Psychological counseling

There is no doubt that the boundaries between psychotherapy and counseling are very conditional, which has been noted more than once by various authors. But since this work is designed for people who do not have special training in the field of psychotherapy or, as we say, psychocorrection, we will designate these differences quite strictly, thus limiting the area where consultants can work, from those cases where their activity Impact is undesirable, since only the presence of psychological education and an understanding of general principles of work are not enough to achieve a positive effect

Certain differences are associated with the types of clients. At the reception of a counselor's psychologist you can with equal probability meet almost any person regardless of his mental status, employment, material security, intellectual potential, etc., while the circle of people whose problems can be solved within the framework of deep psychocorrectional work is more limited.

The ideal client is a normal neurotic, with a high level of development of reflection, able to pay for often expensive and long-term treatment, with sufficient time and motivation. To the credit of psychotherapy, it should be said that narrowing the circle of clients and increasing the time of exposure leads to a significant expansion of the range of problems to be solved, which in a certain sense becomes unlimited.
It is natural to assume that with such significant differences between these two forms of exposure, the training of relevant specialists should also differ.

The basic requirements for a consultant psychologist, from our point of view, are a psychological diploma, as well as specialized training in the field of the theory and practice of psychological counseling (including work under the supervision of a supervisor), which may not be particularly lengthy. The requirements for education of psychotherapy specialists are much greater, and they include, along with theoretical psychological training and certain medical knowledge, also the long experience of our own psychotherapy and work under the guidance of an experienced supervisor.

It is not by chance that psychotherapy is historically closely related to psychiatry, and psychiatrists are not less often found among psychotherapists, along with professional psychologists, but, of course, also received special training. Note that a person who turns to a psychotherapist, according to tradition, is called not a client, but a patient. A full-fledged training of a specialist in this field cannot be imagined without the experience of our own psychotherapy, by which he can better understand the problems of patients, work more fully, without fear of interference such as combustion syndrome or communicative overload, and freely using such means as transference and countertransference.
The differences in psychotherapy and counseling are a broad and multifaceted topic. Of course, here we can only outline general lines of their comparison. Those who are especially interested in this issue can be advised to read the special literature.
The “man from the street” who turns to a psychologist for help, especially in our country, where not everyone imagines what psychology is in principle, does not always understand what kind of plan he needs help and in what form it can be provided. Often, customer expectations are inadequate, not consistent with the reality of life and the logic of relationships (for example, as is often the case, the client begins to demand that someone should love or out of love as a result of the psychologist's influence, etc.).

In this regard, often the first thing that you have to do with a client is to explain in what way he can expect psychological help and what kind. From this point of view, psychological counseling, being more focused on achieving a specific goal and a less binding type of influence, often serves as a kind of stepping stone, a first step towards longer and deeper psychotherapeutic work. It happens that when a person comes to a consultant, for the first time a person thinks about his own role in his life failures and begins to understand that in order to be really helped, one or even several meetings with a psychologist are not enough.

It does not follow from this that he will immediately turn for more serious help — this may not happen soon or never, but even the simple knowledge that assistance in principle can be rendered can be very important. Such an interrelation between counseling and psychotherapy is the basis of the wide and many-sided possibilities of practical psychology, a guarantee that everyone who applies can find for himself what is most suitable for him at the moment.