Conditions for Psychological Counseling

Several groups of conditions for effective psychological counseling can be identified.

1. One of them is the set of physical components of the therapeutic climate. These components include:

- the counseling setting (a well-equipped, soundproof office, not too large, decorated in calm tones, comfortably furnished and not too pretentious, sufficiently lit; the room should be quiet, with no outsiders present, and it should be tidy; the psychologist's clothing should be understated, neither festive nor overly casual);

- structuring the time of the counseling session (choosing a time for the conversation that is convenient both for the client and for the counselor; there should be a clearly defined beginning and end to the conversation; it is desirable to have a clock in the counseling workspace; each stage should take place within the time allotted for it; a counseling conversation with an adult usually lasts from 50 minutes to an hour; at the outset of counseling it is also necessary to determine, at least approximately, the overall duration of the counseling process; to begin with, a specific contract for 3-4 sessions can be made with the client; the frequency of meetings should be no less than once a week).

2. Another significant group of factors, on which not only the effectiveness of the counseling being conducted depends, but also the counselor's very decision to provide psychological help, is the individual characteristics of the client's personality and of his or her problem situation. Within this group of factors, the following can be identified:

- the presence of the client's own internal motivation for change;

- willingness to enter into a counseling relationship with the psychologist;

- the client's psychological accessibility for counseling (possesses sufficient emotional stability; is able to express his or her feelings; has an average or above-average level of intellectual development; is flexible in adapting);

- the client's age (the possibilities of counseling must be carefully considered if the client is too young or too old; counseling conducted solely at the verbal level is, as a rule, applied to people over 10 years of age);

- the absence of destructive environmental factors so unfavorable that, even after changing his or her attitudes, the individual is unable to cope with them (an unfavorable place of residence; an inadequate educational program; a situation of violence, and so on. In such cases, the most appropriate form of psychological help is «milieu therapy» - a method of managing the environment of the person seeking help¹⁴).

3. An equally important condition for effective psychological counseling is the counselor's personal qualities and professional knowledge and skills, which make up the third group of helping-relationship factors:

• - the counselor's personal characteristics (capacity for empathy, willingness and readiness to provide psychological help; absence of self-interested intentions and aggressive tendencies, such as the need to dominate other people, to command them, and so on; the ability to teach others and to emotionally influence other people);
• - the counselor's acceptance of and positive attitude toward the client;
• - the counselor's harmonious emotional state and ability to manage his or her own states (absence of counselor burnout syndrome);
• - the counselor's professional knowledge (see the following topic: «Requirements for the counselor's personal qualities and professional knowledge and skills»);
• - skills in structuring the counseling process (the ability to follow the main stages of psychological counseling);
• - command of the methods and techniques of psychological counseling;
• - the counselor's timely resolution of his or her own personal and professional problems in order to reduce the risk of harming the client (for this purpose the counselor may periodically resort to professional supervision - consultation on professional matters).