychoanalysis, on the contrary, the psychotherapist will never talk about how the patient’s behavior should change until the patient himself begins to talk about the changes already occurring in his life. Short-term counseling in this regard is more clear: the client should be helped to somehow change his situation, but at the same time one should not strive for any significant results and should rely, first of all, on how ready the client himself is for changes.

The consultant’s goal in this case is to help the client formulate as much as possible larger number possible options for behavior, and then, carefully analyzing them, choose what is most suitable for a given person in his situation. The more specific and developed the client’s positive response, the greater the chance that he will actually change his behavior and attitude towards the situation.

Unfortunately, such careful elaboration of positive behavior options does not happen very often. For this, either there is not enough time at the reception, or the very possibility of a different attitude towards the current situation is so new and unusual for the client that it requires a long period of reflection and getting used to it. In this case, you should not insist on immediately developing positive behavioral patterns. This topic can be proposed as material for the next meeting, the desirability of which in this case should be specifically mentioned. Of course, often, for various reasons, a person has to think and decide for himself what to do next. But even when releasing him for such independent comprehension, the consultant should emphasize that real changes are necessary; understanding oneself and the situation without expressing this externally may not lead to the desired changes in relationships.

The impact process does not always go smoothly. Sometimes, in order for a person who comes to a consultation to at least somewhat change his attitude towards his own life situation, additional means are needed, a more active and persistent position of the psychologist. One of these techniques is an attempt to expand the client’s perception of the situation, who is asked to look at what is happening from the position of other participants in the situation and evaluate their own behavior through their eyes: “You try every day to get help from your husband, reminding him of his family responsibilities. What do you think, how does he feel about these attempts of yours, how does he perceive and evaluate what you are doing?”

Thus, psychocorrectional influence is, first of all, an attempt to change the client’s attitude towards himself, towards his own behavior, and only as a consequence of this change does the life situation ease and the problems that have arisen be solved.

5. Stage of ending the conversation.

At this stage, the psychologist must carry out a number of activities, without which the effectiveness of even the most successful intervention can be significantly reduced. These include the following: 1) summing up the conversation (a brief summary of everything that happened during the reception); 2) discussion of issues related to the client’s future relationship with the consultant or other necessary specialists; 3) farewell of the consultant to the client.

Let's look at each of these points one by one.

Such problems can be easily avoided if at the end of the conversation the consultant sums it up, summarizes what was discussed and why during the reception, and builds the basic logic of the session. The retelling of the content of the conversation should be really very short: the client will not remember it and will only get confused if it is longer than three or four sentences. It is important that everything that the consultant said is actually discussed during the reception and in exactly the words that are used to summarize , otherwise, at the end of the appointment, an unexpected dispute with the client about the terms may suddenly arise. Such a brief retelling of the content of the conversation may sound, for example, as follows: “Our conversation with you today was devoted to your relationship with your daughter. We talked about the fact that your conflicts with her are mainly related to the fact that it seems to her that you are constantly teaching her, but you want to express your concern for her and help her with advice. During our conversation, you and I came to the conclusion that if you could express your feelings differently, tell her about your worries and experiences, your relationship with her would probably change for the better. Well, it’s up to you!”

If the client has questions, some unexpressed ideas and considerations, then a brief summary of the conversation will help him formulate them, so it is advisable to provide the client with the opportunity to react to the end of the conversation, taking at least some pause after the conclusion is summed up.

2. The vast majority of clients seeking psychological help for the first time are focused on a one-time appointment (this phenomenon is characteristic not only of our country, but is widespread almost everywhere). Of course, in reality, very little can be done in one consulting hour, but, in any case, you can try to instill in a person a taste for thinking about himself and the people around him, the belief that working with a professional can really help in solving personal problems. Unless there are special reasons, the consultant should not insist on subsequent meetings, it is enough that the client knows that the possibility of seeking help exists, and even if serious problems does not arise, there will always be something that you can talk about with a psychologist. An invitation to contact if necessary looks more significant if the consultant tells the client his regular days and hours of reception (or some other necessary coordinates) and makes it clear that some step in the development of the relationship has already been taken. It’s good if this statement can be confirmed with something practically. For example, promising that applicants will be re-registered out of turn (for a different fee, in a different place, etc.). For example, the final remark of a psychologist may look like this: “I think that you and I have done a good job today. If you would like to discuss this or any other situation with me again, I would be happy to meet with you again. I usually host here on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. You will be booked out of turn if you say that you have already been to see me.”

Often during the reception it turns out that there is a need for a room to receive help from specialists of another profile, either from the client himself or from someone close to him. The range of specialists whose need most often arises after an appointment in a psychological consultation is small - mainly psychiatrists and lawyers. Since the consultant quite regularly has to recommend contacting them, it is better if he not only advises the client who exactly is worth going to, but also gives the address and time of the appointment. Perfect option- this is when a psychologist works with such specialists in collaboration, has a regular opportunity to seek help and advice, leads common clients. But even if this is not the case, information about where, who, and when the reception is taking place will not only brighten up the conversation, but will also increase the likelihood that the client will actually contact the specified address (quite a lot of people experience difficulties precisely at the stage of figuring out where and what is located, especially in our country, where obtaining a trivial certificate often becomes a real deal).

ABOUTDean is one of the most successful options for ending the first conversation- deciding that the client’s contacts with the consultant will continue and they will meet one or more times. As studies show, In order to increase the likelihood of the client returning and successfully working with him, the consultant must, at the end of the first meeting, clearly formulate exactly what tasks will be solved during subsequent meetings and how many specific meetings may be needed for this. This agreement may change in the future, but it is better if the client has a good idea of ​​what exactly awaits him. This will help him work more efficiently and purposefully, build relationships with the psychologist more constructively, without fear of becoming dependent on him. You shouldn’t put off deciding when exactly the next meeting will take place, you shouldn’t make additional phone calls about this, etc., because after a break or while waiting for an additional agreement, the desire to come may fade. It is better if the day and time of the next meeting is immediately announced, convenient for both the consultant and the client. The effectiveness of meetings can be greatly improved if the timing and location of meetings are constant.

If you agree on a second meeting, it can be useful to exchange phone numbers with the client. Life is replete with accidents - someone gets sick, goes on an urgent business trip, etc. The opportunity to warn your partner about this in advance and not face the fact of absence at the reception is useful for both.

It is necessary to separately say about cases when the client is ready and wants to work further, but the consultant for some reason cannot “take” him - he leaves for a long time somewhere, is too busy, etc. In this case, you should not postpone working with the person, especially since Moreover, the need to help may be urgent. A psychologist should always work in collaboration with colleagues, feeling the elbow of his neighbor. The ability to transfer a client or recommend someone else to him is evidence of a specialist’s inclusion in the professional community, and usually this is perceived quite normally. It is only necessary to explain exactly what caused this step and ensure that the client reaches the specialist assigned to him. Naturally, a colleague must be warned about his arrival and have at least minimal information about the appointment that has already taken place, so that the person seeking psychological help does not have the feeling that time was wasted at the first meeting.

A planned meeting is often a good reason for a client to start working more actively on himself, to reflect on himself and others. Homework assignments offered to the client by the consultant at the end of the meeting can help him with this. Usually, homework is something that has already been discussed during the conversation and that, in the opinion of both interlocutors, it would be useful to correct, change, or gain a deeper understanding as a result of observation or training. Homework assignments can be done in writing, either as one-off notes or as a journal, but often simply asking the client to think about something or do something is sufficient. The very fact that after receiving homework the client feels included in the counseling process, an active and full participant, significantly increases the effectiveness of the consultant’s work and helps deepen and strengthen interpersonal contact. If homework has already been formulated during the conversation, it should be repeated again at the end of the appointment, not only so that the client does not forget about it, but also so that he has the opportunity to once again discuss with the psychologist in what form and how it should be performed , expressed possible objections or ideas.

3. Saying goodbye to a client is in many ways a ritual act, but it should not seem formal, and the person should not have the feeling that as soon as he walks out the door, his image will completely disappear from the consultant's consciousness. The client should be escorted at least to the door, and if possible, say a few kind words goodbye. Calling by name when parting strengthens the feeling that the work with the psychologist was successful, that the relationship that arose at the reception is not just a formality. A situation should be avoided when another one bursts into a door that is open for a departing client. Such a flow can alienate those who value a personal, trusting relationship with a professional.

It may happen that the reception was not very successful: the client is dissatisfied and expresses complaints. You should not be afraid to discuss this with him, to formulate again what, from the psychologist’s point of view, the dissatisfaction is associated with, to recommend something to him, even if at this stage it sounds unrealistic or impracticable for the client. But it is especially important that in this case the psychologist remains professional to the end - he is ready to admit the possible limitations of his competence, does not enter into unnecessary disputes and bickering, and is able to complete the conversation politely and with dignity. It happens that a person who is dissatisfied with the appointment comes to a different conclusion some time later and begins to remember his visit to the consultation with gratitude.

Obtaining information about the client and encouraging him to self-analysis is impossible without skillful questioning. Questions are usually divided into closed and open. Closed questions are used to obtain specific information and usually require a one or two word answer, affirmative or negative (yes, no). Open-ended questions are not so much about eliciting information about clients' lives as they are about discussing feelings.

Open-ended questions provide an opportunity to share your concerns with the counselor. They transfer responsibility for the conversation to the client and encourage him to explore his attitudes, feelings, thoughts, values, behavior, i.e. inner world. Key points in counseling when open questions are used:

1. Beginning of the consultation meeting (“Where would you like to start today?”, “What happened during the week we didn’t see each other?”).

2. Encouraging the client to continue or add to what was said (“How did you feel when this happened?”, “What else would you like to say about this?”, “Can you add anything to what you said?”).

3. Encouraging the client to illustrate his problems with examples so that the consultant can better understand them (“Can you talk about a specific situation?”),

4. Focusing the client’s attention on feelings (“What do you feel when you tell me?”, “How did you feel when all this happened to you?”).

Although questioning is an important counseling technique, excessive questioning should be avoided. Any question must be justified - when asking it, you need to know for what purpose it is being asked. Too much of a tendency to ask questions during counseling creates many problems: it turns the conversation into an exchange of questions and answers, and the client begins to constantly wait for the consultant to ask about something else; forces the consultant to take full responsibility for the course of the consultation and the topics of the problems discussed; moves the conversation from emotionally charged topics to a discussion of the facts of life; “destroys” the moving nature of the conversation.

A few rules to keep in mind when asking questions of clients:

1) Questions "Who, what?" most often focused on facts, i.e. These types of questions increase the likelihood of factual responses.

2) Questions "How?" are more focused on the person, his behavior, and inner world.

3) Questions "Why?" often provoke defensive reactions in clients, so they should be avoided in counseling. When asking a question of this type, most often you can hear answers based on rationalization and intellectualization.

4) It is necessary to avoid asking several questions at the same time (sometimes one question contains other questions). It may be unclear to the client which question to answer because the answers to each part of the double question are entirely different.

5) The same question should not be asked in different formulations. It becomes unclear to the client which option should be answered. Such behavior of the consultant when asking questions indicates his anxiety.

6) You cannot ask a question ahead of the client’s answer. For example, the question “Is everything going well?” most often encourages the client to give an affirmative answer.

Whatever scheme of psychological counseling the psychologist-consultant chooses, always in the process of psychological counseling he and the client must find answers to four questions:

· What do you feel?

· What is stopping you?

· What would you like?

· How do you do this?

Asking questions

Obtaining information about the client and encouraging him to self-analysis is impossible without skillful questioning.

As you know, questions are usually divided into closed and open. Closed questions are used to obtain specific information and usually require a one or two word answer, affirmative or negative (yes, no). For example: “How old are you?”, “Can we meet in a week at the same time?”, “How many times have you had fits of anger?” and so on.

Open-ended questions are not so much about eliciting information about clients' lives as they are about discussing feelings. Benjamin (1987) notes:

"Open questions expand and deepen contact; closed questions limit it. The first ones open the doors wide good relationship, the latter usually leave them closed."

Examples of open questions: “Where would you like to start today?”, “How do you feel now?”, “What makes you sad?” and so on.

Open-ended questions provide an opportunity to share your concerns with the counselor. They transfer responsibility for the conversation to the client and encourage him to explore his attitudes, feelings, thoughts, values, behavior, i.e., his inner world.

Ivey (1971) highlights the main points of counseling when open questions are used:

1. Beginning of the consultation meeting (“Where would you like to start today?”, “What happened during the week we didn’t see each other?”).

2. Encouraging the client to continue or add to what was said (“How did you feel when this happened?”, “What else would you like to say about this?”, “Can you add anything to what you said?”).

3. Encouraging the client to illustrate his problems with examples so that the consultant can better understand them (“Can you talk about a specific situation?”),

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. During the counseling process, the psychologist does not so much speak himself as ask questions and thus guide the client to an understanding of his problem and a solution. Consulting questions may include:
  • open - questions that cannot be answered “yes” or “no”, for example: “What do you think about relationships 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 offended, angry or irritated?”

Open questions are used in the following cases:

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

However, be aware that open-ended questions may increase the client's sense of threat and anxiety, so they should be asked at the appropriate time and carefully worded.

Closed questions are used to obtain specific information (“How old are you?”) and clarification. Closed questions are sometimes necessary to obtain more precise material for the formulation of advisory hypotheses, and are more often used at the hypothesis testing stage. However, frequent use of closed questions can create a feeling of “interrogation” in the client, provoke his closedness and worsen the advisory contact. Therefore, excessive questioning must be avoided. When asking this or that question, it is necessary to clearly understand for what purpose it is being asked, to test what hypothesis it is aimed at.

Alternative questions are used when the client cannot answer a question because he has no experience talking about 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 necessarily 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 similar to an interrogation).
• 2. The consultant, by asking a lot of questions, takes responsibility for the course of the consultation and removes responsibility from the client, thereby violating the principle of client responsibility.
• 3. Many questions often shift the conversation from emotions to facts, and this reduces the depth of the consultation.
• 4. The question-and-answer form destroys the liveliness of the conversation and makes it overly formal.

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

• 1. In a consultative dialogue, open questions should prevail; closed questions should be used with caution.
• 2. Questions that begin with the words “who, what” are fact-oriented and are used at the beginning of the client’s questioning.
• 3. Questions starting with the word “how” are focused on the client’s inner world and are used to clarify and test advisory hypotheses.
• 4. A question starting with the word “why” can provoke actualization 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. It is necessary to avoid asking double questions and asking two questions at the same time, for example: “Why do you drink and be 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 cannot ask a question ahead of the client’s answer (for example: “Is everything going well at your work?” This question contains the answer - “it’s going well.” It’s better to ask: “How are things going at your work?”).
• 2. Limiting the consultant’s speech in the dialogue. Approaching the client's speech. Brevity and accuracy of the consultant's statements. The mistake of a novice consultant is the desire to talk a lot without allowing pauses. During the reception, the client should do most of the talking. The consultant should minimize his statements, asking only necessary questions. At the same time, the consultant’s speech should not be perceived by the client as alien and incomprehensible; it should be structured 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.

Rules for a consultant's statements in a consultative dialogue.

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

Sometimes you can only say question words, since the rest is clear to the client from the context of the conversation. In this case, the client may not notice that this question was asked. In this way, the consultant, as it were, integrates into the client’s internal dialogue, gently guiding his story in the right direction.

3. Encouragement and support of the client is the basis of the advisory contact. If the consultant somehow expresses assessment or disapproval of the client’s actions, the contact may be destroyed. However, providing support does not mean a positive assessment of the client's actions, which may be truly immoral. This means that the consultant does not evaluate the client, but supports him in any case, such as he is. To create and strengthen contact, short phrases are used to indicate agreement and understanding (for example: “Continue”, “Yes”, “I understand”, “Okay”, “So”, “Yeah”, “Mmm”).

Support helps the client believe in himself and take risks, accept complex solutions, for example: “Very good”, “Don’t worry”, “You’re right”, “It may not be easy.” However, it is important not to overuse this technique, as this can limit the client’s ability to solve problems and forms the client’s dependence on the consultant.

4. Reflection of content: paraphrasing and summarizing. In the counseling process, it is important that the counselor accurately understands what the client is talking about. Without an accurate understanding, it is impossible to correctly formulate hypotheses and select further methods of influence. 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 a conversation, which can also lead to misunderstandings on the part of the consultant. Content reflection techniques are used to clarify the meaning of what the client said. More often, such techniques are used in the second phase of questioning to test advisory hypotheses.

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

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

Rules for performing a paraphrase.

• 1. The client’s main thought is paraphrased, and its main meaning (or idea) is conveyed.
• 2. You cannot distort or replace the meaning of the client’s statement, or add something of your own.
• 3. It is important to avoid verbatim repetition of the client’s statement; you need to express his thoughts in your own words.

Another technique for reflecting content is generalization. Unlike a paraphrase, which is used to express a single idea, a summary 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 in order to combine it with previous conversations.
• 2. When the client speaks for a very long time and is confusing.
• 3. When one topic has been 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 important points and give a task.
• 5. Positive rephrasing is a way of presenting something negative in a positive light. This technique allows the client to see his problem differently.

By performing positive rephrasing, the consultant uses the client's complaint or comments and changes them in such a way 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 - a manifestation of his son’s independence and maturation.

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

In what the client says, two plans can always be distinguished.

The first plan is justifications, explanations, logically constructed 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 to the client, the essence of his problem.

We can say that reflecting the client's feelings is paraphrasing with an orientation not to content, but to feelings.

In counseling, clients talk more often about facts, so questions about feelings need to be given significantly more attention to achieve a balance between reflecting facts and feelings.

Typically, the question used to reflect feelings is: “What did you feel when..?” Sometimes you can name the feeling that the client experienced: “Did you feel anxious?” But this can only be done 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 incorrectly named, it will cause resistance in the client, the feeling that the consultant does not understand him, and accordingly will lead to a deterioration in the advisory contact.

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

Principles of using the technique of reflecting feelings.

• 1. Identify the feeling as accurately as possible.
• 2. The advisability of using the reflection of feelings in the context of a conversation - not all feelings should be reflected, but only those that lead to testing the advisory hypothesis or lead to a moment of insight.
• 3. Be sure to pay attention to feelings, if they cause problems in counseling, they can support the client and help him.
• 4. The consultant can also express own feelings, but only related to the topic of conversation.
• 5. It is necessary to help the client control overly intense feelings.
• 7. Emphasis on emotional experiences. Another way of working with feelings in the counseling process is to emphasize emotional experiences through emphasizing so-called emotionally charged words. In this case, the “echo” technique is used. This technique involves the consultant repeating exactly the word the client said. However

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

The “carriers” of emotions in the client’s story are adverbs and adjectives, and if they are not there, verbs. It is adverbs and adjectives that denote the client’s attitude towards something, the quality of the action. By emphasizing and clarifying this word, the consultant can reach the level of feelings. Consistently emphasizing feelings makes it possible to develop dialogue in depth.

For example, the client says: “I walked slowly towards the house.” The consultant asks: "Slowly?" In this way, the key emotional word is emphasized, since it is this word that concentrates the client’s emotions. Such an echo question directs the client’s story towards explaining his feelings and his attitude to what is happening.

8. Pauses of silence. Many new consultants are afraid of pauses. They feel that pauses in the conversation can be interpreted as a sign of the consultant’s low qualifications. 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 a supervisor and work on your counseling technique. But sometimes pauses can have a powerful therapeutic effect, and then they can be considered special counseling techniques.

Pause time is perceived in a special way during the counseling process. The pause is usually perceived as much longer than it actually is. It is not so easy to withstand 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 ordinary pauses. For example, such a pause can mean comprehension, generalization without words of everything 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 mutual understanding of the consultant and the client, provides the client with the opportunity to immerse himself and explore his feelings, attitudes, and also allows the client to understand that responsibility for the outcome of the consultation lies with him.

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

• 1. Pauses at the beginning of a conversation can be caused by anxiety, confusion, or poor health of the client. In this case, it is necessary to encourage the client and relieve anxiety.
• 2. Real activity of the client - he is silent, as he selects words, thinks about what he will say next. In this case, you need to give him time to think about it.
• 3. A pause may be caused by the fact that both the client and the consultant hope for the 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 technique cannot be abused either.
• 4. Both the consultant and the client found themselves at an impasse, and there was a loss of contact. In this case, the pause causes unpleasant feelings and awkwardness. Then the consultant needs to try to correct the situation and restore contact with the client.
• 5. A pause may mean resistance from the client, an attempt to manipulate the consultant (“Come on, let me see”). In this case, you need to interrupt the manipulation by entering into open communication and work with the client’s resistance.
• 6. Many pauses occur when the conversation proceeds at a superficial level, i.e. client and consultant avoid discussing important issues. In this case, the consultant can use confrontation techniques or try to deepen the dialogue in other ways.
• 7. The meaning of a pause can be a deep generalization without words - in this case it should be maintained as long as necessary.

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

9. Tone and volume of voice. It is important to choose the right tone of voice when talking with a client. The general principle is that the tone, volume, and 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 according to the parameters of para- and extralinguistics.

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

A muffled voice helps create a feeling of trust and intimacy. Varying the volume of the voice when changes in the client’s condition helps to maintain and strengthen the advisory contact and create a feeling 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 considered 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 consultation - the place and time of its holding, payment.

Sometimes clients ask questions in order to avoid discussing their problems. This is a kind of departure from the counseling situation, for example: “What do you think about the modern family?” In this case, it is necessary to shift 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 wander away from the topic of consultation into general discussions. But if these questions are an expression of the client’s real concern, it is better to answer them briefly and then still go to the client’s personal problems.

11. Interpretation is the transformation of meaning. Using interpretation helps establish causal connections between the client's behavior and experience, allowing the client to see himself and his difficulties in a new way.

Let us list the types of interpretation.

• 1. Establishing connections between separate statements, problems, events.
• 2. Emphasizing the characteristics, contradictions of the client’s behavior or feelings.
• 3. Interpretation of methods psychological protection, resistance and transfer reactions. (“Based on our conversation, running away is your way of dealing with your fear of failure.”)
• 4. Linking current events, thoughts and experiences with the past.
• 5. Giving the client another opportunity to understand his feelings, behavior or problems.

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

Rules for using interpretation.

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

The effectiveness of the interpretation can be evidenced by the client's reaction to it. If the client reacts indifferently to the interpretation, without noticing it, and then tells something of his own, this means that the interpretation, most likely, was erroneous and did not affect the client’s key motives; in this case, it is necessary to reconsider the advisory hypothesis. If the client reacts hostilely to the interpretation and 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. An 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 thoughtfulness 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 confrontation techniques is possible only with mutual trust, otherwise confrontation may be perceived by the client as aggression on the part of the consultant.

Let us list the cases of using the confrontation technique.

• 1. Confrontation in order to draw the client’s attention to contradictions in his behavior, thoughts, and feelings. This technique is performed in two stages:
  • a) a certain aspect of the client’s behavior is stated;
  • b) "but (however)..." - described inconsistent behavior. In contrast to interpretation, when using confrontation, the causes and origins of the contradiction are directly indicated.
• 2. Confrontation in order to help see the situation as it really is, contrary to the client’s idea of ​​it in the context of his needs.
• 3. Confrontation in order to draw the client’s attention to his avoidance of discussing certain problems (“You don’t say anything about your sex life”).
• 4. Interrupting the client's narration is also a type of confrontation, used when the client leaves the topic.

Limitations of using confrontation:

• 1) do not use it as punishment for the client;
• 2) do not use confrontation to destroy psychological defense mechanisms;
• 3) do not use confrontation to satisfy the needs and self-expression of the consultant. The incorrect use of confrontation usually means that the consultant is dealing with his own personal problems.

Rules for using confrontation:

• 1) carefully characterize the content inappropriate behavior the client and his context, but do not express everything at the same time;
• 2) detail the consequences of controversial 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 a consultant during the counseling process 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 the consultant demonstrating his emotional attitude towards the client, the problem being discussed, etc. - i.e. open presentation self to the client.

Let us list the restrictions on the use of self-disclosure techniques.

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

Types of self-disclosure:

• 1) expression of one’s immediate reactions in relation to the client or the situation “here and now”;
• 2) a story about your life experience, similar to the client’s situation.

Positive self-disclosure - when the consultant expresses support and approval of the client; negative - essentially confrontation with the client.

Self-disclosure rules:

• 1) self-disclosure must be sincere, otherwise contact with the client will be lost;
• 2) self-disclosure cannot be abused, it must 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 consultant’s goals; self-disclosure must not be unnecessarily delayed;
• 4) self-disclosure cannot be used at the beginning of consultation, it is used in the later stages of consultation if there is a good consultation contact.
• 14. Structuring counseling is the organization of the relationship between the consultant and the client, highlighting individual stages of counseling, evaluating their results, providing the client with information about the counseling process, and summarizing.

Structuring occurs throughout the consultation, step by step. Each new stage of consultation begins with an assessment of what has already been achieved. It is important for the client to participate in planning the counseling process.

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

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