Lecture
The process of providing psychological help must always be preceded by a phase in which the counselor prepares themselves, allowing them to bring themselves into a state of optimal professional readiness. The counselor's psycho-emotional state is of great importance, since it serves as one of the instruments of providing psychological help. Feelings are one of the ancient metalanguages used to convey information. Any feeling that arises in us always has an external addressee and strives to be «heard» by them. The limbic system of the human brain, which governs our emotions, is open and facilitates a fairly intense exchange of emotional states between people. Feelings such as fear, anger, and joy have a particularly strong effect on those around us. It is not difficult to imagine what influence a counselor would have on a client if, given that the professional role already implies the power of authority, they were in a state of anxiety, irritation, or melancholy. Awareness of one's own feelings and the ability to manage them is one of the important requirements and conditions for providing psychological help. The most optimal, «helping» state of the counselor can be described as neutral, calmly interested, benevolent, and at the same time possessing a high degree of concentration of attention and perception toward any information (verbal and nonverbal) coming from the client.
The psychotechnical arsenal of a professional psychologist-counselor must necessarily include effective techniques and methods for managing one's own state: psychotechniques for becoming aware of and expressing feelings; psychotechniques of guided visualization aimed at developing a resourceful state in oneself; psychotechniques of concentrating attention, and so on.
Let us give an example of one of Ted Garratt's exercises, «Forming the counselor's state», aimed at creating a productive personal state, the goal of which is to achieve maximum breadth and depth of perception.
Step 1. Focus your attention on some object at the far end of the room.
Step 2. Broaden your field of vision to include the far corners of the room and everything between them.
Step 3. Slowly bring the side walls, and then what is behind you, into your field of vision, tuning in to everything you feel.
Step 4. Repeat this exercise three or four times, if necessary.
Performing this exercise in an empty room before a counseling session is a very effective way of achieving a positive state and helps in working with people. As a result, one can achieve a remarkable depth and subtlety of sensation, so necessary for the counselor in the process of providing psychological help.
+Another important aspect of preparing the counselor to provide effective psychological help is reflection (awareness) of one's own emotional state, its sources, and its consequences. In the life of a psychologist-counselor, their own sequence of events unfolds, giving rise to various feelings and states. Sometimes one consultation follows right after another. In order to free oneself from unpleasant feelings and states, it is useful to ask oneself the following questions: "What caused this emotion in me?", "Why do I need to experience this state?", "What do I need to do in order to be calm?", "What internal resources of mine can help with this?" For quickly restoring a good sense of well-being, techniques of guided visualization based on picturing images that evoke pleasant feelings and a subjective experience of a surge of strength prove quite effective. One such exercise is the "Resource Place". It employs muscle relaxation and the process of picturing an image (either actually perceived in the past or imagined) of a place where a feeling of calm, confidence, inspiration, and so on would arise. The preparation phase lasts on average 5 - 7 minutes.
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