Psychological counseling is a relatively new professional field of psychological practice, which is a type of psychological assistance. This direction comes from psychotherapy and is aimed at a clinically healthy individual who cannot overcome everyday difficulties on his own. In other words, the key task of this technique is to help individuals find a way out of existing problematic circumstances that they are unable to overcome without outside help, to recognize and change ineffective behavioral patterns for making fateful decisions, to resolve current life difficulties, and to achieve their goals. . According to the target area, the tasks of psychological counseling are divided into corrective influence and tasks aimed at achieving personal growth, self-development and life success by the client.
Basics of psychological counseling
Counseling is a set of activities aimed at helping a subject resolve everyday problems and make life-changing decisions, for example, regarding family and marriage, professional growth, self-improvement, and the effectiveness of interpersonal interaction.
The purpose of this method of psychological support is to help individuals comprehend what is happening on their life path and achieve their intended goals, based on conscious choices in resolving emotional problems and interpersonal difficulties.
All definitions of psychological counseling are similar to each other and include several important positions.
Psychological counseling helps:
— conscious choice of the individual to act according to his own discretion;
— learning new behavior;
— personality development.
The core of this method is the “consultative interaction” that occurs between the specialist and the subject. The emphasis is on the responsibility of the individual, in other words, counseling recognizes that an independent and responsible person is capable of making and making decisions in certain conditions, and the task of the consultant is to create conditions that encourage the volitional behavior of the individual.
The goals of psychological counseling are borrowed from various psychotherapeutic concepts. For example, followers of the psychoanalytic direction see the task of counseling as transforming information repressed into the unconscious into conscious images, helping the client to recreate early experiences and analyze repressed conflicts, and restore the basic personality.
It is not easy to predetermine the goals of psychological counseling, since the goal depends on the client’s needs and the theoretical orientation of the consultant himself. Below are several universal counseling tasks that are mentioned by theoreticians and practitioners of various schools:
- promote the transformation of behavioral reactions for a more productive life of the client, increasing the level of satisfaction with life, even in the presence of some inevitable social restrictions;
— develop the ability to overcome difficulties during encounters with new everyday circumstances and conditions;
— ensure effective adoption of important decisions;
- develop the ability to make contacts and maintain interpersonal relationships;
— facilitate the growth of personal potential and self-realization.
Psychological counseling approaches are characterized by a general system model that combines six mutually deriving stages.
The first stage involves exploring problems. The psychologist establishes contact (report) with the individual and achieves mutually directed trust: the psychologist listens carefully to the client who talks about his everyday difficulties, expresses maximum empathy, utmost sincerity, care, and does not resort to evaluation and manipulative techniques. The consultant must choose encouraging tactics that promote the client’s in-depth consideration of his problems, and note his feelings, the content of his remarks, and non-verbal behavioral reactions.
At the next stage, a two-dimensional definition of the problem situation occurs. The consultant is focused on accurately characterizing the client's problem, emphasizing both emotional and cognitive aspects. At this stage, problematic issues are clarified until the client and psychologist see and understand them in the same way. Problems are formulated in specific concepts that allow us to understand their causes, and in addition, often indicate possible ways to resolve them. If ambiguities and difficulties arise in identifying problems, then you should return to the previous stage.
The third stage is the identification of alternatives. It identifies and discusses potential solutions to problems. The consultant, using open-ended questions, encourages the subject to list all possible alternatives that he finds suitable and realistic, helps to find additional options, and does not impose his own solutions. During the conversation, it is recommended to make a written list of alternatives to facilitate their comparison and comparison. It is necessary to find options for solving a problematic issue that the subject could apply directly.
The fourth stage is planning. It carries out a critical assessment of the selected alternatives. The consultant helps the subject understand which options presented are suitable and realistic in accordance with previous experience and current readiness for change. Drawing up a strategy for a realistic solution to difficult situations is also aimed at gaining the client’s understanding that not all difficulties are solvable: some of them require the expenditure of temporary resources, others can be partially resolved by reducing their destructive and disorganizing impact. At this stage, it is recommended, in terms of problem solving, to provide by what methods and means the subject will be able to check the feasibility of the solution preferred by him.
The fifth stage is the activity itself, that is, there is a consistent implementation of the intended strategy for solving problems. The psychologist helps the client organize activities, taking into account the circumstances, emotional and time costs, as well as the possibility of failure in achieving goals. The individual must realize that partial failure does not yet become a complete collapse, therefore one should continue to implement a strategy for resolving difficulties, directing all actions towards the final goal.
The last step is to evaluate and provide feedback. At this stage, the subject, together with the psychologist, evaluates the degree of achievement of the goal (that is, the level of problem resolution) and sums up the results achieved. If necessary, it is possible to detail and clarify the solution strategy. If new problems appear or deeply hidden problems are discovered, you should return to the previous stages.
The described model reflects the content of the consultative process and helps to better understand how specific consultation occurs. In practice, the consultation process is much more extensive and is often not always guided by this algorithm. In addition, the identification of stages or phases is conditional, since in practice some stages are connected to others, and their interdependence is much more complex than presented in the described model.
Types of psychological counseling
Due to the fact that psychological assistance is needed by people belonging to different age categories, free and in relationships characterized by a variety of problems, psychological counseling is divided depending on the problem situations of clients and their individual characteristics into types, namely individual psychological, group, family, psychological-pedagogical, professional (business) and multicultural counseling.
First of all, there is individual psychological counseling (intimate-personal). Individuals turn to this type of counseling on issues that deeply affect them as an individual, provoking strong experiences in them, often carefully hidden from the surrounding society. Such problems, for example, include psychological disorders or behavioral deficiencies that the subject wishes to eliminate, difficulties in personal relationships with loved ones or other significant persons, all kinds of fears, failures, psychogenic diseases that require medical assistance, deep dissatisfaction with oneself, problems in intimate sphere.
Individual psychological counseling simultaneously requires a consultant-client relationship that is closed from outsiders and a trusting, open relationship for interaction between them. This type of counseling must be carried out in a special setting, since it often resembles confession. Also, it cannot be episodic or short-term in nature, due to the content of the problems it is aimed at solving. In the first turn, individual counseling involves a large psychological preliminary attunement of the psychologist and the client himself to the process, then a long and often difficult conversation between the consultant and the subject, after which there begins a long period of searching for a way out of the difficulties described by the client and directly solving the problem. The last stage is the longest, since most problematic issues of an intimate and personal nature are not immediately resolved.
A variation of this type of counseling is age-related psychological counseling, which includes issues of mental development, educational features, and principles of teaching children of various age subgroups. The subject of such counseling is the dynamics of the development of the child and adolescent psyche at a certain age stage of formation, as well as the content of mental development, which is a significant difference from other types of counseling. Age-related psychological counseling solves the problem of systematic monitoring of the development of children’s mental functions for optimization and timely correction.
Group counseling is aimed at self-development and growth of the participants in the process, liberation from everything that gets in the way of self-improvement. The advantages of this type of psychological assistance over individual counseling include:
— team members can study their own style of relationships with the environment and acquire more effective social skills, in addition, they have the opportunity to conduct experiments with alternative forms of behavioral response;
- clients can discuss their own perceptions of others and receive information about the perception of them by the group and individual participants;
- the team reflects, in some way, the environment familiar to its participants;
Typically, groups offer participants insight, encouragement, and assistance, which increases the participants’ determination to explore and resolve problematic situations.
Family counseling involves providing assistance in matters related to the client’s family and relationships in it, relating to interaction with other close associates. For example, if an individual is concerned about the upcoming choice of a life partner, the optimal building of relationships in a future or current family, the regulation of interactions in family relationships, the prevention and correct way out of intra-family conflicts, the relationship of spouses with each other and with relatives, behavior during divorce, solving various current intra-family problems , then he needs family psychological counseling.
The described type of psychological assistance requires consultants to know the essence of family problems, ways to get out of difficult situations and methods for resolving them.
Psychological and pedagogical counseling is in demand when it is necessary to cope with difficulties related to teaching or raising children, when it is necessary to improve the pedagogical qualifications of adults or to teach how to manage various groups. In addition, the described type of counseling is related to the issues of psychological substantiation of pedagogical and educational innovations, optimization of means, methods and training programs.
Business (professional) consulting, in turn, is characterized by as many varieties as there are professions and types of activities. This type of assistance examines issues that arise in the process of subjects engaging in professional activities. This includes issues of professional guidance, improving and developing an individual’s skills, organizing work, increasing efficiency, etc.
Multicultural counseling is aimed at interacting with individuals who perceive the social environment differently, but at the same time try to cooperate.
The effectiveness of advisory assistance to clients who differ in culturally mediated characteristics (sexual orientation, gender, age, professional experience, etc.), and in addition, the ability to understand these clients and their requirements is interconnected with the cultural characteristics of the psychologist and the manner accepted in a particular social culture organizing psychological counseling practices.
Carrying out advisory work requires a number of personal qualities and specific characteristics from a consulting psychologist. For example, an individual practicing this technique must certainly have a higher psychological education, love people, be sociable, insightful, patient, good and responsible.
Psychological counseling for children
The tasks of psychological support for children and adults are similar, but the approaches to psychological counseling and the specialist’s working methods need to be modified due to children’s lack of independence and immaturity.
Psychological counseling of children and adolescents is characterized by certain specifics and is a disproportionately more complex process than counseling of adults.
There are three key features of psychological counseling for children:
— children almost never, on their own initiative, turn to psychologists for professional help; often, they are brought by parents or teachers who have noticed some developmental deviations;
— the psychocorrectional effect should occur very quickly, since in children one problem provokes the emergence of new ones, which will significantly affect the development of the child’s psyche as a whole;
- a psychologist cannot assign responsibility to a child for finding answers and solutions to existing problems, since in childhood mental activity and self-awareness are not yet sufficiently formed, in addition, in a child’s life, all significant changes almost completely depend on their close environment.
Most of the obvious differences between a child and an adult subject lie in the level of communication used by them. The child’s dependence on his parents forces the consulting psychologist to consider their life difficulties in conjunction with each other.
The problems of psychological counseling for children lie in insufficient mutual understanding. The baby is limited in his own communication resources, because, firstly, he has an underdeveloped ability to separate and integrate the external environment with mental experiences, and secondly, his verbal abilities are also imperfect, due to insufficient communication experience. Hence, in order to achieve effective communication, the consultant has to rely on behavioral methods, to a greater extent than on verbal ones. Due to the peculiarities of children's mental activity, the game process in therapy has become widespread as both one of the key methods of establishing contact and an effective therapeutic technique.
Due to the child’s lack of independence, an adult is always included in child psychological counseling. The significance of the role of an adult depends on the age category of the child and the sense of responsibility for him. Usually a child comes to psychological counseling with his mother. Its task is to provide the psychologist-consultant with preliminary data about the baby and assist in planning correctional work. Communication with the mother provides the specialist with the opportunity to assess her place in the children's problems, her own emotional disorders and gain insight into family relationships. The lack of help from the child’s close circle, in particular, parents, seriously complicates the process of achieving positive transformations in the child.
Parental relationships and their behavior are of decisive importance in child development. Therefore, often, family psychological counseling or psychotherapy of parents can play a leading role in modifying the environment in which their child grows, is formed and is brought up.
Due to the lack of resistance of children to the influences of external conditions, environmental stress and the inability to control the situations in which they find themselves, a specialist, providing assistance to them, places great responsibility on his own shoulders.
When working with an emotionally unstable child, first of all, you need to change the home environment: the more comfortable he is, the more effective the process will be.
As a child begins to become successful in areas in which he previously failed, his attitude towards the external environment will gradually change. Because he will begin to realize that the world around him is absolutely not hostile. The consultant's task is to act in the interests of the small individual. Often, the solution to some problems may be to place the child in a camp for the holidays or change schools. In this case, the psychologist should facilitate the transfer of the baby to a new school.
The immaturity of children often does not allow the formation of a clear correction strategy. Because kids do not know how to separate the imaginary from the real. Therefore, it is very difficult for them to separate real events from situations that exist solely in their imagination. Hence, all correctional work must be built on the basis of a mixture of what is imagined and what really exists, which does not contribute to the achievement of quick, sustainable results.
Psychological counseling of children and adolescents has a number of rules and is characterized by specific techniques.
Firstly, an important condition for establishing contact with children (adolescents) and further maintaining it is confidentiality. The counselor should remember that all information obtained during the counseling process should be used solely for the benefit of the children.
The next no less serious condition for effective counseling of adolescents and children is mutually directed trust. According to Rogers' existential concept (humanistic approach), there are several conditions for the relationship between a specialist consultant and a client that contribute to the personal growth of an individual: the ability to empathize on the part of the consultant (empathic understanding), authenticity, and irrespective acceptance of the personality of another. The ability to listen to a partner is very important for a practical psychologist. Indeed, often the most effective therapy is to provide the individual with the opportunity to speak out without fear of negative evaluation from a partner or condemnation. Empathic understanding means the ability to sensitively perceive emotional experiences, the inner world of a communication partner, correctly understand the meaning of what is heard, grasp the internal state, and capture the true feelings of the client.
Authenticity presupposes the ability to be oneself, an honest attitude towards oneself, the ability to openly show emotions, sincerely express feelings, intentions and thoughts.
Irrespective acceptance of personality presupposes acceptance of the subject as he is, that is, without excessive praise or condemnation, a willingness to listen, to accept the interlocutor’s right to his own judgment, even if it does not coincide with the generally accepted opinion or the opinion of the consultant.
The peculiarities of psychological counseling for children also lie in the lack of any motivation in children to interact with a consultant. Often they do not understand why they are being examined, since they are not worried about their own disorders. Therefore, psychologists often need all their ingenuity to establish contact with a small individual. This primarily applies to shy, insecure children, children with low self-esteem and behavioral disorders, who have negative experience of interacting with adults. Children and adolescents with the described traits and problems, when attending a consultation with a specialist, experience emotional overstrain, which is expressed in high affectivity and increased aggressiveness towards the specialist. The problems of psychological counseling of adolescents and children also lie in the difficulty of establishing contact with them. A significant obstacle to this is usually mistrust on the part of children, secrecy and shyness.
The process of counseling small individuals can be divided into several stages:
— establishing mutual understanding;
— collecting the necessary information;
— clear definition of the problem aspect;
— corrective measures and recommendations;
— summarizing the results of the consultation process.
Methods of psychological counseling
Basic counseling methods include: observation, conversation, interview, empathic and active listening. In addition to basic methods, psychologists also use special methods that arose as a result of the influence of individual psychological schools, based on a specific methodology and a specific theory of personality.
Observation is the purposeful, deliberate, systematic perception of mental phenomena, aimed at studying their changes due to the influence of certain conditions and finding the meaning of such phenomena if it is not known. A psychological consultant must have the ability to observe the client’s verbal behavior and nonverbal manifestations. The basis for understanding nonverbal behavioral responses is knowledge of the various types of nonverbal speech.
A professional conversation consists of a variety of techniques and techniques used to achieve the appropriate result. Techniques for conducting dialogue, stimulating statements, approving the client’s judgments, brevity and clarity of the consultant’s speech, etc. play a huge role.
The functions and objectives of a conversation in counseling are to collect information about the state of the subject’s psyche and establish contact with him. In addition, conversation often has a psychotherapeutic effect and helps reduce the client’s anxiety. A consultative conversation is a means of addressing problems that concern the client; it serves as a background and accompanies all psychotechniques. The conversation can be clearly structured and take place according to a pre-planned strategy or program. In this case, the conversation will be considered an interview method, which can be:
- standardized, that is, characterized by clear tactics and a sustainable strategy;
- partially standardized, based on flexible tactics and sustainable strategy;
- freely controlled diagnostic, based on a stable strategy and absolutely free tactics, depending on the specifics of the client.
Empathic listening is a type of listening whose essence lies in accurately reproducing the feelings of the interlocutor. This type of listening involves avoiding evaluation, condemnation, and avoiding interpretation of the hidden motives of the interlocutor’s behavior. At the same time, it is necessary to demonstrate an accurate reflection of the client’s experiences and emotions, understand them and accept them.
Active listening contributes to a more accurate and correct understanding of each other by interlocutors, which allows you to build an atmosphere of trust and emotional support. In addition, active listening helps to expand the subject's awareness of the problem. In psychological counseling, this method is mandatory.
Psychological counseling of children and parents differs in the methods used. Since for children, all of the above methods must be adapted and modified according to the level of maturity of the children. Since in children, behavioral manifestations are often the main means of expressing feelings, the success of the consultant depends on his ability to observe, understand and interpret the actions of the baby.
Stages (stages) of the consultative process and their characteristics
Psychological counseling is a process that has a number of stages. Its stages can be clearly seen in the main method of psychological counseling - interviews.
It should be noted that the term interview (from English, interview - conversation, meeting) in psychology is interpreted ambiguously. In a general sense, an interview is a way of obtaining socio-psychological information through oral questioning.
There are 2 types of interviews: free (not regulated by the topic and form of the conversation) and standardized (close in form to a questionnaire with closed questions). We can also identify a number of situations in which the interviewer finds himself, depending on the degree of awareness of the respondent (interviewee) of his actions:
a) the respondent knows why he acted or will act this way and not otherwise;
b) the respondent lacks information about the reasons for his action;
c) the interviewer aims to obtain symptomatic information, although it does not seem so to the respondent.
This or that situation determines the use of different interview methods. In the first case, it is sufficient to use an ordered, strictly targeted questionnaire. In the other two situations, methods are required that involve the cooperation of the respondent and the interviewer in the process of searching for the necessary information. Examples of such methods are diagnostic interviews (controlled and uncontrolled) and clinical interviews. The first means obtaining information about personality traits in the early stages of psychotherapy, the second means a therapeutic conversation when providing psychological assistance.
The literature usually provides a “five-step” step-by-step model of the consultative interview process:
Stage 1 is establishing contact and orienting the client to work;
2 - collecting information about the client, resolving the question of “what is the problem”;
3 - awareness of the desired result, the answer to the question: “What do you want to achieve?”;
4 - development of alternative solutions, which can be described as: “What else can we do about this?”;
Stage 5 of the interview is the psychologist’s generalization in the form of a summary of the results of interaction with the client.
In the famous work of Rollo May “The Art of Psychological Counseling” (M., 1994), the counseling process is not so clearly structured, but nevertheless its staged nature is quite visible.
R. May writes: “So, contact with the client has been established, rapport has been achieved, and the main part of the meeting begins - confession, the stage at which the client has the opportunity to “speak out”... When the client has told everything that hurts him, described his current situation and “ laid all the cards on the table,” the interpretation stage begins.”
R. May begins the next chapter of the book with the words: “Let us consider the last phase of counseling - personality transformation, which is the completion and goal of the entire process.” If we now somewhat structure what the author said in these short passages, we get four stages of the consultative process:
1) establishing contact with the client (rapport);
2) confession;
3) interpretation;
4) personality transformation.
G. Hambly adheres to a description of the stages of counseling that is similar in content:
“The first goal of any counseling is to establish a relationship of trust. It can be described as the development of rapport or a mutual feeling of closeness... Once rapport has been established through good listening and clear reflection, the next stage of the counseling process is exploration... Having established a relationship of trust... and giving the caller the opportunity to analyze his feelings and clarify the problem by examining reality and discussing possible approaches ... in the next stage of the counseling process we must encourage him to take some appropriate action” (Hambly, 1992, pp. 14-22).
Having structured the text by G. Hambly, we obtain the following stages:
1) establishing a relationship of trust (the emergence of rapport, a feeling of closeness through listening and reflection);
2) research (analysis of feelings and clarification of the problem);
3) decision on the appropriate action (conclusion).
And now, in more detail:
Can be used to answer other questions!
The first stage is establishing contact and orienting the client to the problem. This stage lasts from a few seconds to ten minutes. 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 first minutes of the meeting by standing towards the client or meeting him at the door of the office. Immediately before starting a conversation, it is better to pause (not too long - 40-60 seconds, but enough for him to collect his thoughts and look around), otherwise the client may experience a state of tension and confusion. At this stage, the consulting psychologist chooses his position in interaction with the client.
Giving the client the opportunity to establish a position on an equal footing, the consulting psychologist is not the first to introduce himself. The client introduces himself first. The consulting psychologist must explain who he is and what he does. It happens that at the beginning of a conversation, the consultant is faced with a situation where the client needs to explain what psychological counseling is and what he can count on when asking for help. During this period, the consultant psychologist structures the situation. This solves the problem of establishing contact with the client.
The main means of establishing contact can be used:
• a convenient room that excludes the occurrence of external interference to work (presence of unauthorized persons, external noise, etc.);
• comfortable interpersonal distance;
• calling the interlocutor by name and patronymic (name);
• use of phrases of like-mindedness and the pronoun “we”;
• demonstrating the joy of communication;
• showing respect for the client's personality;
• attachment (implicit repetition) to elements of the client’s behavior that are poorly amenable to his conscious control, such as: breathing, blinking, posture, gestures, facial expressions, pace and volume of speech;
• the predominant use of words that characterize him as a visualist, auditory or kinesthetic (i.e. a person in whose mind external experience is represented primarily in the form of pictures, words or bodily sensations).
Non-verbal communication plays a special, significant role at the first stage, as well as throughout the entire counseling process, since it reflects the unconscious of the individual, and according to various sources, it gives approximately 60 to 90% of the information in general about a person, “highlights” it, as on a screen , attitudes, feelings, thoughts. In this case, a conceptual approach is used about a protective shell, reflecting the characteristic features of personal protection. This allows them to be identified and correlated with the obtained verbal signs. It is also taken into account that chronic muscle tension is organized into 7 main protective segments (in the area of the eyes, mouth, neck, chest, diaphragm, abdomen, pelvis), and that they block anxiety, anger, aggression, sexual arousal and generally prevent personal growth.
In order to effectively solve problems of interpreting non-verbal information, it is advisable to take into account a number of provisions:
• there are no direct transitions between nonverbal and verbal communications;
• the person being consulted consciously and unconsciously interprets the consultant’s non-verbal language;
• non-verbal language represents not only the present, but also the future and the past; Conflicting feelings and intentions are most clearly manifested in body language;
• there is a relationship between nonverbalism and psychophysical well-being: it is impossible to fake body language (the unconscious signals the truth);
• The way to interpret wordless communication is largely intuitive.
Nonverbal interaction between the consultant and the counselee in psychological counseling has a feedback loop, while the mental state of the latter is interconnected with this interaction. The ineffectiveness of such communication occurs when the consultant uses closed gestures, a leaned back torso, long distances, an absent gaze, fencing off a table and low-empathic messages.
Optimal non-verbal interaction to achieve positive PC results should be carried out as follows:
• use of soft, intermittent, “touching” with a glance with a skillful combination of direct gaze and avoidance of eye contact (meeting the gaze of the person being consulted - from 60% to 70% of the communication time);
• accepting another look and nodding your head;
• allowing an appropriate smile with some facial reflection of the reactions of the person being consulted;
• pointing the feet at the interlocutor with the leg extended forward;
• use of open palms, straight body position;
• slight tilt of the torso forward and slight tilt of the head to the side; comfortable sitting in a chair,
• location at a certain angle opposite the person being consulted;
• highly empathic listening and reporting with simultaneous subverbal communication and matching tempo for the consultant and the counselee.
This creates an opportunity to talk about the issue. The interview can begin with an introduction posed by a question-suggestion from a consulting psychologist:
- I'm hearing you…
-What brought you to me...
At the end of the “understanding the problem” stage, the psychological consultant discusses with the client various forms of work that could benefit him, explaining how effective each of these forms is. Sometimes this may be unnecessary, but the moment itself is necessary for the client to realize and accept his personal responsibility for the progress of joint work to resolve his problems. This mobilizes him on a subconscious level.
At this stage, a psychotherapeutic contract was concluded, as it were: the order, time and place of sessions were established; the client accepting various types of costs (including time, disruption of routine and sometimes lifestyle, the need for mental work instead of passively following the psychologist’s recommendations). All this, almost imperceptibly for the client, involves him in the active process of testing new ways of organizing his own life.
The second stage of counseling begins with collecting information about the context of the problem: the problem is identified and the client’s attitude towards it. In this case, the psychologist asks specific questions about the course of events, about the participants in the events and their specific actions, about the client’s experiences. The consulting psychologist seeks answers to the following questions:
— Why did the client come?
— How does he see his problem?
— What can the client do to solve this problem?
At the same time, the psychologist asks the necessary questions about the course of events, about the participants in the events and their specific actions, and the client’s experiences. All information is aimed at making the client aware of the context of the problem and its role in the origin of the psychological situation. The client is confessing. The client's confession takes approximately 10-20 minutes. At this time, the consulting psychologist himself tries to determine the structure of the client’s inner world, what modalities of this inner world the client owns.
By analyzing the context of confession, a psychologist-consultant can find out what the client knows about his feelings, thoughts, goals, and his possible actions. Information useful for a psychologist should include, first of all, the following: the history of the problem (when and why it appeared); the client’s relationship with all the characters in his stories, their attitude to the problem; an idea of what exactly caused the problem from the point of view of the person himself and the people around him; the deterioration and improvement of the situation that ever occurred and what they could be related to; what exactly caused the request for consultation, why it is happening now, and not earlier or later.
You should specifically ask to talk about all the points mentioned above. The questions that can be formulated based on these points should be quite broad, and they usually do a good job of stimulating the client to tell a story. The psychologist puts forward several hypotheses about the structure of the client’s inner world and checks their correctness with his questions. 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. The client's story is a set of behavioral patterns interpreted from the point of view of one or another developed concept. The hypotheses that the counseling psychologist will discuss with the client must be simply and adequately expressed for the client. This once again suggests that the psychologist-consultant’s approach to the client in the process of psychological counseling must meet the following requirements:
• a consulting psychologist should not exaggerate by using value judgments;
• focus on client keywords;
• do not impose your point of view; use words and images that correspond to the client’s level of cultural development;
• speak sufficiently concisely and clearly, although without excluding the ambiguity of phrases and words to influence the client on a subconscious level.
During counseling, a counseling psychologist can clearly state one fact-tested hypothesis to show the client the logic of his behavior. To communicate the content of the hypothesis, the consulting psychologist demonstrates to the client different sides of the problem through the content of his questions, so that the client can check and accept this information himself.
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. 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 the fact that problems arise in his life, how to help him treat to what is happening differently and behave accordingly. This means that you can move on to the next phase of the consultation conversation.
After this, the third stage of counseling begins, which can be designated as desired and result. There is a search for an answer to the question: “What do you want to achieve?” The psychologist helps the client determine his ideal, decide what he wants, what he wants to be. This psychological stage is the main content of counseling. It doesn't look any special to the client. In counseling with a client, a kind of “insight” occurs - the client experiences the changes happening to him as a result of his own efforts (“I understood everything myself”).
It is very important for the consulting psychologist to note this moment of change in the client’s attitude towards his problem. He must have a timely psychological impact on the client using special methods. The methods of influence used by psychologists from different schools during psychological counseling can be very different.
The study allowed us to develop some requirements that should be observed when formulating the desired result. These include:
• specificity of the goal (if the goal is very large, it is necessary to break it into a chain of small
goals, the solution of which will lead to the achievement of a big goal);
• positivity of the goal (formulating it in terms without using the particle “not.” For example: “I would like to have such and such a character trait,” and not “I would not like to be such and such”);
• determination of indicators for achieving the result (the questions should be answered: “How do you know that the result has been achieved? What are the objective and subjective characteristics of this achievement?”);
• determining the context of the outcome (“When and under what conditions would you like to feel or behave in accordance with the intended outcome, and when and under what conditions would you not want to?”);
• identification of perceived reserves for achieving results (“What in your character can be the basis for achieving results, what can you do today, and what tomorrow, in a week, a month, etc.?”);
• harmony of the goal (its consistency and complementarity with other personally significant goals).
The fourth stage of counseling is to develop alternative solutions. At this stage, there is a discussion with the client of different options for solving the problem, a search for alternatives to overcome rigidity of thinking and create conditions for choice among alternatives. A consultant, working with alternative solutions, must constantly reflect on the content of his professional position and remember that the “right” decision for him is not necessarily the same for the client.
Usually at this stage the client has a fairly good idea of how his behavior and ways of responding contribute to destabilizing the relationship. But whether there are positive options for behavior in such situations and what they are - it can be difficult for a cadet to decide on his own. A consultant can be of great help with this, but, naturally, 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, first of all, is to help the client formulate possible alternatives of behavior, and then, critically evaluating them, choose the option that is most suitable.
The algorithm for discussing options for overcoming the problem is built in stages:
- communication by the consultant of various options for solving the problem;
— thoughts, associations, ideas of the person being consulted regarding the proposed method;
— the consultant’s arguments in the form of information, explanations of the advantages and disadvantages of a particular option;
- maturing to the choice of the person being consulted during one’s own verbalization of attitude towards options, mutual argumentation and listening to the opinion of a specialist;
- independent choice in the form of a decision, belief or tendency to subsequently independently work out options after counseling.
Directed influence on the client was carried out using the following methods:
- interpretation (a new vision of the situation based on the theory or personal experience of the psychologist) - the psychologist reveals to the client an alternative vision of reality, helps to change his mood and behavior;
- a directive (instruction) strictly instructs the client to perform certain actions that, according to the psychologist’s plan, will contribute to solving the client’s problem. The client is expected to follow the instructions;
- advice (information, homework, wishes, general ideas on how to act, think, behave) - the psychologist gives the client useful information;
- self-disclosure - the psychologist shares personal experiences and experiences, or shares the client’s current feelings, while establishing rapport;
— feedback — allows the client to understand how the psychologist and others perceive him;
- logical sequence - psychologist
explains to the client the logical consequences of his thinking and behavior “If, then...”, gives the client a starting point for understanding his experiences and actions, allows him to foresee their result;
- open questions (“Who?” - facts; “How?” - feelings; “Why?” - reason; “Is it possible?” - the general picture) - the psychologist finds out the basic facts that facilitate the conversation with the client;
- retelling - the psychologist repeats the essence of the client’s words and his thoughts, uses his key words, thereby intensifying the discussion, showing the client the level of understanding of his problems;
- reflection of feelings - the psychologist explains the emotional background of key facts, helps to open feelings;
- summary - the psychologist repeats in a concise form the main facts and feelings of the client, clarifies the direction of the conversation;
- impactful summary - used at the end of the conversation to summarize the psychologist’s judgments, most often used in combination with conclusions and summary statements from the client. Clarifies what the psychologist and client achieved during the conversation.
The content of the fifth stage of counseling consists of the psychologist summarizing the results of interaction with the client regarding the problem. The psychologist's task at this stage is to facilitate changes in the client's thoughts, actions and feelings in his daily life. Structurally, the fifth stage consists of three steps: summing up the conversation; discussing issues related to the client’s future relationship with another consultant or other necessary specialists; psychologist's farewell to client.
As part of the first step, it is important to ensure that the consultant and the client not only come to some joint conclusion or decision, but also to understand how this conclusion or point of view was reached during the conversation, that is, on what specific facts from the client’s life it is based. Forgetting and misunderstanding by the client of this most important point is one of the main mechanisms of resistance to psychological influence, when a seemingly wonderful idea or way of changing relationships suddenly begins to be perceived by the client as an unreasonable decision that has arisen from nowhere. It also happens that after visiting a psychologist, the client himself has a desire to discuss what is happening with someone, to share new ideas and experiences, and then it turns out that instead of a detailed and logical story, the person who was actively working during the appointment can hardly remember what he was talking about. there was actually a conversation.
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, since the client may not remember it and will only get confused if it is longer than three or four sentences.
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.
The second step is aimed at discussing issues related to the client's future relationship with another consultant or with other necessary specialists. The vast majority of clients seeking psychological help for the first time are focused on a one-time appointment. Of course, very little can actually 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 is some special reason for this, the consultant should not insist on follow-up meetings, it is enough that the client knows that the possibility of seeking help exists, and even if serious problems do not arise, there will always be something about than you can talk to a psychologist.
The third step—saying goodbye to the client—is largely a ritual act. However, it should not appear 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 mind. The client should be escorted to the door and, if possible, say a few kind words goodbye.
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 did not go very well: the client is dissatisfied and expresses complaints. You shouldn’t be afraid to discuss this with him; you can formulate once again what, from a psychologist’s point of view, is associated with dissatisfaction, and recommend something to him.
It is especially important that in this case, the psychologist remains professional to the end - he is ready to admit possible limitations of his competence, does not enter into unnecessary disputes and bickering, and manages to end 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.
The consultation most often ends with homework. At the same time, the client’s responsibility for its implementation and the need to provide the psychologist with reporting material are noted. This is done in order to increase the client’s responsibility for the changes that occurred to him during the consultation and during the implementation of the proposed exercises, which may be associated with his self-improvement.
Psychological counseling techniques
The specific techniques that the counselor uses at each stage of the counseling procedure and within these stages are called counseling techniques. They can be universal, successfully used at any stage of consultation, and specific, which are most suitable for a particular stage of the process.
Techniques should be considered according to the stages of the counseling model.
The first stage - the beginning of work and the first procedure, is marked by a meeting between the subject and the consultant. Techniques applicable to solve this problem include: greeting the individual, leading him to his place, the individual choosing his place in the room, the consultant choosing a place for himself, methods of establishing psychological contact.
Greeting techniques are carried out through standard phrases, for example: “Nice to meet you,” “Nice to see you.”
The technique of “bringing the potential client to the site” is appropriate during the initial visit by the subject of consultation. It looks like this: the consultant walks ahead of the individual, shows him the way and lets him pass in front of him when entering the office.
Establishing a positive attitude in the client is the second procedure of this stage. The main technique here will be to establish rapport. It can be established by anything that can make a favorable impression: a neat appearance, respect for the communication zone, a benevolent facial expression.
The third procedure is liberation from psychological barriers. The client feels anxiety, which special techniques will help relieve. For example, you can give him some time alone, turn on calm, unobtrusive music, which will also help create a favorable climate.
The second stage is collecting information. The first procedure covers the diagnosis of the client’s personality, within which the following methods are used: observation, conversation, interview.
Clarifying the nature of the problem and identifying the client's resources is the second procedure. Techniques used: dialogue and listening.
Activating the client's memory is the third procedure. Techniques used: assistance in formulating statements and identifying true feelings, psychological support for the subject, provoking the client, saturating pauses. In order to assist the subject in identifying real feelings and turning them into verbal form, active listening methods are used.
The “pause saturation” technique involves the consultant using pauses. He can fill them with a question or a metaphor, or “hold a pause.”
The “provoking” technique is based on questioning the client’s words. Its goal is to help the subject look at a difficult situation from a different perspective.
Stage three is drawing up a strategy. The first procedure involves identifying likely outcomes from problematic events. For this purpose, the following techniques are applicable: advice, informing the individual, persuasion and explanation.
The “advice” technique involves the consultant putting forward an opinion and further joint discussion.
The “informing” technique speaks for itself. It is important that the information provided by the consultant meets such requirements as objectivity, accessibility, and specificity.
The “persuasion” technique consists of logically presented argumentation that proves the correctness of the expressed judgment.
The “clarification” technique implies a detailed and specific explanation of the consultant’s judgment regarding the client’s problem.
The second procedure is coordinating the action plan. Applicable techniques: finding multiple solutions, specifying the expected result, stimulating questions, establishing a solution algorithm.
Before developing a specific strategy, you need to expand the possible solutions as much as possible. The Dilts technique is excellent for this. Invite the subject to come up with incredible ways to solve a problematic issue. There must be at least twenty guesses.
Psychological counseling of children and parents also has differences in the techniques practiced, due to children's immaturity and lack of independence.
Stages of psychological consultation
Film "University of Practical Psychology"
Pros and cons of a directive approach to counseling.
Psychological consultation usually consists of the following steps:
Establishing contact.
Establishing and maintaining contact. There is contact when the consultant is heard and understood, wants to be heard and understood. Sometimes you need to be more respectable, sometimes you need to be warmer - it depends, but you always need to be attentive to the client. Cm.
Clarification of the situation and request.
Definition of a request. The client talks, the consultant understands the situation and understands the request. “It’s clear that things are bad for you. What you don't want is heard. And what do you want?" — As a rule, general words are heard, often in negative formulations (get rid of, stop), but this is already a step forward. Formulating an image of the desired result, for the client - the general goal of the conversation. What do we want to achieve as a result of our conversation? What result will you be satisfied with? “Speak out - and it’s good” “Make a list of what to do - and start doing it” See.
We build a concept about customer problems
What are the client’s main difficulties and what needs to be worked with. See Synton card for personal diagnostics.
Thinking through a plan.
Developing an action plan. The psychologist needs to develop two plans that he must keep in mind. The first is a plan of what the client should do to solve his problem. The second is a plan of how, in what sequence and in what form to present all this to the client. It is necessary to ensure that the client was able to understand the plan, accept it, become interested in the plan and begin to implement the plan. Cm.
Format, setting up the client for work.
Presenting an action plan should set the client up for future work. Recommendations need to be presented with dignity and “sold” at a high price. To “sell” recommendations cheaply means to ruin them, to substitute them for the “Yes BUT” game. Before making recommendations, you need to make sure that the client is ready to work. A typical formula: “I will provide you with recommendations in exchange for your willingness to work.” Cm.
Implementation of the plan, work with the client.
The implementation of the plan is the actual psychological consultation. Sometimes it’s a joint search for a solution, sometimes it’s specific instructions from a specialist. The direction and content of the work is determined both by the client’s request and the psychologist’s vision. We provide a new vision of the present and technical tips.
Homework: the work of the client himself.
A consultation is usually just a preparation for what needs to be continued in life. The client should be given instructions on what to do after the consultation. The clearer, more specific, and more specific the description of his future actions, the better. The tasks should be within the client’s capabilities (not difficult) and fit into his philosophy of life (not cause internal protests). Important points: adapting the result in reality (how exactly will you do what you decided?), recording decisions (best in writing), checking the environmental friendliness of the recommendations (If you do this, will you be satisfied with it? Are you ready for the consequences that could this cause?).
Completing a consultation is a check to see if the client understands you and what they are going to do. Are there any doubts blocking fears? If necessary, final motivation and support, sometimes a boost of responsibility. Fixing the result: suggestions for action and positivity. Ensuring that the client exits in a resourceful state (calm, cheerful, confident).
Common mistakes
Accordingly, typical errors:
- Listening to complaints without defining the client's positive goal, lack of clarity: “What do you want? - I want …"
- Cheap advice: recommendations without a decent “sale”. Telling the client what to do without defining his intentions. As a result, it turns out that the woman only wanted to complain and was “not ready” to change anything.
- Explaining what is happening instead of looking for a solution.
