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 it is more appropriate open questions, as they provide an opportunity to obtain more information;
- 2) encouraging the client to continue or supplement 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 questions can create a "questioning" feeling in the client, provoke his / her closeness and impair the consultative 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 about 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 cannot 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 to speak briefly and accurately.
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. Use short questions that 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 about which 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, as it were, is embedded in the client's internal dialogue, gently directing his story in the right direction.
3. Encouragement and customer support is the foundation 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 a precise 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 reflect 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 a 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 arranged 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 in order 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 was experiencing: "Did you feel anxious?" But this can be done only when the client himself uttered 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, this 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 the 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 own feelings but only related to the topic of conversation.
- 5. Help the client to control over-intense feelings.
- 7. Emphasizing emotional experiences. Another way to work with feelings in the counseling process is to emphasize emotional experiences through emphasizing the 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.
The "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 and 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 emotions of the client. Such an echo question directs the client's story in the direction of explaining his feelings and his attitude to what is happening.
8. Pauses of silence. Many aspiring 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 can use this as a technique to demonstrate to the client his responsibility for the conversation. However, this technique cannot be abused either.
- 4. Both, the consultant and the client, were stumped, 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. A lot of 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.
General principle work with pauses - it is necessary to break the empty silence and not rush to interrupt the productive one.
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 state 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? And what do you think about it yourself? And what is happening in your family?" - otherwise the consultant may leave the topic of consultation in general reasoning. 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 ways psychological protection, resistance and transference reactions. (“From our conversation, running away is a way for you to deal 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 is important, the client's readiness to accept it.
- 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. You should 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 the client's acceptance of the interpretation.
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) 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.
Confrontation rules:
- 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 the 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 counseling, self-disclosure is unacceptable, as its use may increase the client's anxiety.
Self-disclosure types:
- 1) the expression of their immediate 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, approval of the client; 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
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 are already
discussed in the previous chapter, you can directly proceed to detailed description related techniques of psychological counseling.
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.
.Questions and Answers... Obtaining information about the client and encouraging him to introspection is impossible without skillful questioning in the framework of the conversation. As you know, questions are usually divided into closed and open questions. Closed-ended questions are used to obtain specific information and usually involve a one or two word answer, confirmation or denial ("yes", "no"). For example: "How old are you?", "Can we meet in a week at the same time?", "How many times have you had fits of anger?" etc. Open-ended questions serve not so much to gain insight into the lives of clients as to enable discussion of feelings. R.S. Nemov notes: “Open questions expand and deepen contact; closed questions restrict it. The former open wide the doors good relationship the latter usually leave them closed. "
Encouragement and comfort ... These techniques are very important for creating and strengthening a consultative contact. You can cheer up the client with a short phrase that means agreement or / and understanding. This phrase encourages the client to continue the story. Encouragement expresses support - the basis of a consultative contact. A supportive atmosphere in which the client is at ease allows the anxiety-provoking aspects of the self to be explored, which is especially recommended in client-centered counseling. Others an important component client support is reassurance, which, together with reassurance, allows the client to believe in himself and take risks, changing some aspects of the self, experiencing new ways of behaving. These are also short phrases of the consultant expressing agreement: "Very good", "Don't worry about it", "You did the right thing", "Every now and then everyone feels the same way", "You are right", "It will not be easy" , "I am not sure, but I think you can try", "I know it will be difficult, but you not only can but must do it", etc.
Reflection of content: paraphrasing and generalization. To reflect the content of the client's confessions, it is necessary to rephrase his statements or summarize several statements. The client thus makes sure that he is carefully listened to and understood. Reflection of the content also helps the client to better understand himself, to understand his thoughts, ideas, attitudes. Paraphrasing is most appropriate at the beginning of the counseling session because it encourages the client to discuss their problems more openly. However, on the other hand, it does not deepen the conversation sufficiently. A well-paraphrased client's thought becomes shorter, clearer, more specific, and this helps the client to understand for himself what he wanted to say.
The generalization expresses the main idea of several unrelated statements or a long and confusing statement. Generalization helps the client organize their thoughts, remember what has been said, encourages consideration of relevant topics, and promotes adherence to the consistency of counseling.
Reflection of feelings ... Reflection of feelings is closely related to paraphrasing the thoughts expressed by the client - the only difference is that in the latter case, attention is focused on the content, and when reflecting feelings - on what is hidden behind the content. Wanting to reflect the client's feelings, the counselor listens carefully to his confessions, paraphrases individual statements, but focuses on the feelings expressed by the client in the confessions. In counseling, it is important not only to reflect feelings, but also to generalize them. It allows you to determine the emotional tone of the conversation, to synthesize the emotional aspects of the client's experience.
Provision of information ... The goals of counseling are also achieved by providing the client with information: the consultant expresses his opinion, answers the client's questions and informs him about various aspects of the problems discussed. The information is usually related to the counseling process, the counselor's behavior or the conditions of the counseling (place and time of meetings, payment, etc.). In no case should you turn questions into a joke and answer incoherently or avoid answering altogether. After all, behind the questions are hidden personal problems of clients with accompanying anxieties and fears. It is advisable to be competent and avoid oversimplification so as not to lose customer confidence and increase their anxiety.
Interpretation ... The counselor's interpretative statements give a certain meaning to the client's expectations, feelings, and behavior, because they help to establish causal links between behavior and experiences. The content of the client's story and experiences is transformed in the context of the explanatory system used by the consultant. This transformation helps the client see themselves and their difficulties in life in a new perspective and in a new way.
Confrontation is a complex technique that requires sophistication and experience from the consultant. It is often perceived as an accusation, therefore, it is applicable only with sufficient mutual trust, when the client feels that the counselor understands him and cares about him. To use confrontation techniques correctly, it is important to know and understand its limitations. The use of confrontation in counseling must be justified by certain simple rules: it is necessary to carefully characterize the content of the client's inappropriate behavior and its context, but it is not necessary to say everything at the same time; it should not be forgotten that it comes not presenting case analysis to colleagues; it is necessary to explain in detail to the client and his relatives the consequences of conflicting behavior, including in the process of counseling; it is necessary to help the client find ways to overcome his problems.
1. Introduction. Psychological counseling
2.Procedures and techniques of counseling
3. Basic techniques of group counseling in
different approaches
3.2. In psychodrama groups
3.3. In an existential approach to the group
3.4. In gestalt therapy
3.5. In transactional analysis
3.6. In behavior therapy groups
3.7. In Rational Emotional Therapy Groups
Conclusion
Literature
1. Introduction. Psychological counseling
Psychological counseling as a profession has arisen in response to the needs of people with no clinical disabilities, but looking for psychological assistance... Here we come across, first of all, people who experience difficulties in everyday life. The spectrum of problems is truly wide: difficulties at work, unsettled personal life and family turmoil, poor school performance, lack of self-confidence and self-esteem, agonizing hesitation in decision-making, difficulties in establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships, etc. On the other hand, psychological counseling, as a young field of psychological practice, does not yet have strictly delineated boundaries; a variety of problems fall into its field of vision.
What is counseling? Burks and Stafflere proposed this definition: “ Consulting is the professional attitude of a qualified consultant towards a client, which is usually presented as “person-person”, although sometimes more than two people are involved. Purpose of counseling- to help clients understand what is happening in their living space and meaningfully achieve the set goal based on a conscious choice in resolving problems of an emotional and interpersonal nature ”.
There are many similar definitions, and they all include several key points:
1) Counseling helps a person to choose and act on their own.
2) Counseling helps to learn new behaviors.
3) Counseling promotes personality development.
4) In consulting, the responsibility of the client is emphasized, i.e. it is recognized that an independent, responsible individual is able to make independent decisions in appropriate circumstances, and the consultant creates conditions that encourage volitional behavior of the client.
5) At the heart of counseling is the “consultative interaction” between the client and the counselor, based on the philosophy of “client-centered” therapy.
The definition of psychological counseling covers the pivotal attitudes of the consultant in relation to the person in general and the client in particular. The consultant accepts the client as a unique, autonomous individual, who is recognized and respected the right of free choice, self-determination, and the right to live his own life. It is all the more important to recognize that any suggestion or pressure prevents the client from taking responsibility for himself and correctly solving his problems.
2. Procedures and techniques of counseling
An important counseling technique is statement of a question , is used for two purposes: obtaining information about the client and encouraging him to introspect.
As you know, questions are divided into open and closed. closed-ended questions are used to obtain specific information about a customer and usually involve a one or two word answer, confirmation or denial. Open-ended questions serve not so much to gain insight into the lives of clients as to enable discussion of feelings.
Any question must be justified - when asking it, you need to know for what purpose it is being asked.
Techniques are very important for creating and strengthening the advisory contract approval and reassurance ... You can cheer up the client with a short phrase that means agreement or understanding. This phrase encourages the client to continue the story. Endorsement is expressed support. Calmness, together with approval, allows the client to believe in themselves and take risks by changing some aspects of the self, experiencing new ways of behaving.
· Cognition and reflection of feelings the client seems to be one of the most important consulting techniques. Reflection of feelings is closely related to the rephrasing of feelings expressed by the client - the only difference is that in the latter case, attention is focused on the content, and when reflecting feelings - on what is hidden behind the content. Wanting to reflect the feelings of the client, the consultant listens carefully to his confessions, paraphrases individual statements, thereby focusing on the feelings expressed by the client in the confession.
· Ability to be silent and using silence for therapeutic purposes is one of the most important counseling skills. While silence in counseling sometimes means a breach of the counseling contract, it can be deeply meaningful. For a counselor who has learned to be sensitive to various meanings of silence, in general to silence and learned to consciously create and use pauses in counseling, silence becomes especially valuable.
The objectives of counseling are achieved through providing to the client information : the consultant expresses his opinion, answers the client's questions and informs him about various aspects of the discussed problems.
· Each client is not an open book, but an unknown country, where everything is new and at first difficult to understand. Although the technician helps the consultant somehow navigate in this unexplored country interpretations ... In counseling, it is very important to bring out more than the client's superficial narrative. The counselor's interpretative statements give a certain meaning to the client's expectations, feelings, and behavior, because they help to establish causal links between behavior and experiences.
Every counselor is compelled from time to time for therapeutic purposes to enter into confrontation with clients. Confrontation is aimed at showing the client the methods of psychological protection used in an effort to adapt to life situations, but which oppress, limit the formation of the personality. The focus of confrontation is usually the client's communication style, reflected in the consulting contract.
· Structuring means organizing the relationship of the consultant with the client, highlighting the individual stages of consulting and evaluating their results, as well as providing the client with information about the consulting process. After completing one stage, the consultant, together with the client, discuss the results, form conclusions.
3. Basic techniques of group counseling in different approaches
There are several theoretical approaches that have their own name, form their goals, stages of development of group work, determine the role and functions of the group consultant, as well as offer a variety of strategies and techniques for influencing group counseling.
| Approaches | Receptions |
| Psychoanalytic approach | Free association, interpretation, dream analysis, insight, alternative session. |
| Psychodrama groups | Self-presentation, role exchange, “take” technique, monologue, “magic shop”, projection of the future, repetition, role training. |
| Existential Approach | Various methods are used to reveal and understand the participants' ways of “being in the world”. |
| Person-centered approach | Very few techniques are used, especially those chosen in advance and provoking the group to “do something”. The most important techniques are active listening, reflection of feelings, explanation, help. |
| Gestalt approach | Language exercises, play of dialogues, fantasizing, rehearsal, reverse experiment, exaggeration, dream analysis. |
| Transactional Analysis | Structural analysis, scenario analysis, family modeling, role play. |
| Behavioral group therapy | Reinforcement, contract, modeling, behavior training, instructing, Feedback, cognitive reconstruction, problem solving, support. |
| Rational emotive therapy | Cognitive techniques: homework, elimination of conventions; emotive techniques: using humor, role-playing game, exercise "attack on shame"; behavioral techniques: reinforcement and punishment, skill training. |
And now let's take a closer look at the classification of group counseling techniques in different directions, by different authors studying these problems.
3.1. In a psychoanalytic approach
The purpose of the analytical process is to restructure the client's character and personality. This goal is achieved through the transfer of unconscious conflict to the level of consciousness and its study. Psychoanalytic groups symbolically play the client's real family so that his historical past can be reproduced in the group's present. Based on the works of Z. Freud and E. Erickson. The founder is A. Wolf, it was he who applied basic psychoanalytic techniques in the group.
FREE ASSOCIATIONS... The basic tool for the disclosure of repressed or unconscious material is free association - i.e. saying whatever comes to mind, no matter how painful, illogical, or inadequate it may seem. Group members are expected to express feelings directly, without selection or censorship of the content expressed, and the group discussion remains open to whatever the group members want to bring to it, i.e. it does not revolve around any particular topic.
The basic pool of methods includes conversation, interviews, active and empathic listening, and observation. In addition to these fundamental methods within psychological counseling other methods can also be used, which are professional developments of individual psychological schools and are based on specific "nominal" theories.
Conversation
Conversation (here we are talking about a conversation not in a philistine representation, but in a conceptual sphere psychology) is built using different techniques and techniques that allow psychologist achieve the desired result. His primary goal in this case is to carefully and scrupulously collect information about the psycho-emotional state of his client and establish a trusting relationship with him. Great importance here it has variability in the conduct of a dialogue, approval of the patient's opinion, motivating him to talk, clarity and conciseness of speech psychologist.
Conversation can also be used as a psychotherapy tool to reduce the patient's anxiety. In this case, it serves as one of the ways to shift the emphasis on the psychological problems of the subject and is a kind of background or, if you like, a "background" for all psychotechnicians used by a specialist.
Conversation can be conducted spontaneously, intuitively, or, on the contrary, be structured within the framework of a predetermined program, so to speak, a "verbal strategy". This pre-planned conversation is called an interview.
Interview
Within the framework of psychological counseling There are several types of interviews:
· Standardized (based on verified tactics and a clear strategy);
· Partially standardized (based on the same well-thought-out strategy, but somewhat more flexible in terms of tactics);
· Free diagnostic interview (has a pre-developed strategy and absolutely free "open-ended" tactics, which can constantly transform depending on individual characteristics client).
Active listening
The purpose of this method psychological counseling is the most authentic reflection of the speaker's information. This method provides a more accurate understanding of each other by the participants in the process, contributes to the creation of a friendly atmosphere and emotional empathy, and also helps the psychologist's client to fully understand his personal problem situation. Active listening involves the use of a number of specific techniques and techniques:
· Sincere and with all its appearance demonstrated interest in relation to the interlocutor (posture, look is of particular importance);
· Use of clarifying questions ("Do you mean that ...?", "Did I understand correctly that ...?");
· Repetition of the interlocutor's remark ("You said that ...");
· "Reformatting" of the interlocutor's phrases ("In other words ...");
· "Supportive" reactions (so-called "yeah-reactions", expressed by nodding or verbal "yes-yes", etc.), stimulation of the interlocutor to further conversation ("talk, talk", "this is very interesting") ;
· Summing up ("We talked about ...", "In general, you want to say ...", "We can make a conclusion ...", "Summing up ...").
The method of "active listening" is a mandatory part of the "gentleman's set" psychologist when conducting psychological counseling... Possession of it is the duty of any specialist in the field of psychology, claiming to be a professional in his field. Often a cheerleader from psychology the importance of this method is underestimated. In such situations, the would-be consultant replaces his task of accurately reflecting the information received from the client with his own interpretation of his personal properties, the motives of his actions and strive for hastily"Blind" a superficial assessment of his personality. The use of active listening techniques such as repetition allows the client to make sure that they are being listened to and understood. In addition, he seems to hear himself from the outside, which allows him to better understand the situation and his role in it.
Empathic listening
• empathy or, in more understandable language, empathy. It consists in striving to understand the interlocutor at the level of feelings, experiencing the same emotions experienced by another person;
Reflection: the ability to see oneself through the eyes of the interlocutor, to analyze one's actions, deeds, state of mind;
· Identification: assimilation to another person, identification with him, the ability to transfer oneself to the place of another.
Observation
Supervised within psychological counseling understand intentional, systematic and punctuated perception mental processes and phenomena in order to study their changes in certain situations and search for the origins of these phenomena. Psychologist must be able to observe both verbal and non-verbal behavior of his client. In the latter case, it is very important to know the different types of non-verbal languages.
CONSULTING PROCEDURES AND TECHNIQUES
1.Asking questions
Obtaining information about the client and encouraging him to introspection is impossible without skillful interviewing. Questions are usually divided into closed and open questions. Closed-ended questions are used to obtain specific information and usually involve a one or two word answer, confirmation or denial ("yes", "no"). Open-ended questions serve not so much to gain insight into the lives of clients as to enable discussion of feelings.
Open-ended questions provide an opportunity to share your concerns with a counselor. They transfer responsibility for the conversation to the client and encourage him to explore his attitudes, feelings, thoughts, values, behavior, that is, his inner world. Key points of counseling when using open-ended questions:
1. Beginning of the consultation meeting ("Where would you like to start today?", "What happened during the week before we saw each other?").
2. Encouraging the client to continue or supplement what was said ("How did you feel when this happened?", "What else would you like to say about this?", "Can you add something to what you said?").
3. Encouraging the client to illustrate their problems with examples so that the counselor can better understand them ("Can you talk about a specific situation?"),
4. Focusing the client's attention on feelings ("How do you feel when you tell me?", "How did you feel when all this happened to you?").
While asking questions is an important counseling technique, over-questioning should be avoided. Any question must be justified - when asking it, you need to know for what purpose it is being asked. Too much questioning during counseling creates many problems: it turns the conversation into an exchange of questions and answers, and the client begins to constantly wait for the counselor to ask about something else; forces the consultant to take full responsibility for the course of counseling and the topics of the discussed problems; transfers the conversation from emotionally charged topics to a discussion of the factology of life; "destroys" the fluid nature of the conversation.
A few rules to keep in mind when asking customers questions: 1) "Who, what?" are most often fact-oriented, i.e. these types of questions increase the likelihood of factual answers. 2) Questions "How?" more focused on a person, his behavior, inner world. 3) Questions "Why?" often provoke defensive reactions in clients and should therefore be avoided in counseling. Having asked a question of this type, most often you can hear answers based on rationalization, intellectualization. 4) It is necessary to avoid posing several questions at the same time (sometimes one question contains other questions). It may not be clear to the client which of the questions to answer, because the answers to each part of the double question may be completely different. 5) One and the same question should not be asked in different formulations. It becomes unclear to the client which of the options should be answered. Such behavior of the consultant when asking questions indicates his anxiety. 6) The question cannot be ahead of the client's answer. For example, the question "Is everything going well?" most often encourages the client to give an affirmative answer.
2. Reflection of content: paraphrasing and summarizing
The client thus makes sure that he is carefully listened to and understood. Reflection of the content also helps the client to better understand himself, to understand his thoughts, ideas, attitudes. Paraphrasing because it encourages the client to discuss their problems more openly. There are three main purposes of paraphrasing: 1) to show the client that the consultant is very attentive and trying to understand him; 2) crystallize the client's thought, repeating his words in a condensed form; 3) check the correct understanding of the client's thoughts.
When paraphrasing, three simple rules should be remembered: The main idea of the client is paraphrased, the meaning of the client's statement must not be distorted or replaced, as well as add something from oneself, "parroting" must be avoided.
The generalization expresses the main idea of several unrelated statements or a long and confusing statement. Generalization helps the client organize their thoughts, remember what has been said, encourages consideration of relevant topics, and promotes adherence to the consistency of counseling. Situations in which generalization is most often used: 1) when the consultant wants to structure the beginning of the conversation in order to combine it with previous conversations; 2) when the client speaks for a very long time and in a confused manner; 3) when one topic of the conversation has already been exhausted and the transition to the next topic or to the next stage of the conversation is planned; 4) when trying to give a certain direction to the conversation; 5) at the end of the meeting, in an effort to emphasize the essential points of the conversation and give an assignment for a period of time until the next meeting.
3. Pauses of silence
Learning to be silent and to use silence for therapeutic purposes is one of the most important counseling skills. While silence in counseling sometimes means a break in the counseling contact, it can also be deeply meaningful. Silence becomes especially therapeutically valuable, it:
· Increases the emotional understanding between the consultant and the client;
· Provides an opportunity for the client to "plunge" into himself and study his feelings, attitudes, values, behavior;
· Allows the client to understand that the responsibility for the conversation rests on his shoulders.
The most important meanings of silence in counseling are:
1. Pauses in silence, especially at the beginning of the conversation, can express the client's anxiety, poor health, confusion due to the very fact of counseling.
2. Silence does not always mean a lack of real activity. During the pauses of silence, the client can look for the right words to continue his story, weigh what was discussed before, try to evaluate the guesses that arose during the conversation. The counselor also needs pauses of silence to reflect on the past part of the conversation and to formulate important questions. At this time, the essential moments of the conversation are mentally identified, the main conclusions are summarized.
3. Silence can mean that both the client and the counselor are looking forward to continuing the conversation from each other.
4. A pause in silence may mean that both participants in the conversation and the whole conversation are at an impasse and there is a search for a way out of this situation, a search for a new direction of the conversation.
5. Silence in some cases expresses the client's resistance to the counseling process. Then it has a manipulative meaning in relation to the consultant.
6. Sometimes pauses of silence occur when the conversation proceeds on a superficial level and the discussion of the most important and significant issues is avoided, which, however, increase the client's anxiety.
7. Silence sometimes implies deep generalization without words, it is then more meaningful and eloquent than words.
The pauses of silence in counseling raise the question: Should the counselor himself interrupt them? The consultant should break the empty silence and not rush to break the productive silence. It should not be forgotten that the client is responsible for breaking the silence.
4. Reflection of feelings
The technique was introduced by Bujenthal. Reflection of feelings is closely related to paraphrasing the thoughts expressed by the client - the only difference is that in the latter case, attention is focused on the content, and when reflecting feelings - on what is hidden behind the content. The consultant listens carefully to the confessions, paraphrases individual statements, but also focuses on the feelings expressed by the client in the confessions. Reflecting the client's feelings, the counselor focuses on the subjective aspects of his confessions, seeking to help the client understand his feelings and (or) experience them more fully, more intensely, deeper. Reflection of feelings means that the consultant is like a mirror in which the client can see the meaning and significance of his feelings. Reflection of feelings contributes to the emergence of interpersonal, emotional contact and helps the client to better understand their often conflicting feelings and thereby facilitates the resolution of internal conflicts.
General principles to reflect client feelings
1. The consultant is obliged to identify as fully and accurately as possible the feelings of both his own and the clients.
2. It is not necessary to reflect or comment on every feeling of the client - any action of the counselor should be appropriate in the context of the counseling process.
3. Be sure to pay attention to feelings when they cause problems in counseling or can support the client, help him.
4. The counselor is obliged to express also his own feelings arising in the situation of counseling. He should express feelings only related to the topic of conversation.
5. Sometimes you need to help clients control their feelings, especially when they are too intense. This applies to both positive and negative feelings.
5. Interpretation
There is nothing meaningless and accidental even in the slightest movement of a person. The counselor's interpretative statements give a certain meaning to the client's expectations, feelings, and behavior, because they help to establish causal links between behavior and experiences. This transformation helps the client see themselves and their difficulties in life in a new perspective and in a new way. Interpretation types:
1. Establishing connections between supposedly separate statements, problems or events. The consultant points out the interrelation of problems and the influence on their occurrence of inadequate expectations and claims of the client.
2. Emphasizing any features of the client's behavior or feelings.
3. Interpretation of methods of psychological defense, resistance and transference reactions.
4. Linking current events, thoughts and experiences with the past. The relationship of current problems and conflicts with previous trauma.
5. Providing the client with a different way of understanding his feelings, behavior or problems.
Interpretation should take into account the stage of the consultative process. This technique is of little use at the beginning of counseling when a relationship of trust is expected to be achieved with clients, but it is very useful later.
The effectiveness of interpretation largely depends on its depth and timing. A good interpretation is usually not too deep. It should connect with what the client already knows. The effectiveness of the interpretation is also determined by the timeliness, the willingness of the client to accept it. The effectiveness of interpretation also depends on the personality of the client: clients who have high level self-esteem and education, are more sensitive to interpretations and even in case of disagreement take them into account.
The consultant must be able to understand the reactions of clients to the essence of interpretations. Emotional indifference of the client speaks of the dubiousness of the interpretation. If the client reacts with hostility and rejects the interpretation as implausible, it is possible that the interpretation has touched the root of the problem.
When there are too many interpretations in the counseling process, the client begins to defend himself against them and resists the counseling. The consultant can also be wrong, i.e. his interpretations are inaccurate or not at all true.
6 confrontation
Every consultant is compelled from time to time to enter into confrontation with clients for therapeutic purposes. Confrontation is any reaction of the consultant that contradicts the client's behavior. Most often, the confrontation is aimed at the client's dual behavior. Confrontation is aimed at showing the client methods of psychological protection.
three main cases of confrontation in counseling:
1. Confrontation in order to draw the client's attention to contradictions in his behavior, thoughts, feelings, or between thoughts and feelings, intentions and behavior, etc. In this case, we can talk about two stages of confrontation. At the first, a certain aspect of the client's behavior is stated. On the second - the contradiction is most often represented by the words "but", "however". With this type of confrontation, they try to help the client see the very contradiction that he did not notice before, did not want or could not notice.
2. Confrontation with the aim of helping to see the situation as it is in reality, contrary to the client's perception of it in the context of his needs. For example, a client complains, "My husband found a long-term business trip because he doesn't like me." The real situation is that the husband changed jobs at the request of his wife after long quarrels, since he did not earn much at his previous job. Now the husband earns enough, but he is rarely at home. In this case, the consultant must show the client that the problem is not love relationship, but in the financial situation of the family, the need for the husband to earn more, although because of this he is often forced to travel away. The client does not appreciate her husband's efforts to achieve greater family prosperity and interprets the situation in a convenient way.
3. Confrontation in order to draw the client's attention to his evasion from discussing some problems. For example, a consultant expresses surprise to a client: "We have met twice, but you don't say anything about sex life. Whenever we get closer to the main topic, you step aside."
a few main cases of confrontation constraints:
1. Confrontation should not be used as a punishment for a client for unacceptable behavior. It is not a counselor's vehicle of hostility.
o Confrontation is not intended to destroy clients' psychological defenses. Its purpose is to help clients recognize the ways in which they defend themselves from awareness of reality.
2. Confrontation should not be used to satisfy the needs or self-expression of the consultant. The task of the consultant is not to defeat the client, but to understand him and provide assistance. Misapplication of confrontation techniques often indicates that the counselor is solving personal problems during the counseling process.
The use of k-tion in counseling is based on simple rules:
· It is necessary to carefully characterize the content of the client's inappropriate behavior and its context, but it is not necessary to say everything at the same time; remember that this is not about presenting a case analysis to colleagues;
· It is necessary to explain in detail to the client and his relatives the consequences of controversial behavior, including in the process of counseling;
· It is necessary to help the client find ways to overcome his problems.
Confrontation with a client should never be aggressive and categorical. It is advisable to use more often phrases that express certain doubts of the consultant and soften the tone of confrontation. A separate option for confrontation is interrupting the client's narrative. Interruption of a client is possible when it "jumps" to other problems without exhausting the previous ones. However, interrupting the narrative frequently is risky. Most clients tend to succumb to the counselor's guidance, so constant interruption creates addiction and it is difficult to rely on frankness.
7. The feelings of the consultant and self-disclosure
Counseling always requires emotional involvement in the process. However, it is important that emotional involvement is appropriate and in the best interests of the client and not the counselor. The consultant reveals himself to the client by expressing his feelings. To open up in the broadest sense means to show your emotional attitude to events and people. For many years, the prevailing view was that the consultant should not reveal his identity to the client. First, when the client knows too much about the consultant, he fantasizes much less about him, and the consultant loses an important source of information about the client. The second reason why it is not advisable to open up to clients is that being candid involves sharing your concerns with clients, which is anti-therapeutic. Nevertheless, representatives of the existential-humanistic orientation interpret the consultant's frankness as an important aspect of modern counseling and psychotherapy, which helps to develop a sincere relationship between the counselor and the client.
Above all, frankness should not be overused. There is no need to share every feeling, memory or fantasy that you have. Often times, narrating about the events of your past is more like a pseudo disclosure. The consultant should always be aware of the purpose for which he speaks about himself - wanting to help the client or satisfying his desires.
18. General views about psychological counseling. Types, methods and stages of psychological counseling.
Psychological counseling- a set of procedures aimed at helping a person in solving problems and making decisions regarding a professional career, marriage, family, personal improvement and interpersonal relationships.
purpose counseling - to help clients understand what is happening in their living space and meaningfully achieve their goal based on informed choices in resolving emotional and interpersonal problems.
Gelso, Fretz (1992), Blosher (1966) identify specific features of psychological counseling, distinguishing it from psychotherapy:
counseling is focused on a clinically healthy person; these are people who have psychological difficulties and problems in everyday life, complaints of a neurotic nature, as well as people who feel good, but set themselves the goal of further development of the personality;
counseling is focused on the healthy aspects of the personality, regardless of the degree of the disorder; this orientation is based on the belief that “a person can change, choose a life that satisfies him, find ways to use his inclinations, even if they are small due to inadequate attitudes and feelings, delayed maturation, cultural deprivation, lack of finance, illness, disability, old age "(1968);
consulting more often focuses on the present and future of clients;
counseling is usually focused on short-term assistance (up to 15 meetings);
counseling focuses on the problems that arise in the interaction of the individual and the environment;
counseling emphasizes the value participation of the consultant, although the imposition of values on clients is rejected;
counseling is aimed at changing the behavior and development of the client's personality.
Types of counseling:
I... By application areas:
1. baby; 2. teenage; 3. family and matrimonial; 4. professional; 5.Individual, focused on personality problems;
II... By the number of clients: 1. individual; 2. group;
III... By spatial organization: 1.contact (full-time); 2. distant (correspondence) - by phone, correspondence.
Types of psychological counseling according to Nemov
Intimate-personal psychological counseling, the need for which arises quite often and for many people. This type includes counseling on such issues that deeply affect a person as a person, cause him strong feelings, usually carefully hidden from the people around him. These are, for example, such problems as psychological or behavioral deficiencies, from which a person would like to get rid of at all costs, problems associated with his personal relationships with significant people, various fears, failures, psychogenic diseases that do not require the intervention of a doctor, and much more. This may also include a person's deep dissatisfaction with himself, problems of intimate, such as sexual, relationships.
The next type of psychological counseling in terms of importance and frequency of occurrence in life is family counseling... This includes counseling on issues that arise in a person's own family or in the families of other people close to him. This is, in particular, the choice of the future spouse, the optimal construction and regulation of family relationships, the prevention and resolution of conflicts in intra-family relationships, the relationship of a husband or wife with relatives, the behavior of spouses at the time of divorce and after it, the solution of current intra-family problems. The latter include, for example, the solution of issues related to the distribution of responsibilities between family members, the economy of the family, and a number of others.
The third type of counseling- psychological and pedagogical counseling. It can include a discussion between a consultant and a client of issues of teaching and upbringing of children, teaching something and improving the pedagogical qualifications of adults, pedagogical leadership, management of children's and adult groups and collectives. Psychological and pedagogical counseling includes issues of improving programs, methods and means of teaching, psychological justification of pedagogical innovations, and a number of others.
Fourth one of the most common types of psychological counseling is business counseling. It, in turn, has as many varieties as there are various affairs and types of activities in people. In general, business consulting is called such consulting, which is associated with people solving business problems. This, for example, includes the issues of choosing a profession, improving and developing a person's abilities, organizing his work, increasing efficiency, conducting business negotiations, etc.
Psychological counseling methods
The main methods of psychological counseling include: conversation, interview, observation, active and empathic listening. In addition to the basic methods in psychological counseling, special methods are used that have been developed within the framework of individual psychological schools, based on a specific methodology and individual theories of personality.
Conversation A professional conversation is built from all sorts of techniques and techniques used in order to achieve the appropriate effect. An important role is played by the techniques of conducting a dialogue, approving the client's opinions, stimulating statements, brevity and clarity of the psychologist's speech, etc. The goals and functions of the conversation in psychological counseling are associated with collecting information about the mental state of the subject, establishing contact with the client. Conversation can serve psychotherapeutic functions and can help reduce the client's anxiety. A counseling conversation serves as a way to reach the psychological problems that the client has, is the background and accompaniment of all psychotechnics. The conversation can have a structured character, be conducted according to a previously drawn up plan and program. This structured conversation is called the interview method.
Stages of conversation:
1. Asking questions. The goal is to obtain information about the client, encouraging him to self-analysis.
2) reassurance and comfort . Essential for creating and strengthening a consultative contact. Encouragement is expressed support - the main component of contact ("Continue", "Yes, I understand"). Calming down helps the client to believe in himself ("Very good", "You did the right thing").
3. Content Reflection: Paraphrasing and Generalizing Content Reflection shows the client that he is being actively listened to and understood. Reflection of the content helps the client himself to better understand himself, to sort out his thoughts. Paraphrasing has three rules: the main idea of the client is paraphrased; you cannot distort or replace the meaning of the client's statement, add from yourself; avoid verbatim repetition.
4. Reflection of feelings - attention focuses on what is hidden behind the content. contact, because it shows the client that the consultant is trying to get to know his inner world.
5 silence pauses . Silence - increases the emotional understanding between the consultant and the client; - provides an opportunity for the client to "plunge" into himself and study his feelings, attitudes, values, behavior; - allows the client to understand that the responsibility for the conversation rests on his shoulders.
6. Providing information. The consultant expresses his opinion, answers questions, informs the client about various aspects of the discussed problems.
7. The interpretation of the consultant gives a certain meaning to the expectations, feelings, behavior of the client, because it helps to establish causal links between behavior and experience. A good interpretation is never deep. It should connect with what the client already knows.
8. Confrontation - any reaction of the consultant that contradicts the client's behavior. Confrontation is aimed at showing the client the methods of psychological protection used in an effort to adapt to life situations, in which they oppress and restrict the formation of the personality.
9. The feelings of the consultant and self-disclosure. Self-disclosure of the consultant can be: the expression of direct reactions in relation to the client or to the situation of counseling, limited to the principle of "here and now"; a story about your life experience, a demonstration of its similarity with the client's situation. The consultant reveals himself to the client by expressing his feelings. To open up in the broadest sense means to show your emotional attitude to events and people.
10. Structuring consulting - organizing the relationship between the consultant and the client, highlighting the individual stages of consulting and assessing their results, providing the client with information about the consulting process.
Types of interviews:
· Standardized - has a stable strategy and clear tactics;
· Partially standardized - based on a stable strategy and more flexible tactics;
· Freely guided diagnostic interview - based on a stable strategy, but has completely free tactics, which depends on the characteristics of the client, relationships, etc.
Observation - deliberate, systematic and purposeful perception of mental phenomena in order to study their specific changes in certain conditions and find the meaning of these phenomena, which is not given directly. The counselor should be proficient in observing the client's verbal and non-verbal behavior. The initial foundation for understanding non-verbal behavior is a good knowledge of various types of non-verbal languages.
Active listening aims to accurately reflect the speaker's information. This method promotes a more accurate understanding of each other by partners, allows you to create an atmosphere of trusting relationships and emotional support, and also serves to expand the client's awareness of the problem situation. Active listening involves a number of techniques:
An interested attitude towards the interlocutor, demonstrated by the pose of an interested listener, a benevolent gaze directed at the interlocutor;
Clarifying questions: "Did I understand correctly that ...?", "Do you want to say that ...?";
Getting an answer to your question;
Repetition of what the interlocutor said "You say ...";
Reformulation of the interlocutor's thoughts: "In other words, ..."
Supportive reactions: "yeah-reactions", "Yes-yes", encouraging the interlocutor to express thoughts: "this is interesting", "talk, talk";
Generalization: "In general, you want to say ...?", "So, it turns out ...", "We talked about ...", "We can conclude ...".
The method of "active listening" is a mandatory method of psychological counseling, and mastering all its techniques is one of the requirements for the professional skills of a counselor psychologist.
accurate reflection of the experience, feelings, emotions of the interlocutor with a demonstration of their understanding and acceptance.
Important characteristics and means of effective communication (during the consultation) are:
Empathy - empathy, understanding another at the level of feelings, experiencing the same emotional states experienced by the other person;
Reflection (awareness of how he is perceived by a communication partner, the ability to self-analyze mental states, actions, deeds),
Identification (assimilation, identification of oneself with another person, the transfer of oneself by a person to the place, to the situation of another person).
The method as a set of psychotechnics developed within the framework of individual psychotherapeutic and personality theories:
The method of person-centered counseling,
Method of existential counseling,
Method of psychoanalytic counseling,
Method of behavioral counseling,
Method of cognitive counseling,
Solution-focused counseling method,
· Multimodal consulting, etc.
Stages of psychological counseling. (Nemov)
1. Preparatory stage. At this stage, the psychologist-consultant gets acquainted with the client according to the preliminary record available about him in the registration book, as well as on the information about the client that can be obtained from third parties, for example, from the employee of the psychological counseling, who accepted the client's request for consultation. At this stage of work, the psychologist-consultant, in addition, prepares himself for the consultation, doing almost everything that was discussed in previous section of this chapter. The working time of the psychologist-consultant at this stage is usually from 20 to 30 minutes.
2. Adjustment stage. At this stage, the psychologist-consultant personally meets the client, gets to know him and tunes in to work together with the client. The client does the same for his part. On average, this stage in time, if everything else has already been prepared for the consultation, can take from 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Diagnostic stage. At this stage, the counselor psychologist listens to the client's confession and, on the basis of its analysis, clarifies and clarifies the client's problem. The main content of this stage is the client's story about himself and about his problem (confession), as well as the client's psychodiagnostics, if it becomes necessary to conduct it to clarify the client's problem and find an optimal solution. It is not possible to accurately determine the time required for this stage of psychological counseling, since much in its definition depends on the specifics of the client's problem and his individual characteristics. In practice, this time is at least one hour, excluding the time required for psychological testing. Sometimes this stage of psychological counseling can take from 4 to 6-8 hours.
4. The recommendatory stage. The psychologist-consultant, having collected the necessary information about the client and his problem at the previous stages, at this stage, together with the client, develops practical recommendations for solving his problem. Here these recommendations are specified, clarified, and concretized in all essential details. The average time it usually takes to complete this stage of psychological counseling is 40 minutes to 1 hour.
5. Control stage. At this stage, the psychologist-consultant and the client agree with each other on how the practical implementation of the practical advice and recommendations received by the client will be monitored and evaluated. Here, the question of how, where and when the psychologist-consultant and the client will be able to discuss additional issues that may arise in the process of implementing the developed recommendations are also resolved. At the end of this stage, if the need arises, the counselor and the client can agree with each other about where and when they will meet next time. On average, work at this final stage of psychological counseling takes 20-30 minutes.
If we summarize all of the above, we can establish that it may take on average (without the time allotted for psychological testing) from 2-3 hours to 10-12 hours to complete all five stages of psychological counseling.
Pedagogy
