Psychological assistance: what is it and its types?

Author of the material:

Inna Trofimova

writer, psychologist, gestalt therapist

In principle, you don’t have to treat a broken leg: wait until it heals on its own, suffer, and then limp for the rest of your life. Absurd? Absurd. But for some reason, with “fractures” in the psyche, many do exactly this. At best, they “treat” themselves or go to friends and acquaintances for advice. But in vain - there are so many types, forms and areas of psychological help that you can find anything for yourself - according to the situation, according to your interests, according to your wallet. We tell you in this article how to get psychological help and not go broke.

What is psychological help?

Psychological assistance is support and assistance to a person or social group in a psychologically difficult life situation. The goal of psychological assistance is to relieve psycho-emotional stress, improve the quality of life and social adaptation, increase personal effectiveness, and bring harmony to relationships with oneself and the world around us.

Psychological assistance can be domestic or professional. When a mother consoles her daughter after an unsuccessful first love, this is everyday help. Professional support is provided by a specialist psychologist who has a medical or psychological education, has undergone psychological retraining, has received a license for counseling and a certificate as a psychotherapist. True, this is in theory. In practice, there is not yet a legislative filter that would help distinguish a real psychologist from a fraudster.

Psychological assistance can be:

Children's, teenage, age - depending on the client's age.
Individual, group - depending on the number of clients.
Personal, family - depending on the needs and relationships of clients.
One-time, long-term - depending on the number of sessions.
Planned, emergency - depending on the severity or urgency of the problem.

The opinion that psychological and psychotherapeutic help are the same thing is wrong. Psychotherapy is one type of help. In addition to it, there are other types that differ in goals, methods of influence, duration, scope of application, as well as the degree of professionalism.

Types of psychological assistance.

Let us make a reservation that there is no clear distinction between the forms and types of psychological assistance. The division is quite arbitrary, but it helps to navigate the complex intricacies of the forms and types of interaction between the psychologist and the client.

According to the method of providing assistance.

Consulting . Focused on helping the client in a specific life situation - helping to make decisions about changing jobs, choosing a profession, establishing relationships, overcoming a personal crisis.
Psychocorrection. This is a targeted psychological impact to correct personal or behavioral characteristics that lead to psycho-emotional problems.
Prevention . Designed to prevent and prevent possible violations of personality and relationships.
Enlightenment . Designed to increase people's literacy and awareness, as well as the general culture of society in the field of psychology.
Crisis intervention . This is assistance to a person who is in a state of acute, prolonged or complicated crisis after the loss of a loved one, a disaster, or participation in hostilities.
Rehabilitation . Aimed at restoring psychological and physical health: intellectual functions, self-regulation or communication skills, the tendency to form healthy self-esteem.
Psychodiagnostics. These are all specific tools for measuring and assessing a person’s individual characteristics (tests, questionnaires).
Psychotherapy . This is a special type of soul treatment that does not aim to eliminate serious mental illness, but helps in the treatment of psychological problems.

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By specialization.

The same psychologist can engage in counseling or psychotherapy, and additionally educate those interested about new trends in psychology. But most psychologists choose a narrow specialization to accumulate knowledge and experience in one area.

So, what format or specialization can a psychologist practice:

Personal – works with the client individually, helps to deal with internal conflicts, unlived situations, self-esteem, self-control.

Family – advises families, works with partnerships, deals with gender psychology, generational conflicts.

Children’s – works with children’s mental disorders and psychosomatics, helps remove fears or find talent, and provides career guidance.

Adolescent – works with decreased assessment and shyness of adolescents, with difficulties in communication, with a decrease in academic performance, prevents deviant or addictive behavior of adolescents.

A sexologist helps improve the sexual life of people without experience or clients with sufficient family experience, identifies and helps eliminate the causes of disorders, corrects sexual behavior, and provides sex education.

Body-oriented – works with posture, tightness in the body, muscle tension, regular physical injuries, helps the client deal with psychosomatics.

Sports – studies the patterns of the psyche of athletes, the psychology of interaction in a team, conducts psychological preparation of athletes before competitions, helps to unlock their potential.

Social – deals with thinking, emotions, and behavior of a person in a social group.

Crisis or emergency – goes to disaster sites, provides support to relatives of victims, participants in accidents, and hostages.

Psychotherapist - provides the necessary types of psychotherapeutic assistance that correspond to his specialization (gestalt therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, art therapy, psychodrama, systemic vector therapy).

A psychotherapist with a medical education works with manifestations and symptoms, characteristics and mental problems, psychological trauma, if necessary, issues a medical report and prescribes pharmacological treatment.

Psychologist-healer - works with bioenergy, parapsychology, esotericism, and is engaged in healing practice.

Career guidance consultant - works with people of different ages and helps to choose or change a profession, avoid burnout at work, helps the client navigate new professions or change jobs.

Personal growth trainer (coach) – teaches specific skills that help increase personal effectiveness, achieve goals, and increase motivation.

Clinical is a specialty that allows you to work in hospitals, clinics, and clinics with clients with various “borderline” deviations - where there is no pathology yet, but there are personality disorders.

Psychiatrist - works with patients: collects a history of the disease, forms a clinical picture of the disease, treats psychopathology and mental disorders with medication.

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Hysterics

Hysterical reaction – in dry medical words “an active energy-consuming behavioral reaction.” A person violently splashes out his emotions on others. He can scream, wave his arms, and cry at the same time. Hysteria always occurs in the presence of spectators.

The hysterical reaction is one of the ways in which our psyche reacts to extreme events. This reaction is very energy-consuming and has the ability to infect others.

How to help someone else when they are hysterical

Try to remove the audience and focus attention on yourself. The fewer spectators, the faster the hysterical reaction will stop.
If it is impossible to remove the audience, try to become the most attentive listener, provide support to the person, listen, nod, assent.
Talk less yourself. If you speak, then use short, simple phrases, addressing the person by name. If you do not “feed” the hysteria with provoking words and statements, then after 10-15 minutes it will subside.
After a hysteria, a loss of strength occurs, so it is necessary to give the person the opportunity to rest.

Helping yourself when hysterical

In such a state, it is very difficult to help yourself in any way, because at this moment the person is in an extremely emotional state and does not understand well what is happening to him and around him.

If you have an idea about how to stop your hysterics, this is already the first step towards stopping it. In this case, you need to take the following actions:

get away from the “spectators”, be left alone.
Wash your face with ice water - this will help you come to your senses.
Do breathing exercises: inhale, hold your breath for 1-2 seconds, exhale slowly through your nose, hold your breath for 1-2 seconds, slowly inhale, and so on.

Unacceptable actions during hysteria

Do not perform unexpected actions (such as slapping, pouring water on, or shaking the person).
Do not enter into an active dialogue with the person about his statements, do not argue until this reaction passes.
There is no need to assume that a person is doing this intentionally to attract attention.
Remember that hysterical manifestations are a normal reaction to abnormal circumstances.
There is no need to say standard phrases: “calm down”, “pull yourself together”, “you can’t do this”, “get yourself together, you wimp”.

Anger by liza23q.

Who might need psychological help?

Many people need the help of a psychologist, but not everyone. Although at some stage of life, every person may need the support of a psychologist, regardless of age, education or amount in the salary sheet.

Reason for visiting a psychologist:

Problems with daily activities. When it’s difficult to do something that others think is easy to do.
Painful experience. If memories of an old or recent event cause mental pain, tremors, rapid heart rate or a panic attack.
Experiencing grief. When you cannot cope with the loss of a loved one, a catastrophe or an accident on your own.
Age crisis. Sometimes you don’t want to come to terms with your passport age, but you have to – and for this you will need the help of a psychologist.
Addiction. If the influence of someone or something becomes so strong that it takes away freedom and dignity.
Codependency. If it’s not possible to break up “on good terms”, and “cutting to the quick” is too painful.
Anxiety. If doubts or anxiety constantly interfere with action or completely paralyze.
Low self-esteem. If failure has crippled you so much that you stop believing in your abilities or don’t respect yourself at all.
Unknown health problems. When it hurts somewhere inside, but doctors cannot make a specific diagnosis.
Bad mood. If nothing pleases you at all, and your irritation only intensifies and affects your loved ones.
Family troubles. When conflicts in the family become unbearable, it is not the person who needs to change, but the entire family system.
Favorite rake. When similar problems lurk at work or at home, even if this work or home is periodically replaced with new ones.

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Aggression

An aggressive reaction or anger, anger - there are several types: verbal (when a person expresses words of threat) and non-verbal (a person commits aggressive actions).

In a situation where the usual way of life is suddenly and significantly disrupted, any person has the right to experience anger, anger, and irritation.

In such a situation, you can help a person cope with a flurry of emotions, with his anger and with dignity survive the trials that he has faced.

Anger is an even more emotionally contagious reaction than hysteria. If it is not stopped in time, then at some point it may become widespread. Many people, having experienced such a reaction, then wondered how this could happen to them.

To support a person, accept his right to this reaction and the fact that it is not directed at you, but at circumstances.

How to Help Another Person When Angry

Talk to the person calmly, gradually reducing the pace and volume of your speech.
It is important to speak softer, slower and calmer than the person who is feeling angry.
Address the person by name, ask questions that would help him formulate and understand his requirements for this situation: “What do you think would be better to do: this or this?”

How to help yourself with aggression

Try to express your feelings to the other person.
Give yourself physical activity.

Unacceptable actions during aggression

There is no need to assume that a person expressing aggression is evil in nature.
Anger is the expression of emotional pain at “abnormal” circumstances.
Don’t try to argue or convince a person, even if you think he’s wrong.
Don't threaten or intimidate.