Home Potato Questions as the main technique of counseling. Techniques and techniques of psychological counseling. Self-control questions and tasks

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Questions as the main technique of counseling. Techniques and techniques of psychological counseling. Self-control questions and tasks

Counseling techniques are special techniques that a psychologist uses to perform certain procedures at each stage of counseling.

The main counseling techniques are as follows

1. Statement of questions. Questions can be considered a basic counseling technique. In the process of counseling, the psychologist does not so much speak himself as asks questions and thus leads the client to an understanding of his problem and a solution. Questions in counseling can be:
- open - questions that cannot be answered "yes" or "no", for example: "What do you think about the relationship in your family?";
- closed - questions that can be answered "yes" or "no", for example: "Are you married?";
- alternative - questions containing alternative answers, for example: "Did you feel resentment, anger or irritation?"

Open-ended questions are used in the following cases:

1) the beginning of the consultation. At the beginning of the consultation, open-ended questions are more appropriate, as they provide an opportunity to obtain more information;
2) encouraging the client to continue or complement what was said ("How did you feel?");
3) encouraging the client to illustrate their problems with examples ("Tell us about a specific situation");
4) focusing the client's attention on feelings ("How are you feeling?").

However, it should be borne in mind that open-ended questions can increase the client's sense of threat and anxiety, so they should be asked at the right time and carefully formulated.

Closed-ended questions are used to obtain specific information ("How old are you?"), Clarification. Closed-ended questions are sometimes needed to provide more accurate material for formulating advisory hypotheses, and are more often used in the hypothesis testing phase. However, the frequent use of closed-ended questions can create a "questioning" feeling in the client, provoke closeness and impair the counseling contact. Therefore, over-polling should be avoided. When asking this or that question, it is necessary to clearly understand for what purpose it is being asked, to test what hypothesis it is aimed at.

Alternative questions are used when the client cannot answer the question, since he has no experience of talking on this topic. Most often these are questions to clarify feelings. The question provides an example of how to talk about feelings, but the client does not have to choose from the alternatives offered by the consultant, he can offer his own version.

The following problems may arise due to excessive preoccupation with questions.

1. The conversation turns into an exchange of questions and answers (it becomes like an interrogation).
2. The consultant, asking many questions, takes responsibility for the course of the consultation and removes responsibility from the client, thereby violating the principle of the client's responsibility.
3. Lots of questions often translate the conversation from emotion to fact, and this reduces the depth of the consultation.
4. The question-and-answer form destroys the liveliness of the conversation, makes it too formal.

To avoid these problems, you must follow the rules for asking questions.

1. Open-ended questions should prevail in consultative dialogue, closed-ended questions should be used with caution.
2. Questions that begin with the words "who, what", are focused on obtaining facts, are used at the beginning of the questioning of the client.
3. Questions starting with the word "how" are focused on the client's inner world and are used to clarify and test advisory hypotheses.
4. A question starting with the word "why" can provoke the actualization of defense mechanisms, therefore it is better to avoid such questions in counseling (especially since they are useless - the client does not know why he does this and not otherwise, and can only express his own rationalizations ).
5. It is necessary to avoid asking double questions and two questions at the same time, for example: "Why are you drinking and are late for work?" Here, one question contains two questions at the same time.
6. Do not ask the same question in different wording.
7. You can not ask a question ahead of the client's answer (for example: “Is everything going well at your work?” This question contains the answer - “you’re doing well.” It is better to ask: “How are things at your work?”).
2. Limiting the speech of the consultant in the dialogue. Approaching the client's speech. The brevity and accuracy of the statement of the consultant. The mistake of a novice consultant is the desire to talk a lot without pauses. During the reception, the client should speak mainly. The consultant should minimize his comments by asking only the necessary questions. At the same time, the speech of the consultant should not be perceived by the client as alien and incomprehensible, it should be built in the style of the client's speech. For this, it is important for the consultant to use in his speech those words and expressions that are characteristic of the client's speech. It is important, however, to be brief and precise.

The rules for the statement of the consultant in the consultative dialogue.

1. You should not indulge in unnecessary explanations why this or that question is being asked.
2. It is necessary to use short questions, which omit all words clear from the context.
3. The ideal structure of the question in the consultation process (especially at the stage of questioning, when the client talks about his problem): 1) an indication of some event that the client mentioned; 2) the interrogative word "what", "how", etc. For example: "You met ... so what?"

Sometimes only interrogative words can be said, as the rest is clear to the client from the context of the conversation. In this case, the client may not notice that he was asked this question. Thus, the consultant seems to be embedded in the client's internal dialogue, gently directing his story in the right direction.

3. Encouragement and support of the client - the basis of the advisory contact. If the consultant somehow expresses an assessment, disapproval of the client's actions, the contact may break. However, providing support does not mean positively evaluating the client's actions, which may be truly immoral. This means that the consultant does not evaluate the client, but supports him in any case, such as he is. To create and strengthen contact, short phrases that mean agreement and understanding are used (for example: "Continue", "Yes", "I understand", "Good", "So", "Aha", "M-mm").

Support helps the client to believe in himself and take risks, make difficult decisions, for example: "Very good", "Don't worry", "You are right", "It may not be easy." However, it is important not to abuse this technique, as it can limit the client's ability to solve problems and form the client's dependence on the consultant.

4. Reflection of content: paraphrasing and generalization. In the process of counseling, it is important that the counselor understands exactly what the client is talking about. Without an accurate understanding, it is impossible to correctly formulate hypotheses and choose further methods of influence. However, the client's story is not very coherent and confusing, so it is difficult for the consultant to understand the situation. In addition, there is always a difference in the semantic fields of words used in a conversation, which can also lead to misunderstandings on the part of the consultant. To clarify the meaning of what the client said, techniques of content reflection are used. Most often, such techniques are used in the second phase of the questioning to test advisory hypotheses.

Paraphrasing (paraphrase) is a key technique for reflecting content. The meaning of this technique is that the consultant in his own words conveys the meaning of what the client said. Purposes of paraphrasing (paraphrasing):

show the client that the consultant is attentive and trying to understand him;
crystallize the client's thought, make it clearer;
check the correct understanding of the client's thoughts.

Paraphrase execution rules.

1. The main idea of the client is paraphrased, while its main meaning (or idea) is conveyed.
2. You cannot distort or replace the meaning of the client's statement, add something from yourself.
3. It is important to avoid verbatim repetition of the client's statement; you need to express his thought in your own words.

Another technique for reflecting content is generalization. Unlike a paraphrase, which is used to represent a single thought, a generalization is an expression of the main idea of several interconnected thoughts of a client or a confusing statement.

Generalization is used in the following cases.

1. To structure the beginning of the conversation, to integrate it with previous conversations.
2. When the client speaks in a very long and confusing manner.
3. When one topic has been exhausted and the transition to the next stage is planned.
4. When trying to give direction to the conversation.
5. At the end of the meeting, trying to highlight the essential points and give an assignment.
5. Positive paraphrasing is a way of presenting negative things in a positive light. This technique allows the client to see their problem differently.

By paraphrasing positively, the counselor, using the client's complaint or remarks, modifies them in such a way that what was negative becomes the cause of positive emotions. For example, a client says: "My son has completely stopped listening to me." The counselor paraphrases: "Yes, apparently your son has matured and become more independent." Thus, the client sees that in the phenomenon that he considered absolutely negative (the behavior of the son), there is a positive moment - the manifestation of independence and growing up of the son.

6. Reflection of feelings in the counseling process is no less important than reflection of content.

In what the client says, two plans can always be distinguished.

The first plan - excuses, explanations, logically structured details of the story (content).

The second plan is the emotions, feelings of the client and the people around him. It is the disclosure of this plan that helps to understand what is happening with the client, the essence of his problem.

We can say that the reflection of the client's feelings is a paraphrasing with an orientation not to content, but to feelings.

Clients are more likely to talk about facts in the counseling process, so questions about feelings need to be given much more attention to achieve a balance between reflecting facts and feelings.

Usually the question is used to reflect feelings: "What did you feel when ..?" Sometimes you can describe the feeling the client had: "Did you feel anxious?" But this can be done only when the client himself pronounced this word, and the consultant wants to accentuate it, or when the consultant is absolutely sure that this was the feeling the client experienced in this situation. If the feeling is named incorrectly, it will cause resistance from the client, a feeling that the counselor does not understand him, and, accordingly, will lead to a deterioration in the counseling contact.

Just as a generalization technique is used to reflect a piece of content, a generalization technique can be used to reflect and demonstrate to the client his typical emotional reactions - to demonstrate to the client the true unity of opposites in the emotional sphere.

The principles of using the technique of reflecting feelings.

1. Identify the feeling as accurately as possible.
2. The expediency of using the reflection of feelings in the context of a conversation - not all feelings should be reflected, but only those that lead to the verification of an advisory hypothesis or lead to the moment of insight.
3. Be sure to pay attention to feelings, if they cause problems in counseling, can support the client, help him.
4. The consultant can also express his own feelings, but only related to the topic of the conversation.
5. Help the client to control overly intense feelings.
7. Emphasizing emotional experiences. Another way to work with feelings in the counseling process is to emphasize emotional experiences through emphasizing so-called emotionally charged words. This uses the "echo" technique. This technique involves the counselor repeating exactly the word the client said. but

you should not repeat any word, but the most emotionally charged one. Then the conversation will develop in depth, to understand the main motives of the client. After all, it is known that emotions are markers of motives.

"Carriers" of emotions in the client's story are adverbs and adjectives, and if they are absent - verbs. It is adverbs and adjectives that denote the client's attitude to something, the quality of the action. By emphasizing, clarifying this word, the consultant can reach the level of feelings. Consistent accentuation of feelings makes it possible to develop a dialogue in depth.

For example, a client says, "I walked slowly towards the house." The consultant asks: "Slow?" Thus, the key emotional word is emphasized, since it is this word that concentrates the client's emotions. Such an echo question directs the client's story towards explaining his feelings and his attitude to what is happening.

8. Pauses of silence. Many budding consultants are afraid of pauses. It seems to them that the pauses in the conversation can be interpreted as a sign of the low qualification of the consultant. Sometimes this is true - when a pause occurs because the consultant does not know what to say next. In this case, you need to contact your supervisor and work on the counseling technique. But sometimes pauses can have a powerful therapeutic effect, and then they can be considered as special techniques of counseling.

The pause time is perceived in a special way in the counseling process. The pause is usually perceived as much longer than it actually is. It is not so easy to endure even a minute pause. A normal pause can last 30-40 seconds.

Silence during a consultation can mean different things:

meaningless silence - when the interlocutors are uncomfortable, most likely due to the fact that the consultant does not know what to do next;
meaningful silence - when silence is filled with meaning; such pauses are experienced as significant moments of counseling and can be sustained much longer than normal pauses. For example, such a pause can mean comprehension, generalization without words of everything said after an important semantic fragment of the conversation.

The therapeutic value of silence lies in the fact that silence at significant moments increases the emotional understanding between the counselor and the client, provides an opportunity for the client to immerse himself in himself and study his feelings, attitudes, and also allows the client to understand that the responsibility for the outcome of the consultation lies with him.

The client's silence in the counseling process can have different meanings.

1. Pauses at the beginning of the conversation can be caused by anxiety, confusion, poor health of the client. In this case, it is necessary to encourage the client, to remove the alarm.
2. The real activity of the client - he is silent, as he selects words, ponders what he will say next. In this case, you need to give him time to think.
3. The pause can be caused by the fact that both the client and the counselor hope that the conversation will continue on the part of each other. In some cases, the counselor may use this as a technique to demonstrate to the client that he is responsible for the conversation. However, this technique cannot be abused either.
4. Both the consultant and the client were at an impasse, there was a loss of contact. In this case, the pause causes unpleasant feelings, awkwardness. Then the consultant needs to try to rectify the situation, to restore contact with the client.
5. A pause can mean the client's resistance, an attempt to manipulate the consultant ("Come on, and I'll see"). In this case, it is necessary to interrupt the manipulation by entering open communication, to work with the client's resistance.
6. Many pauses arise when the conversation takes place on a superficial level, ie. the client and the consultant avoid discussing important issues. In this case, the consultant may use confrontation techniques or in other ways try to deepen the dialogue.
7. The meaning of a pause can be a deep generalization without words - in this case it must be sustained as long as necessary.

The general principle of working with pauses is to interrupt empty silence and not rush to interrupt productive.

9. Voice tone and volume. It is important to choose the right tone of voice when speaking with a client. The general principle is that the tone, volume, speech rate of the consultant should approach the corresponding characteristics of the client's speech, i.e. it is necessary to "adjust" to the client in terms of para- and extralinguistics.

The consultant should be friendly and at the same time consistent with what is being said.

A muffled voice helps create a sense of trust, intimacy. Varying the volume of the voice in response to changes in the client's condition helps to maintain and strengthen the consultative contact, to create a sense of mutual understanding.

10. Provision of information. The psychologist does not give direct advice during the consultation process, as this violates the principle of client responsibility. However, in some cases, the client needs additional information to make a decision or eliminate the problem, and such information can be provided to him by a psychologist. The provision of information can be viewed as a separate counseling technique.

Types of information that can be provided in the consultation process: information about the consultation process, the behavior of the consultant, the conditions of the consultation - the place and time of its holding, payment.

Sometimes clients ask questions in order to avoid discussing their problems. This is a kind of escape from the situation of counseling, for example: "What do you think about the modern family?" In this case, it is necessary to transfer the conversation to their own problems: "Why are you interested in this? What do you think about it yourself? And what is happening in your family?" But if these questions are an expression of the client's real anxiety, it is better to answer them briefly and then go to the client's personal problems anyway.

11. Interpretation is the transformation of meaning. The use of interpretation helps to establish causal links between the client's behavior and experience, while the client sees himself and his difficulties in a new way.

Let's list the types of interpretation.

1. Establishing a connection between separate statements, problems, events.
2. Emphasizing the characteristics, contradictions of behavior or feelings of the client.
3. Interpretation of methods of psychological defense, reactions of resistance and transference. (“From our conversation, running away is your way of dealing with your fear of failure.”)
4. Linking current events, thoughts and experiences with the past.
5. Providing the client with a different way of understanding his feelings, behavior or problems.

Interpretation is the main influencing technique, therefore it is used towards the end of the consultation, at the stage of impact, but it is never used at the beginning of the consultation.

Rules for the use of interpretation.

1. Interpretation should not be too deep, it is associated only with what the client already knows.
2. The timeliness of the interpretation, the willingness of the client to accept it, is important.
3. The effectiveness of the use of interpretation depends on the personality of the client. Clients with high self-esteem and education are more sensitive to interpretation.
4. Do not use many interpretations in one consultation - this can cause the actualization of the client's psychological defenses.
5. Interpretation should be formulated as assumptions, hypotheses, but not categorically. This formulation promotes acceptance of the interpretation by the client.

The client's response to it may indicate the effectiveness of the application of an interpretation. If the client indifferently reacts to the interpretation, not noticing it, tells further something of his own - this means that the interpretation, most likely, was erroneous, did not affect the client's key motives; in this case, it is necessary to revise the advisory hypothesis. If the client reacts to the interpretation with hostility, rejects it, perhaps the interpretation got to the root of the problem, but was not expressed in a timely manner, the client is not ready to accept it. Accurate and timely interpretation evokes an "aha-reaction" in the client, insight, a new look at the problem, while he can experience different feelings - from deep thoughtfulness to delight, and sometimes he can burst into tears.

12. Confrontation is a demonstration to the client of his methods of psychological protection. The use of the confrontation technique is possible only with mutual trust, otherwise the confrontation may be perceived by the client as aggression on the part of the consultant.

Let us list the cases of using the confrontation technique.

1. Confrontation in order to draw the client's attention to contradictions in his behavior, thoughts, feelings. This technique is performed in two stages:
- a) a certain aspect of the client's behavior is ascertained;
- b) "but (however) ..." - contradictory behavior is described. Contrary to interpretation, when using confrontation, the causes and sources of the contradiction are directly indicated.
2. Confrontation with the aim of helping to see the situation as it is in reality, contrary to the client's idea of drink in the context of his needs.
3. Confrontation in order to draw the client's attention to his avoidance of discussing certain issues ("You do not say anything about your sex life").
4. Interruption of the client's narration - also a kind of confrontation, is used when the client leaves the topic.

Limitations on the use of confrontation:

1) do not use it as a punishment for the client;
2) not to use confrontation to destroy the mechanisms of psychological defense;
3) do not use confrontation to meet the needs and self-expression of the consultant. The misuse of confrontation usually means that the counselor is solving his own personal problems.

Rules for using confrontation:

1) carefully characterize the content of the client's inappropriate behavior and its context, but not express everything at the same time;
2) detail the consequences of conflicting behavior;
3) help the client find ways to overcome problems;
4) confrontation should not be categorical and aggressive (use softening words "it seems to me", "if I am not mistaken").
13. Self-disclosure of a consultant in the counseling process is a rather controversial technique. In some theoretical orientations, self-disclosure is not allowed at all (for example, in classical psychoanalysis). In some, it is one of the basic techniques. Self-disclosure means that the counselor demonstrates his emotional attitude towards the client, the problem being discussed, etc. - i.e. open presentation of self to customer.

Let's list the restrictions on the use of the self-disclosure technique.

1. When the client knows too much about the counselor, he fantasizes less about him, so self-disclosure is not used in psychoanalytically oriented counseling.
2. The honesty of the counselor involves sharing his concerns with the client, which is anti-therapeutic.
3. At the beginning of the counseling session, self-disclosure is unacceptable, as its use may increase the client's anxiety.

Self-disclosure types:

1) the expression of their direct reactions in relation to the client or the situation "here and now";
2) a story about his life experience, similar to the client's situation.

Positive self-disclosure - when the consultant expresses support, client approval; negative - in fact, confrontation with the client.

Self-disclosure rules:

1) self-disclosure must be sincere, otherwise contact with the client will be lost;
2) self-disclosure should not be abused, it should only take place under the control of a professional personal position, otherwise the consultation cannot be called professional advice;
3) self-disclosure must be timely and consistent with the goals of the consultant; self-disclosure must not be unnecessarily delayed;
4) self-disclosure cannot be used at the beginning of the consultation, it is used in the later stages of the consultation if there is a good consultative contact.
14. Structuring consulting is the organization of the relationship between the consultant and the client, highlighting the individual stages of consulting, assessing their results, providing the client with information about the consulting process, summarizing.

Structuring takes place during the entire consultation, step by step. Each new ethane consultation begins with an assessment of what has already been achieved. At the same time, the client's participation in planning the counseling process is important.

Structuring is also important because it ensures that the client is aware of what happened in the consultation and, accordingly, increases its effectiveness.

See: Aleshina Yu. E. Individual and family psychological counseling

Psychologists-consultants and psychotherapists use psychotechnical means of verbal influence, i.e. the so-called "basic techniques", namely:

1 question- a way of collecting information, clarifying or researching a client's experience. With the help of a properly built chain of questions, the therapist can understand how the client sees the problem situation, help the client express his feelings and lead him to understand the sources of his problem.

Client: "I apologized to my mother, but she is still mad at me",

Therapist: "What did you tell her?"

But many questions can turn the conversation into an exchange of questions and answers, and the client begins to wait for them and thus shifts the responsibility for the consultation process and the topics of the discussed problems onto the consultant.

Open question - an appeal to the client, suggesting a detailed answer in order to:

Research incentives ( "Could you tell us more about this?" "What would you like to talk about today?");

Research on expectations of aid ( "What do you think will happen during this meeting?", "How do you feel about coming to the sessions?");

Studies of various aspects of the problem ( How does this affect your relationships with others? How do you think this behavior affects your feelings of depression?);

Searching for an example ( “When, how exactly did it happen the last time?”, “Could you, if possible, tell us step by step about what happened?”).

Closed question - an appeal to a client, suggesting a short answer, in order to find out or clarify specific facts, involves an answer in one, two words ( "Would you mind if I take notes as we speak?" or "How old were you when it happened?")

A short question - statements are short phrases or single words with interrogative intonation: “You met her ... and what?”, “He doesn't know it, but why?”.

“What do you mean?”, “Could you explain this in more detail?”; “What did you mean by this?”; “What were you thinking while doing this?”; “What are you feeling right now?”, “What do these feelings tell you?”; "Aha", "Uh-huh", "I understand you", "Of course", "Yes, go on", "Tell me more", "Well, well!".

3.Signal of misunderstanding- a message, possibly non-verbal, about a misunderstanding of what was said. For example, interrupting head nodding or the therapist's slightly furrowed brows, or such questions: “I didn’t understand this,” “I don’t quite understand it,” or “Could you please explain what you mean,” “Could you use different words for this?”

4 unfinished utterance- this is an unfinished phrase, prompting the client to complete the sentence he started: "And then you thought ..."

5 repetition- this is an almost literal reproduction of the client's utterance or selective accentuation of individual words with the intention of referring to their affective-semantic meaning. Repetition invites you to feel what was expressed by the client, to realize additional meanings and to express the unspoken. "Today I feel very bad. The irreparable happened." Therapist: "Irreparable ...?"

6. Invitation of associations- the epiphany to the free expression of thoughts, memories and fantasies, to the realization of his inner experience "without criticism to tell everything that comes into his head" can be an appropriate intervention in the manifestation of resistance, since it allows you to better understand what is caused ("Any thoughts on this?", "Does this remind you of something from the past when you reacted in a similar way?")

7. Inform e is the provision of information in the form of a statement of fact or explanation, either on its own initiative or in response to a client's question. Quite often, in search of answers to his questions, the client turns to the therapist for this or that information. The request for information stems from the notion that many life problems arise from lack of knowledge or incorrect information.

8 reflection of cognitive content- This is the return of the client's message in a clearer form and / or facilitation of the exploration of ideas and internal perceptions of the client.

9. Paraphrasing- return in a more concise and clear form, in part or completely in other words, the main content or the main message of the client's statement. Purposes of paraphrasing: to show the client that the consultant is very attentive; crystallize the client's thought, repeating his words in a condensed form; check the correct understanding of the client. It starts with words; "It seemed to me that ...", "I had a suggestion ...", "I heard it this way ...", "You want to say that ...", "In other words ...", "As I understand it ...", "It looks like ..."

10 clarification is an attempt to explore and achieve a shared understanding of the client's inner perceptions. In psychoanalysis, clarification is the first, cognitive step in which everything the patient says is not questioned, but discussed. Through clarification, we receive conscious and preconscious information without challenging the patient. Asking for a specific example is also a way to clarify.

11.Summation- a generalizing statement that in a concise form brings together the main ideas, identifies topics or summarizes the result achieved during the conversation. Summation helps the client focus on the core issues: "So you told me about your relationship with your son today."

12. Reflection of feelings - verbal designation of verbally or non-verbally expressed by the client emotions in order to facilitate their expression and comprehend their meaning, helps the client to get into more complete contact with their own experiences. Client: He had no right to do this to me! Does he know my life ?! How could he do this to me! Therapist: So you feel anger and resentment ... By reflecting feelings, the therapist shows the client that his feelings are normal, natural, which brings relief.

Caution should be exercised in encouraging clients to express feelings, particularly in the following situations: the client has severe emotional distress, delusions, or pronounced anger, and the therapist has no experience with such clients; the client is going through a serious emotional crisis and the discussion of feelings will increase the pressure that he can withstand now; the client has experienced emotional crises in the past; there is not enough time to work with the senses. "

A list of ways in which the therapist can block the adequate handling of the client's affects: get alarmed and change the subject; fall into silence and become emotionally distant; interpret the meaning of feelings and deliberately distance oneself; resort to self-disclosure and move on to your own feelings; reassure and reassure the client that everything will be fine; over-identify with the client and insist that the client make a decision or do something to cope with feelings.

13. Recognition of non-verbal expressions- a method of focusing on non-verbally expressed emotions with the aim of their awareness and expression, involves a response to non-verbal signals of the experienced affect. "You look like you're about to cry."

14. Formulation of alternatives- proposing possible emotional reactions of the client to a particular life situation. The purpose of formulating alternatives is to provide patterns from which it is easier for the client to describe his feelings. "And how did you feel when he did it? Did it hurt you, did you take it for granted or? .."

15. Self-disclosure - explicit or implicit disclosure by the therapist of personal information about himself and (or) sharing his own feelings, thoughts or desires with the client, often begins with "I-statements", a way to demonstrate to the client that he is a person in front of him, and not just a person in a professional role and helps to somewhat “unload” the “expert-client” relationship from distorted perception and projections, and thereby establish emotional contact.

16. Versatility- a message to the client that his experiences are universal, with the intention to normalize them and thereby calm them down. Many patients begin therapy with anxiety in their hearts, believing that in their unhappiness they are one of a kind, that only they have frightening and unacceptable problems, thoughts, impulses and fantasies. Customer: “I always compare myself to someone else - and usually not in my favor. I don't know if I will ever be able to feel really confident. Therapist: You are too hard on yourself. All people doubt themselves. I don't know a single person who is completely confident in himself. "

17. Opening of feelings here-and-now - it is the separation with the client of feelings and perceptions of his actions, which the therapist experiences in communication with him. As a rule, the therapist resorts to revealing his feelings and observations here-and-now to show the client his maladaptive patterns (for example, that he is behaving hostile or distant, skillfully crushes another with arguments, but does not hear him, or is overly pleasant with all), leading to other people reacting negatively or to address directly a problem in the therapeutic relationship that interferes with the therapeutic process. "I feel uncomfortable that you are constantly unhappy and never allow yourself to feel differently."

18. Direct guidance - it is a way to directly influence the client, to change the way he or she responds through advice, persuasion, directive, or homework.

Advice is giving your own advice or opinion about how the client should proceed. "If I were you, I would ...". Often, seeking advice is a way of avoiding contact with your own painful feelings, trying to lure the therapist over to your side or shift responsibility. Because of this, the councils have a bad reputation among clinicians.

"If you are looking to find a job, you should probably start by writing and posting your resume .; I don't think it's a good idea to express your anger to your boss, and then let it be; Maybe maybe you should talk to him about this?; Why don't you write down your questions before you see the doctor? "

But, there are situations where advice is appropriate, for example, with clients in crisis, as well as with the mentally ill who have difficulty in making a realistic assessment of the situation. Client: “I’m pregnant and I don’t know what to do. I discovered it the day before yesterday. Nobody knows about it yet. What should I do?"". Therapist: “So you haven't told anyone about your pregnancy. And, if I understood you correctly, you feel the need to take some specific actions, but you do not know which ones. "

It is wrong to give advice without figuring out how they tried to cope with their difficulties ... Any therapist occasionally gives more or less disguised advice, for example, in the form of a request-question ("Why don't you ..."); informing ("In such a situation it is useful ...", "There is such an opinion ..."); assumptions ("Perhaps in this situation it will be better ... Perhaps now it is not worth it ..."); research ("What will happen if you ...", "What bothers you ...") or checks ("Didn't you think ...", "Did it occur to you ...")

Persuasion is a way of influencing a client's perceptions through personal influence using facts, logic and other techniques. The technique of persuasion closely intersects with suggestion, “suggestion is the induction by a therapist (an individual in an authoritative position) of ideas, emotions, actions, etc., that is, various mental processes in a patient (an individual in a dependent position), without taking into account the rational assessments of the latter ... Unlike suggestion, persuasion can take into account the position and objections of the client, but the therapist tries to convince the latter of the legitimacy of a different idea.

"Client: I am a weak person. I cannot change. Therapist: You have forty years of normal life behind you - and, I might add, a difficult life - and only two years of depression. And even in these two years you sometimes managed to cope with unpleasant things and problems. "

A directive is an invitation to the client to do something during the session. The simplest example of a directive is a sentence to repeat a specific phrase.

"Client: I won't let him do that anymore - talk to me like that. Therapist: I won't allow that anymore. Say it again. Client: In the future, I won't allow that. I won't tolerate humiliation!"

Also, the therapist can offer the client to relax or, conversely, to strengthen a certain bodily sensation. "Therapist: When you think back to your last meeting with your father, how do you feel sadness? Client: There is a lot of pressure behind my eyes. Therapist: What if you relax your eyes a little, release the pressure and allow yourself to feel what your body is going through?"

Homework - asking the client to take some action between sessions for the purpose of collecting relevant information, gaining new experience or directly changing maladaptive behavior. For homework, the therapist may ask the client to think about something, write down a dream, keep a mood diary, read a self-help book, talk to family members about family history, or practice assertive behavior between sessions.

Linear questions. These questions orient the mental health professional to the client's situation, and they are based on a linear assumption about the content of a mental phenomenon. They are primarily based on a research goal. The work of a psychotherapist is comparable to that of an investigator or detective. These are questions like: "Who did it?", "Where?", "When?" and why?". Most interviews usually begin with a few linear questions. It is often necessary to join family members through a “linear view” of the problem situation. In this way, the therapist tries to find out the specific cause of the problem. For example, a professional might start a meeting with a series of linearly oriented questions similar to the following. Question to the mother: "What problems did you come to me with today?" - "Mainly because of my son's drug addiction" - "What makes you so upset?" - "I do not know". - A question to my son: "Do you have difficulties with school?" - "No". - "Did you leave home or did you steal?" - "No". - "Do you have any other diseases?" - "No". - "Have you been ill with something recently?" - "No". - "Do you have thoughts of death?" - "No". -

Question to mother: "Do you feel guilty about something?" - "No". - To my son: “Is something bothering you? What could it be?" - "I really do not know". - To the mother: "How do you think why your son uses drugs?" - "I do not even know. He has no desires, he dropped out of school, playing sports. " - "And how long has he been in this state?" - "Three months. For three months now it has been rolling on an inclined plane. " - “After what did it all start? Something happened?" - "I can't remember anything special." - "Someone tried to help him?" - "No". - "Why?" - "Well, personally, I'm already fed up." - "Are you very tense yourself?" - "A little". - "And how long has everything that happens to your son worries you?" ...

Linear questions about problems lead to a clinical hypothesis that the client has some kind of disorder.

Circular questions. These questions are asked so that the specialist can also understand the client's situation, but they are already based on the circular nature of mental phenomena. The motive underlying them is research-revealing. The psychotherapist acts like a scientist seeking a new discovery. The leading attitude in the formulation of hypotheses is interactional and systemic. The assumption is made that one phenomenon is somehow connected with another. Questions are formulated to clarify stable pictures of relationships in the cybernetic chain that connect a person, an object, actions, perceptions, ideas, feelings, events, attitudes, and context. A systems psychotherapist can start the interview like this: "What problem brought you to us?" “I'm worried about my husband’s illness.” - "Who else is worried?" - "Mother-in-law". - "Who is the most?" - "I AM". - "Who is the least?" - "My husband". - To the husband: "What does your wife do when she is worried about your problem?" "She's bumping in, mostly about my friends." - "What do you do or feel about this?" - "I try to restrain myself, but inside I am angry."

Strategic issues. This type of question is characterized by corrective function... The specialist behaves like a teacher, instructor, judge, telling family members how they make mistakes and how they should behave (indirectly, in the form of questions). Based on the hypothesis of family dynamics, the therapist concludes that there is family dysfunction and, by asking strategic questions, tries to force the family to change. The therapist's directivity may be hidden, but everything goes through context, time and intonation. Examples of strategic questions being asked to a wife who was worried about her husband's illness: "When are you going to take up your life and start looking for work?", "What do you think helps most people find other solutions besides getting sick?" keeps you from drinking alcohol if alcoholics live in your apartment building? "

Reflexive questions. Reflexive questions are questions that contribute to the personal growth of an individual or family by stimulating responses that will allow family members to create new constructive attitudes and behaviors. Let us dwell in more detail on some issues from this group, since they are poorly covered in Russian literature. Problem families are sometimes so preoccupied with present difficulties or past injustices that they live as if they “have no future”. Sometimes families living in the present or the past may not be able to answer reflexive questions right away, but they often continue to work on them at home.

Future expectations influence actions and behavior in the present. Through this connection, this group of questions implements its reflexive effects.

1) Future-oriented questions.

2) Clarifying family goals, personal goals, or goals for others. Examples of questions: "What do you plan to do for your career?", "How long do you consider it necessary to study?"

3) Highlighting the potential consequences that can arise when certain persistent patterns of behavior continue: “If your husband does not stop drinking alcohol, as he does now, what could happen to your relationship?”, “How about five years later? ”,“ What kind of relationship between father and son might result from this? ”.

4) Research on catastrophic expectations. Questions like “What is the worst that can happen?” Are asked, “And if it happens, what will be terrible?”. If patients experience (and life itself) perceived as a series of catastrophes and problems, the therapist should lead them to a perception of reality. This is a way of exposing hidden problems. A question for parents suffering from overprotection: "What are you afraid when your daughter comes back so late?", "What's the worst thing that comes to mind?" For your daughter: "What do you think scares your parents the most?" It is important that this technique is used with delicacy and care so that family members do not feel ridiculed by the therapist. At the same time, patients are encouraged to seek alternatives.

5) Research of hypothetical possibilities. A question for my daughter; “Do you think your parents might be worried about your possible drug and alcohol use?”, “Are they afraid that you might get pregnant?” ? ". Questions for Parents: “If you share your concerns with your daughter, do you think she will perceive it as a loss of confidence? How is the interference with her privacy? " 6) The presentation of hypothetical possibilities allows the therapist to use his own ideas in the process of co-creation of the future for the “identified patient” with the family. A question to the husband when discussing the conditions of his wife's illness: "How, in your opinion, will she be able to sit in the accounting department with her mobility and sociability?"

7) Examining stories and posing dilemmas. Question to the mother: "Imagine that your daughter meets a young man she really likes?" To daughter: "What do you think your parents can do?"

Similar information.

What is a counseling technique?
How is the psychological counseling technique related to its stages and procedures?
How should you meet a client in a psychological consultation? What is the technique for meeting a client?
How should a counselor begin a conversation with a client?
With what words is it recommended that the psychologist-consultant address the client at the beginning of the conversation, with him?
What specific techniques can a counselor psychologist use to relieve psychological stress from a client?
What is the best way for the counselor to prepare for the interview with the client?
What is the reception of verbal client support from a counselor psychologist?
How should a psychologist-consultant act when the client does not agree with him on everything?
How should a counselor psychologist behave if his client expresses dissatisfaction with the counseling session?
What is the "mirroring" technique? Where and when is it practically applied in the process of conducting psychological counseling?
What does the reception "paraphrase (paraphrase)" mean? When and under what circumstances do they turn to him in the practice of psychological counseling?
What is the counseling and psychological definition of the "generalization" technique? In what cases is it recommended to contact a counselor psychologist?
How is the reception of emotional support for the client expressed by the counselor psychologist?
Why is it recommended that the psychologist-consultant practically master and learn to use in his speech addressed to the client, the individual characteristics of the client's own speech?
What techniques are used by a counselor psychologist during a client's confession?
What are the basic rules that the counselor psychologist should follow when offering the client practical advice on how to solve his problem?
Why is it desirable to offer the client not one, but several different ways to solve his problem?
What is the practical significance of the psychologist-consultant's knowledge of the client's personality when developing recommendations for a practical solution to his problem?
How should a psychodiagnostic examination of a client be carried out during counseling?
What external, behavioral signs can be used to confidently judge the client's neuroticism?
What specific non-verbal signs can be used to draw conclusions about the psychological state of the client during the consultation?
What gestures, facial expressions, pantomime can definitely speak about the client's positive attitude and his positive attitude towards what is happening at a given moment in the consultation? What specifically from the above can, on the contrary, indicate a negative general mood of the client?
What should a psychologist-consultant do who already has ready-made practical recommendations for solving a client's problem? What steps should a counselor take before offering these recommendations to a client?
Why should the client himself, and not a psychologist-consultant, make the final choice of practical recommendations for solving the problem?
Why is it desirable that the counselor psychologist provide the client with the means of effective control over the correct implementation of the recommendations received?
What is the purpose of the personal meetings of the psychologist-consultant with the client after the consultation is almost completed and the client has received the required recommendations to solve his problem?
What words should the counselor say to the client at the end of the consultation?
What are the typical technical mistakes that a psychologist-consultant empire make in the process of conducting psychological counseling?
What errors of counseling are included in the subgroup of errors called “incorrect conclusions of the counselor-psychologist about the client's problem”?
What mistakes are included in the subgroup with the general title "incorrect recommendations given by a counselor psychologist to a client"? How can you prevent the occurrence of such errors or eliminate them if they occur?
What are errors in psychological counseling included in the subgroup “incorrect actions of the client to implement the recommendations received from the counseling psychologist”?
What are the basic rules that a counselor psychologist should follow in order to practically minimize the possibility of making mistakes during counseling?

Concept and introductory notes on psychological counseling techniques

The technique of psychological counseling refers to special techniques that a counselor psychologist, acting within the framework of certain counseling procedures, uses to perform these procedures at each of the stages of psychological counseling. Since these stages and procedures we have already

discussed in the previous chapter, you can directly proceed to a detailed description of the related psychological counseling techniques.

This technique can be universal, equally successfully applicable at each stage of psychological counseling, and specific, more suitable for one or another, particular stage of psychological counseling.

We will consider the technique of psychological counseling step by step in connection with various counseling procedures, without especially highlighting the counseling techniques that are of a universal nature.

Meeting a client in a psychological consultation

As part of the general procedure for meeting a client (the first stage of psychological counseling), the psychologist-consultant is recommended to use the following technique: choose his location when meeting the client in such a way that at the time of the meeting he will be face to face with the client and escort him to the place.

There are a number of special situations in which you need to behave differently. Let's consider these situations in more detail.

If, upon entering the premises of the psychological consultation, the client does not meet anyone there, then he will probably be confused, and this will definitely affect his further behavior during the consultation. If a client enters the room and sees people who do not pay any attention to him, then the client may not only be confused, but also offended, especially if later it turns out that among them there was a psychologist-consultant or his assistant.

The emergence of unexpected obstacles on the way of the client's progress to his place can also change his psychological mood not for the better.

It is allowed, however, for the client to come to the place of the consultation himself, but in this case there must be a full guarantee that the client will not have any problems in finding his place in the consultation.

If the client has already entered the room where the consultation will take place, and those people who are in the room at that time meet him sitting, especially if this is done by a counselor psychologist or his assistant, then the client will almost certainly perceive this as a manifestation of inattention and personal disrespect for him. It will not be easy to establish normal psychological contact with such a client.

This recommendation applies not only to the psychologist-consultant and his assistant, but also to other people who at this time may be in the premises of the psychological consultation. If, for example, the consultant and his assistant stand up when the client enters the premises, and other people continue to sit, then the client may also have not very pleasant emotions. The fact is that with other standing people, according to the existing rules of etiquette, either older people or those who occupy a higher official position can sit. Both are not very good for conducting psychological counseling, since, according to the current state of affairs, the most authoritative person in psychological counseling for a client should be a counselor-psychologist, and not any other person.

It is advisable for the psychologist-consultant or his assistant, having indicated to the client the place where he will sit during the consultation, let him go ahead and allow the first one to take his place. This is recommended because this action can prevent the client from feeling confused and psychologically determine the situation for him, without putting him in an awkward position, giving him the opportunity to behave relaxed and completely independently. In addition, already at this moment, observing how the client goes to his place, how he sits down and what position he takes at the same time, the counselor psychologist can draw many useful conclusions about him for further successful consultation.

If a counselor psychologist sits down first, then the client may perceive this as a demonstration by the counselor of his superiority in front of him, which is completely undesirable for the normal conduct of psychological counseling. Especially unfavorable is such an action of a psychologist-consultant can affect the conduct of psychological counseling in the event that the client turns out to be himself an authoritative and rather proud person, with a heightened sense of his own dignity. In any case, the counselor psychologist must take his place in the psychological counseling or after the client, or simultaneously with him.

It is not recommended to start any special conversations with the client until the client takes his place and is comfortable enough on it. Firstly, it is impolite to conduct a conversation with a person on the go, especially when he goes to his place and sits down. Secondly, a person walking, looking for his place and taking it, at the moment of committing such actions, focuses his attention mainly on what he is doing, and therefore will not listen very carefully to what the counselor psychologist tells him. Thirdly, any person who has just come to psychological counseling will not be quite ready at first for a serious and meaningful conversation with a counselor psychologist about his problem. The client will either be worried, or for some time be at the mercy of experiences and thoughts related to his previous affairs. In any case, the client needs time to calm down and psychologically tune in to a serious conversation with a consultant.

At the moment the client appears in the psychological counseling room, it should be quiet, and it is desirable that no one, except the counseling psychologist and, possibly, his assistant, be in the room.

If the client enters the uncleaned room of the psychological counseling center, it will almost certainly immediately cause a negative emotional reaction in him. It is useless and pointless to provide counseling in an environment of chaos and disorder. No matter how experienced a consultant psychologist is, he is unlikely to achieve a high result in psychological counseling conducted in such unfavorable conditions, since during the consultation his mood under the influence of an uncomfortable environment will constantly be bad.

If there are many strangers in the room where the psychological consultation is held, it is not clear why there are things located here, then this can cause bewilderment and a state of heightened anxiety in the client, especially if he discovers that some of these things can pose a potential threat to him ( for example, tape recorder, camcorder, microphone, etc.). In this case, it will hardly be possible to count on the manifestation of openness and frankness on the part of the client, especially at the stage of confession.

A few words about the appropriate dress for a counselor psychologist. It is desirable that he be dressed discreetly, but tastefully, not festively, but not too casually. It is not recommended for a counseling psychologist to use special clothing, for example, a doctor's gown, as this can cause anxiety in the client and unnecessary associations with a medical institution for psychological consultation.

If the client is physically and psychologically a completely healthy person, then he may simply be offended by the fact that he is met and treated like a sick person. If he is actually a sick person, but mistakenly turned not to a doctor, but to psychological counseling (for example, due to the fact that medical institutions could not provide him with the help he hoped for), then meeting a person in a dressing gown will again cause he has those unpleasant memories that are associated with his unsuccessful past experiences. As a result, he may have distrust of a specialist psychologist and disbelief that he can really help him - the client.

Too bright clothes of a consultant psychologist speaks of his extravagance and often - about the presence of psychological problems in him. It can also be perceived unfavorably by the client and create distrust in the counselor.

On the other hand, overly festive clothes of a counselor may look in contrast to the client's everyday clothes, and in this case he will also feel uncomfortable. For example, a client may have the feeling that a psychologist-consultant is having some important event, a holiday at this time, and he is not up to the problems that worry the client. This, of course, will not set the client up for a trusting relationship with the consultant and for a thorough discussion with him about the client's concerns. Finally, the overly simple, careless, almost homely dress of the counselor psychologist may lead the client to believe that the counselor simply does not personally respect him.

Starting a conversation with a client

The technique related to initiating a conversation with a client includes techniques that a counselor psychologist can use when personally meeting a client and proceeding to a detailed clarification of his problem.

Having met face to face with the client after he took his place and settled himself comfortably, the counselor psychologist, with an attentive and benevolent expression on his face (perhaps smiling at the client), can address him with such, for example, words:

“I'm glad to see you here. It is good that you have contacted us. I hope that our conversation, our joint work will be pleasant and useful for both you and me. First of all, let's take a closer look ... "

After that, the counselor psychologist usually pauses in the conversation with the client in order to provide the client with an opportunity to collect his thoughts and answer in detail the questions posed to him.

If the pause is prolonged and the client finds it difficult to answer the questions asked to him, is worried or, having started a conversation, suddenly interrupts it, then the counselor psychologist is not recommended to immediately intervene in the situation. In this case, it is better for the consultant to patiently and kindly wait until the client continues the conversation himself.

If the pause is too long and it becomes clear that the client is in a difficult situation, does not know what to say next, then the counselor psychologist is recommended to contact the client himself, using, for example, the following type of remarks: “I am listening to you carefully, continue, please". "For our fruitful work with you, I am personally very interested in everything you said, please continue."

If after that the client remains silent, then the counselor psychologist may ask him: “Explain, please, why you are silent? Is there something preventing you from speaking? Let's discuss this and I'll try to help you. "

In the event that the client himself then continues the conversation, the counselor psychologist, for his part, will have to again take on the role of a patient, attentive and benevolent listener and listen to the client without interrupting him. If the client is still silent, experiencing obvious difficulties in the conversation, worry, make too long, unjustified pauses, do not know what to say next, then the consultant psychologist is recommended, focusing on the content of those questions that he has already posed to the client, or on the content of the answers that he has already received from the client to the previously posed questions, continue to ask the client leading questions - mainly those to which the client could easily and freely answer. With sufficient skill and experience of a psychologist-consultant through a system of leading, additional questions, he will be able to quite quickly "talk" the client, removing his psychological barrier, and get the necessary information from him.

In case of serious difficulties of the client, when answering the questions of the counselor psychologist, it is recommended to use the following techniques that will help relieve the client's excessive psychological tension, make him more open:

Imperceptibly remove all unauthorized persons from the room where the psychological consultation is being held, for example, the secretary, laboratory assistant or assistant psychologist-consultant, being left alone with the client. This can always be done under some plausible pretext.
You can do the other way around: bring into the consultation room someone who is close enough to the client, who can calm him down and facilitate the conversation with the counselor psychologist. This person (or these people, if there are several of them) can be placed next to the client or between him and the counselor psychologist.
It is very important that, when starting a conversation with a client, the counselor psychologist himself can easily and freely communicate with him without experiencing difficulties. Otherwise, his own excitement, tension and insecurity will be passed on to the client.
Since in real life almost all people, including quite experienced counselors-psychologists, encounter difficulties in communicating with people, it is recommended that a novice counselor-psychologist himself undergo communication training and, as far as possible, get rid of or minimize such problems in himself. ... It can be useful to rehearse the upcoming conversation with him, especially the beginning of the conversation before starting a meeting with a client.
To improve their own communication skills and abilities, the psychologist-consultant is recommended to master the following short forms of speech etiquette, which, when meeting with clients in a psychological consultation, may be useful to him.

Forms of greeting a person and forms of invitation to enter the premises:

Hello.
- Please pass.
Good afternoon.
Come in, please.
I am glad to welcome you.
I ask you to...
Welcome...

Forms of expressing joy when meeting:

What a pleasant meeting!
Glad to see you!
You have finally arrived, very happy!
I am very glad to see you!

Forms of acquaintance:

I want (would like) to meet you.
Let's get acquainted.
Let's get to know each other.
Let me introduce myself. My name is...
What is your name? Introduce youreself.

Forms of addressing a person with a question:

Please tell me...
It won't bother you to say ...
Sorry, could you please tell ...
May I ask you...
Be kind (please) tell me ...
Can you tell me...

The procedure for calming the client, neutralizing the action of his existing complexes and removing psychological barriers in communication may include techniques that create an atmosphere of physical and psychological comfort for the client, ensuring his psychological safety. These can be, for example, the following techniques:

Give the client the opportunity to be alone for a while, for example, sit alone for two or three minutes, without communicating with anyone. At this time, a consultant psychologist; 1 and I can do something here, in a psychological consultation, or leave the premises for a few minutes.
Turn on quiet and pleasant music in the consultation room while the client is in it and tunes in for the upcoming conversation with the consultant.
Give the client a pleasant, attractive small object, such as a toy, during the conversation.
Offer the client to do something with his own hands during a conversation with a counseling psychologist under the pretext of, for example, providing the counseling psychologist with a small service or assistance.

The actions described above can be applied in practice in a wide variety of combinations, both individually and in various combinations with each other.

Removal of psychological stress from the client and activation of his story at the stage of confession

A confession in psychological counseling is a detailed, sincere, emotionally rich story of a client about himself and about his problem addressed to a counselor psychologist.

In addition to the techniques described above, which are used mainly at the beginning of psychological counseling, you can also create a favorable psychological atmosphere for the client's confession with the help of the following practical actions of the counselor psychologist, taken already during the confession itself.

1. Verbal support of what the client says and does during the confession - the technique requires explanation. Sometimes during confession, the client may say something with which the counselor psychologist does not agree, for example, express his own, not entirely justified, claims to the counselor psychologist, to the consultation being held, to the situation, etc.

In this case, the psychologist-consultant should not openly object to the client, all the more so - to begin to argue with him. It is much wiser to do the following when a similar situation arises: recognizing directly or indirectly, openly or silently, the client's right to criticism, invite him to postpone controversial issues and discuss them at the end of the consultation.

In this case, the client can be approached with the following, for example, words: “It is quite possible that you are essentially right, and I am ready to discuss with you what worries you. But let's think together how best to do it. If we now interrupt the consultation and move on to discussing controversial issues, we will not be able to find a way to solve the main problem that worries you. In this case, I can hardly really help you, since our time with you is limited and will be spent on a discussion that is not directly related to your problem. I propose to do something differently: for a while postpone the discussion of controversial issues related to the consultation, and continue the work according to the pre-planned plan. Then we will find additional time and agree on when and where we will discuss and resolve all your issues. "

If the client nevertheless insists on immediate discussion of these issues and, moreover, requires that the questions raised by him be resolved here and now, then the consultant psychologist can do one of the following ways:

interrupt counseling for a while and try to resolve controversial issues as soon as possible;
postpone psychological counseling and postpone it to another, more appropriate, time when all controversial issues will be resolved;
generally refuse to conduct further psychological counseling, politely apologizing to the client and explaining to him why the consultation had to be interrupted and why the questions raised by him could not be resolved, and the claims were satisfied.

In the event that the client says something to the counselor psychologist that does not directly relate to the conditions of the consultation, but is related to the essence of the problem being discussed, the counselor can switch to a conversation on the issue raised by the client, if, of course, he has something to say to the client about appropriate occasion.

Nevertheless, in the process of confession, it is still not desirable for the counselor to express his disagreement with the client about anything. It is better not to object to the client, but to act as follows: having noted to yourself and for yourself that point in the client's actions and statements that requires discussion and objections, continue further attentively and benevolently, until the end of listening to the client's confession. It is worth returning to the discussion of controversial issues only after the consultation has been completed and a decision has been made on the main problem of concern to the client.

2. "Mirroring" - the technique consists in the imperceptible repetition of the client's statements and movements; "Mirroring", in particular, can be gestures, facial expressions, pantomime, intonation, stress, pauses in the client's speech, etc.
Mirroring is especially important in those moments of confession when the client casts fleeting glances at the counselor, talking about himself and his problem.
3. "Periphrase" - a short, current remark of the psychologist-consultant, uttered by him during the client's confession and intended to clarify, clarify the meaning of what the client says.
In the case of the use of paraphrase, the psychologist-consultant, listening to the client, during natural pauses in the client's speech, briefly, in his own words, in the form of statements or questions, repeats what the client said, and, in turn, expects confirmation or refutation from the client correct understanding of it.
A periphery can begin, for example, with the words: "So, ...", "You said ...", "Did I understand you correctly, you said ...".
You can simply repeat the last words uttered by the client, but in an interrogative form, expecting, respectively, from him confirmation or refutation of the correctness of the words spoken.
4. "Generalization" - a technique that outwardly somewhat resembles a periphery, but does not refer to the last thing that the client said, but to a whole statement, consisting of several judgments or sentences. Unlike paraphrase, which literally repeats the client's last thought, generalization is a free, but fairly accurate transfer of his thought in a generalized form.
Generalization can begin, for example, with the following words: "So, if you generalize and express in a concise form what you said, then can it be done like this ...?" "If you summarize what has been said, then can it be conveyed like this ...?" "If I understood you correctly, then the meaning of what you said boils down to the following ... Is it so?"
5. Reception of emotional support of the client, when the psychologist-consultant listens carefully to the client, follows his thought, trying at the right moments of confession, at the time when the client pays attention to him, outwardly express support for what the client says, including demonstrating positive emotions, reinforcing the words and actions of the client. This can be, for example, the expression to the client of sympathy, empathy, satisfaction with what he says.
6. Reception of asking the client to stimulate his thinking questions like "What?" "How?" "How?" "Why?" "Why?". It is usually used when the counselor psychologist needs to clarify something for himself in the client's mind, as well as when the client himself has certain difficulties in what and how to say next.
7. Mastering and using in a conversation with a client the peculiarities of his language - a method of psychological counseling, which is as follows. The consultant, carefully listening to the client, tries to grasp the peculiarities of his speech style, paying attention to words, phrases, expressions and phrases often used by the client. Having identified and assimilated this, the counselor psychologist after a while begins to consciously use the same speech techniques in communicating with the client, that is, imperceptibly for the client, he begins to reproduce the features of his speech.

As a result, there is a psychological community and greater mutual understanding between the client and the counselor psychologist than there was in the beginning. The client, in turn, unconsciously begins to perceive the psychologist-consultant as a psychologically close person and turns out to be more disposed towards him.

It is important, however, not to overuse this technique so that the client does not get the impression that the counselor is mimicking him.

Technique used in interpreting a client's confession

In order to draw the correct conclusions from the client's confession and not be mistaken in assessing his problem, as well as in order to convince the client himself of the correct interpretation of his confession, the psychologist-consultant in the process of interpreting the confession must adhere to the following rules:

Do not rush, do not rush to your conclusions. It is advisable, after the end of the client's confession, to pause in communication with him for a duration of 10 to 15 minutes, filling it with something that allows you to distract from the listening, reflect, draw conclusions. Such a break is needed not only by the counseling psychologist, but also by the client. During the break, he will be able to move away from confession, calm down, psychologically tune in to listen to the consultant and to a constructive dialogue with him.
It is recommended, for example, to organize a tea party during such a break, inviting the client to participate in it and telling him that during the tea party the conversation about his problem can be continued. The break will also give the counseling psychologist an opportunity to collect his thoughts and ask additional questions to the client, if necessary.
It is important for the consultant to ensure that when interpreting the client's confession, no significant details and details are omitted, so that among the facts on the basis of which conclusions about the client's problem and the ways of solving it are not there are no contradictory facts. consistent with each other. If in the interpretation of confession this important rule is not observed, then contradictions in facts will inevitably manifest themselves in contradictions in the conclusions that follow from these facts. This is a well-known law of the logic of thinking.
It is also necessary to ensure that the proposed interpretation of the facts does not turn out to be one-sided, i.e. so that it does not have a clear preference for any one theory or interpretation over others.
This requirement is due to the fact that any of the existing theories of personality or interpersonal relations, which can be used as the basis for the interpretation of confession, is inevitably (by the nature of modern psychological theories themselves) incomplete and does not take into account all possible facts.
In order to prevent a one-sided interpretation of confession in practice, it is necessary at the stage of general scientific theoretical training of a consultant psychologist, and then at the stage of acquiring appropriate professional experience in interpreting the confessions of clients, to teach him to skillfully use the provisions of various theories.
From the above, the following important conclusion follows: any of the confessions, whatever it may be in content, cannot have one, the only possible interpretation. There must necessarily be several such interpretations and, as a rule, as many as there are different theories of personality and interpersonal relations in psychology. This means, of course, not literally all psychological theories without exception, but only those of them that, in the understanding of personality and interpersonal relations, mutually complement each other. At the same time, there should not be too many proposed interpretations, since otherwise it will be difficult to reconcile them with each other and it will be easy to get confused in them.

While offering the client his own interpretation of his problem, the counselor psychologist must still, ultimately, give a unified, but not the only (theoretically) interpretation of this problem.

This requirement does not contradict what was mentioned above. The fact is that the provisions formulated in the previous paragraphs concern mainly the thinking of the psychologist-consultant himself, and not the understanding of the essence of the problem by the client himself. He needs to communicate the conclusions themselves in an intelligible and accessible form, and not the theory on which they are based, i.e. only what the consultant psychologist came to as a result of his reflections, including theoretical ones. And, besides, this should be done in a simple, intelligible, and not in a pseudo-scientific form.

It follows from what has been said that in order to learn theoretically correctly, versatile and integrated to interpret the client's confession, the counselor psychologist himself must become a versatile theoretically trained practical psychologist. A good general theoretical training of a consultant psychologist presupposes his deep acquaintance with various psychological theories, covering the range of those problems with which people can turn to psychological counseling.

But this is not enough, it turns out that we also need versatile practical training of a psychologist-consultant in the interpretation of the client's problems. It, in particular, involves the development of the ability not only to interpret the client's confession, but also to correctly formulate their conclusions, using various theories.

Such practical skills are best developed in the collective work of various counseling psychologists - specialists who have a good professional level of knowledge of various psychological theories. It is also recommended to conduct more often so-called psychological consultations, which include in joint work on the same problems of specialists of different professional orientations. Such consultations are especially useful at the beginning of the independent practice of a consultant psychologist.

In order for the client to fully understand the advice and recommendations offered by the counselor psychologist, as well as in order for the client to be able to use them successfully and achieve the desired practical result, the counseling psychologist should adhere to the following rules when formulating advice and recommendations:

Rule 1. When formulating advice and recommendations for a practical solution to the client's problem, it is desirable, as in the interpretation of a confession, to offer him not only one, but several, if possible - different, advice and recommendations.

This is because different ways of solving the same problem require different conditions and different actions to be taken. Some of them, due to certain circumstances, may be inaccessible to the client, which will significantly reduce the effectiveness of the practical action of the relevant recommendations.

For example, a counselor psychologist may recommend to a client a way of behavior that will require him to have extraordinary willpower and a number of other personality traits that the client may have relatively poorly developed. Then the recommendations offered to him are unlikely to turn out to be practically useful and effective enough. Or, for example, advice from a counseling psychologist to a client may suggest that the latter has a fairly large amount of free time, which the client may not actually have.

In general, the number of different ways of solving his problem offered to the client should be two or three, and all these methods should take into account the real conditions of the client's life, his capabilities, as well as his individual psychological characteristics. The number of proposed solutions to the problem should also be such that the client was able to choose from them what suits him and is completely suitable for him.

In this regard, the psychologist-consultant needs to know the client well as a person even before he starts offering him practical recommendations.

We will formulate on this score some additional tips that will help the psychologist-consultant to conduct a general psychodiagnostics of the client's personality in the process of practical work with him. These tips, in particular, follow from the materials presented in the famous book by A. Pisa "Body language".

The personality of the client and his psychological state can be judged by the following signs: Many of these remarks and observations of the behavior of clients during the consultation are so important that at the end of the textbook, for their better assimilation, they will be repeated for novice psychologist-consultants.

the hand-on-belt posture is characteristic of a decisive, strong-willed person,
tilting the torso forward, sitting on a chair, suggests that the person, as soon as the conversation with him ends, will be ready to act,
a person who sits with his legs crossed and clasping her arms often has a quick reaction and it is difficult to convince him of an argument,
ankles pressed together while sitting indicate that a person has negative, unpleasant thoughts and feelings at a given moment in time,
picking up insignificant villi from clothes characterizes a person who does not fully agree with what he is being told at a given time,
a straight head during a conversation indicates a person's neutral attitude to what he hears,
tilting the head to the side while listening indicates that the person has aroused interest,
if a person's head is tilted forward, then this is most often a sign that he has a negative attitude towards what he heard,
crossing arms on the chest is a sign of a critical attitude and a defensive reaction,
sometimes crossing arms indicates that a person has a feeling of fear,
crossing legs is a sign of a negative or defensive attitude,
the chin stroking gesture means that the person is trying to make a decision about what they have just been told,
leaning back on the back of a chair or chair - a movement that indicates a person's negative mood,
if, after being asked to communicate his decision, he picks up an object, then this means that he is not sure of his decision, doubts its correctness, that he still needs to think,
when the head of the listening person begins to lean towards his hand in order to lean on it, this means that he loses interest in what is being said to him now,
if a person rubs the back of his head with his palm and looks away, this means that he is telling a lie,
people who often rub the back of their neck tend to show a negative, critical attitude towards others,
those people who often rub their foreheads are usually open and docile,
putting your hands behind your back indicates that the person is upset,
touching parts of the face and head while pronouncing words is a sign that this person is not completely sincere and is telling a lie,
the position of the fingers in the mouth indicates that a person needs approval and support at a given time,
tapping fingers on a tabletop or something else while listening indicates impatience of the person,
open palms are associated with sincerity, trustfulness and honesty,
hidden palms, on the contrary, speak of closeness, dishonesty, insincerity of a person,
a domineering person, when shaking hands, tries to keep his hand on top,
a submissive person, during a handshake, seeks to keep his palm from below,
the one who counts on an equal relationship, tries to keep his palm at the same level with the person with whom he is shaking hands during the handshake,
a person who is not quite confident in himself pulls the other's hand towards himself during a handshake,
interlocking fingers during a conversation can mean frustration.

A number of signs can also be found in a person's facial expressions, which with a high degree of probability may indicate his neuroticism. Consider these signs as well:

in an eternally smiling person, optimism is most often feigned and, as a rule, does not correspond to his real inner state,
the one who outwardly demonstrates his supposedly impeccable self-control, in fact, often covers up with this well-hidden anxiety and tension,
in a neurotic, the corners of the mouth are most often downward, and on the face there is an expression of despondency and lack of interest in people. Such a person is usually indecisive
the neurotic's gaze is tense, and his eyes are wider than usual,
the expression on the face of the neurotic is frightened, the color is pale and painful,
it is not easy for a neurotic to laugh heartily; his smile often resembles an ironic grin or a grin.

Here are some more useful observations that a counselor psychologist can use when evaluating a client as a person.

The clause contains a hint of what the person is actually thinking about, but does not want to speak openly or out loud.

A person's memory holds mainly those experiences that are associated with people and events that are significant to him.

If a person is late for a meeting or completely forgets about it, then with a high degree of certainty it can be assumed that he unconsciously avoids this meeting.

If a person constantly forgets names, then with sufficient certainty it can be argued that he has no particular interest in people, and first of all in those whose names he forgets.

If a person is overly verbose on an already quite clear question, if, in addition, there is a tremor in his voice and, as they say, he walks around the bush without expressing himself definitely, then he cannot be completely trusted.

If a person mutters something to himself and expresses himself unclearly, then he probably is not eager to get closer to the one to whom he is saying this.

If a person speaks slowly, carefully choosing words and carefully controlling his speech, then he experiences internal psychological stress.

The client's heightened objections to the counselor psychologist may be perceived as evidence that the client is not completely confident in himself and in the truth of the words he himself utters.

Rule 2. The counselor psychologist should offer the client not only advice as such, but also his own assessment of these advice in terms of the ease or difficulty of following them in solving the problem.

The point is that the client must have sufficiently complete information about each specific recommendation proposed

a consultant psychologist, i.e. to know what it will cost him to follow this or that recommendation and to what extent such adherence will lead to the solution of the problem that worries him.

After the counselor psychologist offered the client alternative advice on solving his problem, the client's head (due to his psychological, professional unpreparedness and lack of life experience, as well as because of the redundancy of information received from the consultant) does not immediately develop a completely adequate image of the situation. ... The client is far from immediately able to make the right choice from among the alternatives offered to him. Moreover, he, as a rule, does not have enough time for this. For these reasons, the client is not immediately able to make the right and necessary decision.

In order to facilitate the client's search for such a solution, the psychologist-consultant, while the client is still reflecting on the information received, must himself offer him reasoned own assessments of the effectiveness of various modes of behavior, revealing their positive and negative sides to the client.

When making a final, independent decision, the client should be aware that if he chooses one of the methods of behavior over others, then as a result he will receive some benefit and will almost certainly miss something.

Rule 3. The client must be given the opportunity to independently choose the mode of behavior that he considers most suitable for himself.

No one, except the client himself, is able to fully know his personal characteristics and living conditions, so no one, except the client, will be able to make the best decision. True, the client himself may be wrong. Therefore, a psychologist-consultant, giving the client the opportunity to make an independent choice, is still obliged to express his point of view.

One of the most effective forms of rendering practical assistance to the client on the part of the counselor psychologist is that the counselor and the client change their roles for a while: the counselor psychologist asks the client to explain the choice made to him and justify it, and he himself, listening carefully client, asks him questions.

The rule 4. In conclusion of the psychological consultation, it is very important to provide the client with effective means of independent control of the success of the practical actions taken to solve the problem.

Since psychological counseling is mainly a method of independent psychocorrectional work, calculated on the client's own strengths and capabilities, the fact that the client will have to correct the shortcomings in his own psychology and behavior himself, it is very important to provide him with the means of self-control of the effectiveness of the actions taken by him.

Specifically, in this case, we are talking about how to tell the client exactly how he can control himself in practice, and on what grounds he will judge that his behavior is correct, and the actions taken actually give a positive result.

Rule 5. Providing the client with an additional opportunity to receive the necessary advice and recommendations from the psychologist-consultant already in the process of practical solution of the problem.

This rule is due to the fact that the client does not always and not immediately understand everything and everything, without exception, is completely successful. Often, and even when the client, it would seem, understood everything quite well, accepted the recommendations of the counselor psychologist and practically started to implement them, in the process of implementing the recommendations received, a lot of unforeseen circumstances and additional questions that require urgent answers are suddenly discovered.

In order for these issues to be promptly resolved, it is necessary that the client has the opportunity to constantly keep in touch with the psychologist-consultant, including after completing the consultation and receiving the necessary recommendations. And for this, the psychologist-consultant needs, parting with the client at the end of the consultation, to tell him exactly where and when he - the client - will be able, if necessary, to receive the necessary prompt assistance from him.

Rule 6. Before completing the work and giving the client the opportunity to act independently, the psychologist-consultant is obliged to make sure that the client really understood everything correctly, accepted and without hesitation and hesitation is ready to act in the right direction.

In order to be practically convinced of this, at the end of the consultation, it is advisable to give the floor to the client again and ask him to answer the following questions, for example:

Is everything clear and convincing for you?
Tell us about how you are going to proceed. Sometimes it is useful to ask the client a series of specific questions, the answers to which determine the degree of understanding and acceptance by the client of the recommendations received from the counselor psychologist.

Technique of the final stage of counseling and the practice of communication between the consultant and the client at the end of the consultation

The final stage of psychological counseling includes the following points: summing up the results of the consultation and parting with the client. Summing up, in turn, contains a brief repetition of the results of the consultation, the essence of the problem, its interpretation and recommendations for solving the problem. At the request of the client, these recommendations can be offered to him not only orally, but also in writing.

It is also important, summing up the results of the psychological consultation, together with the client to outline a well-thought-out program for the implementation of the recommendations developed, noting in it the following: what, how, by what specific date, and in what form should be done by the client. It is advisable that from time to time the client informs the counselor of how things are going and how their problem is being solved.

All this is noted by the psychologist-consultant in the client's registration card, and even if, in the process of implementing the recommendations received by the client, he himself does not have any special problems, and he actually does not additionally turn to the consultant psychologist at this time.

When parting with him, the client is usually asked to regularly report to the psychological counseling center (best of all - to his counselor psychologist) how he manages to carry out the recommendations received and what is the result of their practical implementation.

Receiving feedback from the client can be stimulated, in particular, by promising him to conduct an additional, free consultation with him if he fulfills the above request.

In practice, for the successful conduct of psychological counseling, it is important not only a properly organized meeting of the client in consultation and a good, productive, professional work with him, but also a well-thought-out procedure for parting with the client at the end of the consultation. It is essential that the client leaves the psychological consultation in a good mood, with full confidence that his problem will be successfully resolved as a result of the implementation of the recommendations received.

Unconditional confidence in this, saying goodbye to the client, must first of all be demonstrated by the psychologist-consultant himself. He, in addition, should accompany the client before leaving the psychological consultation room. A good final impression on the client is usually made by a situation in which the counselor, parting with him, gives the client something to remember, such as his business card or some souvenir reminiscent of working together in a psychological consultation.

Finally, the very last words spoken by the counselor at the moment when he leaves the client are very important. Here are the approximate beginnings of some phrases suitable for this case, which correspond to the accepted norms of Russian speech etiquette:

I am quite satisfied with our meeting.
We had a pleasant time with you.
It was interesting for me to communicate with you.
It's good that we agreed on everything.
It's great that we found a common language.
I am pleased that we have achieved mutual understanding.
Thank you for listening to my advice.
Thank you for agreeing to meet and speak with me.
Thank you for the pleasure of communicating with you.
I can’t keep you any longer.
Goodbye.
See you!
Good luck!
All the best!
Be healthy!
Happily!
Total!
Bye!
We'll see you again!
I am not saying goodbye to you!
Don't forget us!
Come!
Come on in!
Do not disappear, let us know about yourself!
You are welcome to visit us again!

The subsequent communication of the psychologist-consultant with the client, if necessary, is organized and also carried out according to a pre-thought out, definite plan, which must be timely agreed and agreed upon between the psychologist-consultant and the client. This plan usually fixes the place, time and possible topics (questions) for conversations between the psychologist-consultant and the client after the end of the consultation. These conversations do not have to take place in person, sometimes it is enough to talk with the client on the phone or answer his questions in writing in detail.

The plan of possible conversations between the consultant and the client after the consultation is outlined by the psychologist-consultant together with the client. Sometimes this plan is prepared in writing in duplicate. One of them remains with the counseling psychologist, and the other is handed over to the client.

Typical technical mistakes made in the consulting process, ways to eliminate them

For a variety of reasons, sometimes not foreseen in advance and difficult to eliminate, in the process of conducting psychological counseling, errors may occur that reduce its effectiveness. Knowledge of the essence and sources of these errors, ways of preventing and eliminating them allows you to reduce these errors to a minimum, although it is probably impossible to completely exclude them from the practice of conducting psychological counseling.

Errors that often appear during the consultation process can be of the following main types (each of the error types listed below also indicates their probable cause):

Incorrect conclusion of the counselor psychologist about the essence of the client's problem.
This is the case in which the counselor psychologist either does not see a real problem with the client (although in fact such a problem exists), or ascribes to the client a problem that he really does not have.
Incorrect recommendations offered by a counselor psychologist to a client.
In this case, the psychologist-consultant can, in general, correctly perceive and evaluate the client's problem, but offer not entirely correct practical recommendations for its solution - those, the implementation of which, in reality, will not give the client anything or almost nothing useful.
Wrong actions of the client to implement the recommendations received from the psychologist-consultant.

This is the type of mistakes in psychological counseling that usually occurs when a client whose problem in the process of conducting psychological counseling was correctly identified and who was given the correct recommendations for solving it, starting a practical solution to his problem, makes inaccuracies. As a result, the client does not achieve the desired effect in solving his problem.

Note that each of the above main types of errors can occur both individually and in combination with each other. Therefore, practically analyzing the failures that arise in psychological counseling, one should look for all possible types of errors, not content with a few found. This will warn the consultant psychologist from the occurrence of similar and other mistakes in his activities.

Each of the above types of errors in counseling can, in turn, be divided into subgroups. Errors of the first type, in particular, are divided into the following subgroups:

1, a. Mistakes made by a counselor psychologist due to insufficiently accurate information received from the client in the course of counseling, especially at the stage of diagnosis and confession.

In this case, it happens that, fully trusting the client, the counselor psychologist (and the client may be mistaken in the facts reported to them by the psychologist, for various reasons, including the inaccuracy of recalling them) is forced to draw conclusions about the essence of the client's problem or methods its practical solution based on incorrect information supplied by the client.

This type of error cannot be completely excluded from the practice of psychological counseling, nor can it be completely warned in advance. The only thing that can be done here is to constantly, but unobtrusively remind the client that he must inform the counseling psychologist "the truth and only the truth", that is, only such data and facts about himself and about his problem, in the reliability of which he I myself am absolutely sure. The consultant, for his part, from time to time can check the client, repeatedly asking him to report about what he has already said and that the psychologist-consultant, for one reason or another, caused doubts.

1.6. Errors made due to the incompleteness of the information received by the psychologist-consultant from the client.

This is a fairly common mistake, since any client can involuntarily forget something significant in his confession, and a counselor psychologist may not even suspect that the client has given him incomplete information about himself and about his problem.

This mistake, due to involuntary forgetting, also cannot be completely excluded from the practice of psychological counseling. However, you can try to minimize this mistake by using the following, for example, a technique: from time to time during the confession, ask the client if he has told everything about himself and his problem, if he has forgotten anything significant.

1, c. Mistakes made by a counselor psychologist due to his own tendency to draw premature conclusions even before all the necessary information about the client and from the client is collected.

A consultant psychologist is an ordinary living person who has many, including not always positive, character traits. Among them, for example, there may be such as increased conceit, impatience, haste and others, which often lead to the occurrence of such a mistake.

It can be noticed and warned by the client's reaction. If he doubts the correctness of the conclusions and decisions proposed by the psychologist-consultant, then the consultant, apparently, was in a hurry, not taking into account all that the client has already said, and perhaps has not yet finished. If the client does not speak out completely and continues his story after the counseling psychologist has already reached a certain decision, this means that the counseling psychologist hastened, and he should postpone his decision and continue to listen carefully to the client.

1, d. Errors made due to a wrong interpretation by the psychologist-consultant of the facts that were communicated to him by the client.

The main reason for these mistakes is the lack of practical experience of counseling with a counselor psychologist, as well as his inattention or misunderstanding (sometimes simply forgetting) what the client said to him during confession. Developing the habit of a counselor to listen attentively to the client, without missing a single detail, is the only way to prevent such an error from occurring.

There are some typical types of errors that fall into the discussed subset of errors. Let's consider them:

errors caused by insufficient general theoretical preparedness of the consultant psychologist,
errors generated by the fact that the psychologist-consultant personally identifies himself with the client, begins, without noticing it, to judge the client in the image and likeness of himself,
errors associated with biased, subjective, too positive or, on the contrary, clearly expressed negative personal attitude of the counselor to the client.

Errors of the second type are divided into the following subgroups:

There are many possible reasons for this error. It can be based on almost any other mistake made by a counselor psychologist, and the consequence of such a mistake is that the recommendations received by the client will not do him any good and even harm him.

In order to avoid this mistake, it is recommended that the psychologist-consultant work for some time, especially in the initial period of his independent practice, in the conditions of the so-called supervision, and also from time to time invite for cooperation and work together with other psychologists-consultants, checking them conclusions, the correctness of their own conclusions and recommendations.

This error can occur for one of the following reasons:

due to the incompleteness of the information received by the psychologist-consultant from the client,
due to the inattention of the counselor psychologist to the details of what the client tells him,
due to the haste of the counseling psychologist in reaching conclusions regarding the client's problem,
due to insufficient theoretical training and one-sided theoretical orientation of the psychologist-consultant in the interpretation of the client's confession.

It is possible to completely eliminate this error from the practice of psychological counseling only if all its possible causes indicated above are eliminated in a timely manner. Ignoring any of them threatens to repeat this error.

2, c. On the whole, correct, but almost completely unrealizable or not at all feasible, recommendations of a consultant psychologist to a client.

The reason for this mistake most often lies in the fact that, when offering the client recommendations, the counselor psychologist does not take into account the individual characteristics of the client or does not take into account such conditions of his life, which can become a serious obstacle to the practical implementation of the recommendations received from the consultant.

In order to avoid this mistake, it is necessary, before giving practical advice to the client, to get to know him as a person and to find out the conditions of his life.

Finally, errors of the third type can be divided into the following subgroups:

3, a. Wrong actions of the client, generated by his misunderstanding or misunderstanding of what the counselor advises him to do.

The reason for this error is that, when offering practical recommendations to the client to solve his problem, the psychologist-consultant does not sufficiently take into account the individual characteristics of the client, in particular the general level of his culture and intellectual development, or does not care about breaking up with the client , make sure that the client understood everything correctly from what the counselor psychologist advises.

This error can be eliminated in the following way: working with the client, at each stage of psychological counseling, check the correctness of the client's understanding of what the counselor psychologist tells him. This, in particular, can be achieved by posing thoughtful and correctly formulated questions to the client.

3.6. Wrong actions of the client, generated by his unwillingness to do exactly what the counselor psychologist recommends to him to do.

This error can be prevented in the following way. By carefully observing the client at that moment in time when he receives practical recommendations for solving his problem, based on the results of the observation, establish how the client actually relates to these recommendations. If the client's attitude is negative, then it is better to abandon these recommendations and further find out why the client does not accept them, and ultimately offer him something different, more suitable for him.

3, c. Wrong actions of the client, caused by the objective impossibility of behaving the way the counselor psychologist advises him to behave, due, for example, to changed living conditions or any other, objective life circumstances.

This error can be excluded from the practice of psychological counseling if the consultant, before giving recommendations to the client, asks his living conditions and personal opinion about how these conditions allow the received recommendations to be fulfilled.

Each of the listed types of errors can significantly reduce the effectiveness of psychological counseling, so they should be avoided in every possible way.

In order to exclude or minimize most of these errors, the psychologist-consultant is recommended to adhere to the following general rules for conducting psychological counseling:

The psychologist-consultant should not form any hypotheses about the essence of the client's problem until he learns enough about his personality and life.
A counselor psychologist should not give a client any practical recommendations until his individual behavioral characteristics are assessed and until it has been reliably established that the client can actually implement the counselor's recommendations.
When conducting psychological counseling and making a psychological diagnosis of the client and his problem, the counselor psychologist should not view the client as an object of dispassionate study or somehow try to manipulate or experiment with him.
A counselor psychologist should not view the client as, for example, an investigator views his suspect, that is, try to "split" or "outplay" him.
In psychological counseling, with rare exceptions, there should be no place for personal memories and the actual confessions of the counselor to the client, that is, the counselor and the client in the counseling process should not change their roles.
The counseling psychologist should not strive to understand the client only by analogy with himself. His task is different - to try to understand the client from the inside, as a peculiar, unique personality, different from himself.
Being engaged in the interpretation of the client's confession, the counselor psychologist formulates his judgments about him and about his problem in a conjectural, but not in an categorically affirmative form. It will be correct to express them to the client in the form of hypotheses, which, for his part, must be confirmed or refuted by the client.
Refutation of the interpretation of confession, proposed by the counselor psychologist, on the part of the client is not always a sufficient reason for the counselor to completely abandon such an interpretation. Often, a refutation or protest by the client about the counselor's conclusions is nothing more than a defensive reaction and a sign that the counselor psychologist thinks correctly, that in fact the interpretation he proposed is correct.
The less professional experience a counselor psychologist has, the more time he should devote to attentively listening to the client's confession and the more carefully he formulate his conclusions.
Even a fairly experienced psychologist-consultant is useful to make some notes during a conversation with a client, so that you can then return to them and calmly, without haste, reflect on them.
"The task of the consultant is to help the client readily accept social responsibility, ... to get rid of ... feelings of inferiority, to direct his desire in a socially useful channel."
"The task of the consultant is to help the client find his true" I "and find the courage to become this" I "" 1 .1 Mei R. Cit. op. - S. 24.
It is sometimes very useful to record and then analyze video recordings of the progress of the counseling session. The client can explain their necessity by referring, for example, to the fact that he himself will be able to understand himself better and solve his problems more successfully if he sees himself on the screen as if from the outside.
The task of the psychologist-consultant at the stage of confession is to intelligently and unobtrusively bring the client not only to the realization, but also to the correct solution of his problem.
“The task of the consultant is to lead the client to take responsibility for his actions and for the final result of his life” 2. This thought of a well-known consultant definitely indicates that humanistically oriented psychological counseling is aimed at helping the client to solve his problem on his own. 2 Ibid. - S. 18.
The profession of a counselor psychologist requires a certain self-denial, a temporary rejection of one's own personality (when the counseling process is in progress), “in order to find it in another person a hundredfold enriched” 3. 3 Ibid. - S. 43.
“At the stage of confession, the consultant should be stingy with words and carefully weigh his every word” 4. 4 Ibid. - S. 88.
A consulting psychologist is not a counselor. Its main task is to help the client learn to make responsible decisions on his own.

Exercises

Play the entire scene of a client meeting in a counseling session with someone else, taking on the role of a counselor psychologist.
Address someone as a potential client with typical speech etiquette phrases that are appropriate when the client meets in a counseling session.
Play a scene with someone in which you are the counselor and the other person is the client. At the same time, the potential client will have to object to you and express dissatisfaction with the way the psychological consultation is carried out. Your job is to reassure the client using the techniques recommended in this chapter.

Practical tasks

Practice using the mirroring technique with a few people while talking to them.
Use the paraphrase technique when communicating with several people.
Try the generalization technique in your conversation with people.
Try to practically use the peculiarities of their speech in communicating with different people, as well as copy their manner and style of communication.
Memorize the words that should be used by the counselor at the time of separation from the client at the end of the consultation.
As a counselor psychologist, start a conversation with a potential client who just came to counseling.
Relieve the client's psychological tension using the techniques recommended in this chapter.
When talking with someone you know, openly express verbal support to him by demonstrating in practice the appropriate procedure for psychological counseling.
After listening to the client, evaluate his problem by offering him several options for solving it. Justify each of the proposed options by considering its merits and demerits.
When talking to different people and considering them as potential clients, try to evaluate these people psychologically, as individuals, using for this the signs that were indicated in this chapter.
Observe the work of a counselor psychologist or your own work as a counselor psychologist.

Identify and describe the mistakes that this counselor psychologist or yourself in the role of a counselor made during the counseling process.

Keywords

Psychological counseling technique.
Forms of speech etiquette.
Psychological stress. Verbal support. Mirroring. Paraphrase. Generalization. Emotional customer support. Reception of the statement by the consultant in front of the client of open questions. Acceptance of mastery and use of the client's language by the consultant.
Interpretation of the client's confession. Errors in the interpretation of the confession. Factual contradictions. One-sidedness in the interpretation of facts. Comprehensive, multifaceted theoretical interpretation of confession.
Mimicry. Neurosis. Neurotic. Means of self-control of psycho-corrective actions of the client in relation to himself.
Program for the implementation by the client of the recommendations received during the consultation process. Feedback between the consultant and the client. Post-consultation communication between a counselor psychologist and a client.
Technical mistakes made in psychological counseling. Supervision. Errors associated with the wrong conclusion of the psychologist-consultant about the essence of the client's problem. Errors of incorrect recommendations given by a counselor psychologist to a client. Errors associated with incorrect actions of the client to implement the recommendations received from the counselor psychologist. The error of inaccurate interpretation by the psychologist-consultant of the information received from the client. An error in the interpretation of the client's confession, caused by the incompleteness of the information received from the client. An error in the interpretation of the client's confession due to the tendency of the counseling psychologist to draw premature conclusions. An error in the interpretation of the client's confession caused by insufficient theoretical training of the psychologist-consultant. An error in the interpretation of the confession due to insufficient practical experience with a consultant psychologist. An error in the interpretation of the confession due to the biased, subjective attitude of the counselor psychologist to the client. The error of one-sidedness of the recommendations offered by the psychologist-consultant to the client. The error of receiving practically impossible recommendations by a client from a counseling psychologist. Mistake of the client's misunderstanding of the recommendations offered to him. The error of the client's objective impossibility to fulfill the practical recommendations he received.

Chapter VII Testing in the practice of psychological counseling

Control questions

What role does psychological testing play in the practice of conducting psychological counseling?
When is it recommended to use psychological tests in psychological counseling?
Why is it advisable to conduct psychological testing, if necessary, twice: before the start of the consultation and after it has ended and the client has followed the recommendations received from the counseling psychologist?
What is the psychotherapeutic effect of psychological testing on a client?
What are the requirements for psychological tests and testing as part of the practice of psychological counseling?
How should testing be done during counseling?
What tests are recommended for psychological counseling?
Why in psychological counseling should not be used complex, time-consuming, in particular - projective, tests?
What requirements should the questionnaires used in psychological counseling for testing clients meet?

Why is it necessary to conduct testing during psychological counseling

The first two sections of this chapter contain short answers to essentially the same question: when and why should psychodiagnostic methods, in particular tests, be used to study a client during psychological counseling? In the first section, the most general answer is given to this question, and in the second and subsequent sections it is detailed and concretized.

So why is testing necessary in the practice of psychological counseling?

The general answer to this question is as follows.

Any problem of a psychological nature that arises in a client and requires psychological counseling, almost always in real life has certain, purely individual manifestations, and even when its psychological content is expressed approximately the same in different people. For example, increased personal anxiety and lack of self-confidence are very common among potential clients. However, different people exhibit anxiety and lack of confidence in life in different ways.

Another typical example: almost all people have certain deficiencies in the development of abilities and in character traits, but for each person, they again have a purely individual character. Therefore, if, for example, two different clients turned to a psychological consultation with a complaint about a deficiency in the development of intellectual abilities, this does not mean at all that their problems are identical and they need to be solved in the same way.

The situation is even more complicated in practice with the shortcomings in the character of a person: in most cases, due to the unique individual life experience of each person, they should be resolved in a psychological consultation in different ways. In this case, it is practically impossible to solve the problem of successful psychological counseling without carrying out a special psychodiagnostics of the client's personality.

However, even when an accurate diagnosis of the client's problem has already been made, the need for psychodiagnostics does not completely disappear. A counselor-psychologist, no matter how carefully he studies the personality of the client when making a diagnosis of his problem, he certainly does not know about him and about the essence of the whole problem. In addition, it is quite difficult to determine in advance exactly what real (and they are sometimes unexpected) problems in life a client may face, following the practical recommendations of a counselor psychologist. Therefore, it is often required to continue the psychodiagnostic study of the client as a person and his relationship with the people around him in the post-consultation period, i.e. then, when he has already practically started to implement the recommendations received in the psychological counseling.

The client is not a professional psychologist, and therefore he is not always able to really assess the positive changes that actually occur in his psychology and behavior when following the advice of a counseling psychologist. And the consultant himself can not always judge the results flawlessly and definitely. This happens, firstly, because at the end of the consultation, the client practically does not communicate with the consultant psychologist. Secondly, this happens for the reason that the changes taking place can be gradual, imperceptible or unconscious.

In this case, in order to determine exactly what is really happening with the client, it must be tested several times, at least two times: before receiving the recommendations and after he has already fulfilled them.

Sometimes, when the processes of counseling and the practical implementation of the recommendations received take a lot of time (a year or more), it becomes necessary to conduct intermediate test examinations of the client in order to trace the real dynamics of changes in his psychology and behavior.

From time to time, in the process of conducting psychological counseling, an urgent need for psychological testing of the client arises. When, under what circumstances does it become necessary?

Firstly, when the psychologist-consultant does not have enough information in order to draw the correct conclusions about the essence of the client's problem and, taking into account his individuality, propose effective measures for a practical solution to the problem that has arisen. In this case, it is sometimes necessary to comprehensively study the personality of the client in order to learn about those of his individual characteristics that are important for clarifying the problem and for accurately determining the ways to solve it.
Often, on the basis of one and especially the first meeting with a client, it is difficult to judge him as a person, especially since in a psychological consultation in an unfamiliar environment a person behaves very restrainedly and usually plays a life role that is not entirely characteristic of him, does not fully reflect his individuality.
Secondly, when it is necessary to evaluate such individual characteristics of the client, which in ordinary, everyday life are weakly or almost not manifested in human behavior.
Such personal properties include, for example, those that are associated with complexes, unconscious drives, insufficiently realized character traits, etc. The need for this most often appears when the psychologist-consultant has a suspicion that the client has unconscious or hidden psychological characteristics, the knowledge of which is necessary for the success of psychological counseling and solving the client's problem.
Thirdly, when the psychologist-consultant needs to establish exactly what influence the visit to the psychological counseling has or can have on this client, receiving and implementing the recommendations of the counselor psychologist.
The need for this may arise, in particular, for the following reasons. For example, it may happen that it will be necessary to convince the client and prove to him that the implementation of the recommendations he received is really useful for him, although he himself is not well aware of this. The fact is that changes of a personal and interpersonal nature in human psychology often occur gradually and relatively imperceptibly for the person whom they affect, and only special testing allows you to identify and evaluate these changes. In addition, these changes in general may be unconscious in nature. This happens when they relate to the psychology of the unconscious.
Counseling and practical implementation by the client of the recommendations received by him can be quite lengthy, as, for example, in those frequent cases when psychological counseling lasts for months or even years, and the implementation of the recommendations received in the course of it is stretched for no less time.
Fourthly, when a new, rather untested method is used in the practice of counseling, the effectiveness of which has not been finally established, is not assessed either quantitatively or qualitatively.
In this case, counseling itself turns into a kind of scientific and practical psychological experiment, requiring an accurate assessment of its results. A variant of such a case is one in which the counselor psychologist himself deliberately sets up an experiment designed to improve the counseling process and offer the client more effective practical recommendations.
Fifth, when the psychodiagnostic procedure itself, used in the practice of psychological counseling, has a known psychotherapeutic value, exerting a beneficial effect on the client.

This usually happens when, as a result of psychological testing, the client learns something new, pleasant and useful for himself, for example, he discovers such positive psychological qualities that he did not suspect of the existence of before.

The described cases in the process of conducting psychological counseling can arise both individually and jointly, in any combination. At least one of these cases always occurs in the practice of psychological counseling, and therefore the use of testing should be considered as a rule rather than an exception to the rule.

What are the requirements for psychological testing! used in psychological counseling

Psychological testing, which is organized and carried out in the context of psychological counseling, must meet a number of specific, specific for counseling, requirements. The main requirements of this kind are as follows.

In psychological counseling, only the simplest of all available psychological tests should be used, which are well known not only to the counselor psychologist, but also sufficiently understandable for the client.
The use of complex and not very clear tests can cause displeasure on the part of the client, his psychological defense reaction due to the natural fear of appearing untenable in the eyes of a counselor psychologist. Complex tests, moreover, tire both the counselor and the client. Finally, there is a known pattern according to which the informativeness and practical usefulness of psychological tests grow much more slowly, sometimes in inverse proportion to their complexity and labor intensity.
Psychological testing in counseling should act as a completely natural part of it and serve exclusively the purposes of diagnostics, which in turn should be organically subordinated to solving the problem of developing the most reasonable and effective recommendations for the client to solve his problem.
Testing in counseling counseling shouldn't take too long. It should be allocated no more than a quarter of the time allocated for counseling.
Tests that are used in psychological counseling should have a relatively simple and efficient system for processing the results obtained. This is necessary so that the test results can be used immediately and immediately, soon after testing, draw the necessary conclusions from it. The best in this regard are those psychological tests, the results of which can be known and practically used 5-10 minutes after the end of testing.
In the event that you still have to use a test that requires a longer time to work with it, to process and interpret the results obtained, it is advisable to conduct testing separately from psychological counseling, without wasting the time allotted for the consultation.
For the reasons stated above, in psychological counseling, except in special cases, it is not recommended to use projective tests, since most of such tests have the above disadvantages: laboriousness, incomprehensibility for the client and complexity. It is best to refer to questionnaires or questionnaires of projective tests.
If the psychological test is a questionnaire, then it is better if the questions in it are closed, and not open, i.e. if the possible answers to them will be predetermined and the client will only need to choose one of them. Questionnaires containing open-ended questions require more time both to answer them and to process and interpret the results obtained.
A counseling psychologist is advised to think over and select in advance the minimum of psychological tests necessary for counseling, which may be needed in different cases of psychological counseling. It is advisable to prepare all these tests, together with the materials necessary for testing, and have them on hand so that they can be consulted at any time during psychological counseling.
It is best if the minimum of psychological tests necessary and often used in consultations will be in the computer program so that, if necessary, you can test the client and immediately obtain the required results (computer programs should also include an automatic procedure for processing test results).
If the volume of work in the consultation is large enough and if several consultants work in parallel with several clients, then it is recommended to exempt consultants from the testing procedure and entrust this to a separate psychologist professionally trained in the field of testing.
Testing is recommended at the beginning or in the middle of the counseling process, with the expectation that the client by the end of the consultation already knows his results, as well as what conclusions the counselor psychologist draws on the basis of the testing. It is not recommended to leave the client at the end of the consultation in the dark about why his psychological testing was carried out, what are its results and what conclusions were made based on them.

Exercises

Take any questionnaire with at least 100 questions. Establish what requirements related to the practice of psychological counseling it meets and does not meet.
Assess the level of your own intellectual development using the tests recommended for this purpose.

Practical tasks

Determine what psychotherapeutic effect the projective methods of psychodiagnostics have on the client (for this you will need to take some kind of projective psychological test and use it to conduct a psychological examination of a person who can become a potential client).
Suppose that you, as a counselor, have been approached by a parent asking for practical advice on whether or not to send your child to school before the age of seven. What psychodiagnostic techniques can you use in this case in order to study the child and give his parent sound psychological recommendations?
What tests, designed to diagnose the level of psychological development of a child, will you use in practice, if the problem with which the client - the child's parent - turned to you, is that the child does not do well in primary school?

Keywords

Long term time perspective in psychological counseling.
Unconscious drives. Unconscious character traits. Psychological test. Informativeness of the psychological test. The practical usefulness of the test.

Questions as the main technique of counseling. Techniques and techniques of psychological counseling. Self-control questions and tasks

Concept and introductory notes on psychological counseling techniques

Meeting a client in a psychological consultation

Starting a conversation with a client

Removal of psychological stress from the client and activation of his story at the stage of confession

Technique used in interpreting a client's confession

Technique of the final stage of counseling and the practice of communication between the consultant and the client at the end of the consultation

Typical technical mistakes made in the consulting process, ways to eliminate them

Exercises

Practical tasks

Keywords

Chapter VII Testing in the practice of psychological counseling

Control questions

Why is it necessary to conduct testing during psychological counseling

What are the requirements for psychological testing! used in psychological counseling

Exercises

Practical tasks

Keywords

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