Psychological counseling is an organized conversation on a topic, during which the client and the professional psychologist together understand the problem and find the best ways to resolve it. For the consultation to run smoothly, it is very important to organize it correctly.
Instructions
Step 1
Provide all the necessary conditions for comfortable communication. Psychological counseling requires from the client a certain sincerity and willingness to let the psychologist into the personal areas of his life. Therefore, it is very important that the client is in a comfortable environment. Avoid rooms with bright light or, conversely, unnecessarily darkened. The consulting room should be well insulated from external sounds so that the client is not distracted by extraneous noises, and, on the other hand, is not afraid of being heard by someone else.
Step 2
Prepare to meet with a specific client. If possible, study his personal file before the meeting takes place directly. Find out about his family, work, consultations with other doctors, if they were before. Invite the client to complete the test at home and bring it to you the day before the appointment. Then you will have time to analyze the material and work out the best communication strategy.
Step 3
Listen carefully to the client. Finding a talkative storyteller is much easier than finding a good listener, so people constantly lack attention. Turning to a psychologist, a person expects, at least, to be heard. Speaking is, in and of itself, part of any therapy: the connection between speech and thinking is much stronger than it often appears. Verbally formalizing his thought, a person begins to look at the problem in a different way, which often helps him to solve it.
Step 4
Do not impose your opinion on the client. The task of a professional psychologist is not to solve his problem for a person, but to help him independently understand the difficulties that have arisen. It is very important that the client himself comes to a certain decision and is ready to be responsible for the choice made.
Step 5
Build your communication according to the principle of dialogue. Its essence is not in the alternate exchange of remarks, but in the inner understanding and recognition of the right of each of the participants in the conversation to have personal freedom and self-determination. Communication should be two-way and based on mutual respect, otherwise the consultation will lose its meaning. A psychologist should not only expect openness from the client, but also be ready to psychologically open up himself, not allowing pressure on himself, but also not putting pressure on himself. Only if the psychologist and the client make an equal contribution to solving the problem will the conversation be effective.
