What is psychological help, who needs it and when?

• The concept of psychological assistance: what is it like?
• Who can a psychologist help?
• How to help yourself?
• Types and methods of psychological assistance

Sooner or later, we all need psychological support, because life’s difficulties that we cannot cope with on our own can overtake us at any moment. Moreover, difficult situations and our reactions to them tend to repeat themselves, and then the root cause of the disorders must be dealt with once and for all.

Let's take a closer look at the methods of psychological assistance and think about who needs it and when.

The concept of psychological assistance: what is it like?

Psychological assistance involves giving a person information about his psycho-emotional state, identifying the causes and mechanisms of occurrence of certain psychological reactions based on diagnosis and symptoms, and also actively influencing the psyche in order to harmonize the psyche and health and improve the quality of life.

Such assistance is provided by professional psychotherapists who have certain knowledge and personal qualities.

Psychological assistance depends on the specific case and can be:

• urgent (for acute panic states, danger of suicide, shock, violence, irreparable grief) or delayed (for long-term difficulties of a chronic nature);
• short-term or long-term (depending on the nature of stress, depression and the patient’s crisis state);
• individual or group (depending on the initial problem and final tasks).

Psychological counseling

The word consulto itself is translated from Latin as “to consult, to take care.” And therefore, counseling is, first of all, a specific relationship between a consultant and a client. A relationship in which the counselor helps the client provide self-help . In part, this is a learning process through communication, which helps the client see, accept, recognize and understand his feelings, thoughts, and behavior.

The client learns to come to a clearer, more conscious understanding of himself. Learns to see and use your strengths, develop them, search for and use your own internal resources. Learns to take responsibility for your life, manage it most effectively, use your strengths, learn to make adequate decisions, set goals and achieve them. This is perhaps the main essence of this type of assistance.

It is important to understand that counseling is not therapeutic in nature. Counseling helps healthy people . Their goal is to change relationships and improve the quality of life.

This method is used in all areas where psychological knowledge is used. This includes medicine, pedagogy, management (personnel, for example), and other areas that involve interaction between people. After all, in essence, all of this is a relationship, only of varying degrees of depth and varying duration.

The purpose and result of counseling is to create a relationship and atmosphere of mutual cooperation between the consultant and the client during the consultation. Trust and mutual openness are very important for such interaction.

The most important tool in a psychologist’s work is not the set of techniques he owns, nor the number of certificates and academic titles, as many believe. The main tool of a psychologist’s work is his personality. This is the most important factor.

One of the main tasks of a consulting psychologist is to create an atmosphere of respect, acceptance of individuality and emotional warmth and understanding. His tasks also include the ability to appreciate the uniqueness of the client’s inner world, and not to use value judgments in relation to what was heard at the reception.

For a consultant, the ability to empathize (mental responsiveness, the ability to empathize and sympathize, to be useful to the client) is important.

Of course, qualifications, education, and knowledge of various techniques are also important. After all, this gives the ability to identify and analyze the factors that will lead the client to the desired result.

Who can a psychologist help?

Scientific psychologists say that the symptoms of crises depend on the severity of the event experienced, but their nature is identical and implies a change in the human psyche, regardless of whether he suffered an irreparable catastrophe or lost the meaning of life. In any case, rehabilitation begins with understanding the root cause of the problem and stabilizing the emotional state.

Psychological help is required for people with various nervous, anxiety and mental disorders and healthy people who are currently experiencing difficult life circumstances or are in a crisis, shock, stress or conflict situation.

Emergency (crisis) assistance

The first thing the word “emergency” is associated with is, of course, the rescue service. In our country, the Ministry of Emergency Situations has a large staff of highly professional psychologists who work in the most difficult situations - terrorist attacks, floods, major fires, disasters, industrial accidents. The main goal of their outreach activities is to help victims and their relatives cope with shock and stress, and also direct them towards further rehabilitation.

Helplines

Everyday emergency psychological assistance is needed in order to keep a specific person from taking fatal steps. You must understand that the helpline operator will not solve the problem, but will only help a person in a crisis to relieve negative and destructive emotions and release adrenaline. For full-fledged psychotherapy, further contact with a specialist is required.

Here are several free helplines and psychological support in St. Petersburg (area code 812), which may one day save you or your loved ones in a critical moment:

How to help yourself?

If you feel that you are able to get out of a difficult psychological situation on your own, you can make some efforts and help yourself. We tell you how to do this.

1. Using literature on psychology, study your psyche, identify strengths and weaknesses.
2. Don’t forget to observe yourself, control your thoughts and behavior to current life events, and analyze your reactions.
3. Remember that reading a few articles to learn how to adjust your emotional background is not enough. It is necessary to apply the information received to your case, only then will you achieve results.
4. Our training course will give you a real chance not only to cope with a crisis situation yourself, but also the opportunity to get a new profession and help other people in their difficulties by working as a psychological consultant.

The path of self-exploration is fascinating and interesting, makes you see your personality in a new light, teaches you to better understand both yourself and other people.

Patient cooperation and responsibility

It is important that any of the mentioned methods involves not only the work of a psychologist, but also the active involvement of the client in the process - full cooperation . And also that responsibility for the result falls equally on both the specialist and the patient .

It is worth considering that psychological assistance is only partly similar to medical assistance. Although even in medicine there is the concept of “patient responsibility” . You can prescribe a medicine of any complexity and degree of effectiveness, but it will only work if you take it responsibly according to the regimen prescribed by your doctor. The disease will not go away if the medicine remains on the shelf.

The story is similar in pedagogy. The best teacher in the world can teach the most valuable knowledge in the world. But if the student is passive and does not want to learn, then the teacher’s efforts will be in vain.

It’s the same with psychological help. The psychologist and the client bear equal responsibility for the result. It is important not only what the specialist gives, but also what the client takes.

How long does a psychological consultation last?

The duration of a psychological consultation is usually 45-60 minutes, usually 50 minutes. Experience shows that this amount of time is enough for most clients. This duration is partly explained by the fact that with such a length of consultation, the psychologist has a 10-minute break necessary to take a breath and get ready for the next session.

Some psychologists allocate more time for consultations with clients, usually no more than 1.5 hours. This is especially common among psychologists working with couples and families. The long duration of a psychological consultation is non-standard and, with some exceptions (for example, the inclusion of diagnostic techniques in the consultation) indicates the lack of professionalism of the psychologist.

Most of the time of the first consultation, as a rule, is spent on orienting oneself in the client’s life situation and assessing his emotional state. Therefore, what you should expect from a one-time consultation with a psychologist is to receive support, relevant information and professional advice. A more serious approach to the problem requires a more thorough study, for which the psychologist may suggest that you meet several times in order to better understand the nature of your problems and take a more balanced approach to the issue of determining the optimal type of help. At the same time, in some cases, several meetings are quite enough to ease the emotional situation and correct your reactions in a given life situation.

Psychological support: how to help yourself and your loved ones.

Shchepikhina D.A.,

educational psychologist

Today, more than ever, I want to talk about support, help and getting out of crisis situations. In difficult times of isolation and pandemic, we experience a range of feelings from situational anxiety to fear of death and panic. The difficulty lies in the fact that we not only have to cope with negative emotions and real life difficulties ourselves, but also provide support to those closest to us, to be a support for ourselves and others. We can safely say that now we are all in a crisis situation, when old models of behavior and ways of solving problems do not work, when we need to intensively adapt, change and find solutions. This is the positive result of any crisis – the birth of a new one. But there is another side - a crisis in which there was no support turns into trauma. Psychological trauma is already harm that has been caused to our psychological or mental health; this is something that can destroy our personality and our lives for a long time. Therefore, now and always it is important to be able to provide support to each other and receive it ourselves. We can judge how difficult it is for people in forced isolation by the number of negative statements on the Internet. Take, for example, a forum for parents who are forced to work remotely and at the same time help their child with distance learning.

Here are just a few quotes from parents: “I'm shocked! They assure that this is for the duration of quarantine, a necessary measure... Yes, yes... There is not enough evil,” “You can’t stand up to die, well, whoever is older, there you can already put pressure on their responsibility, independence... and here you know, a first-grader is sitting, he needs a cartoon I want to watch, play with my toy, and for him to study and at least understand something, I need to sit next to him all the time,” “Right, I don’t know. And during the breaks I rush around to the younger one, then cook. In the evening my legs swell because I get tired.”

Of course, in such a situation it is difficult for a parent to provide support to a child, himself or a close relative. It is difficult, first of all, because there are no own resources, and also because there are no support skills. This is what our article is dedicated to.

I would like to introduce you to some myths about support, stereotypes that prevent you from giving or receiving help.

1. The best way to help a person is to tell him that everything will be fine.

This is probably the most common and ineffective way to provide support. Especially in a situation of anxiety. Anxiety, unlike fear, is a feeling of anxiety that has no real basis, a vague feeling of danger when you don’t know what to fight with, so rational arguments in relation to it are powerless. In the case of anxiety, it is much more important to recognize the person’s feelings and reflect them: “I see that you are worried now,” “Your situation is really not easy,” “It’s difficult for you now and you have to cope with a lot,” etc. In addition, the phrase “everything will be fine” is not entirely true. Life experience often shows that the situation can develop according to a negative scenario. In this case, you can tell the person “I will be there no matter what happens”, “I am always ready to help and talk.”

2. If they help me, I will feel obligated.

Of course, it would be great to maintain a balance of “give and take” in all relationships. But it happens that at the moment we are in the role of those who are only able to receive. Temporarily we stand on one leg and cannot be strong. At the moment we are like a child who needs the help of a big and strong adult. But we don’t expect an equivalent answer from the child, we don’t expect him to solve our problems. If help is provided to you sincerely, then accept it with gratitude. When you are ready, you can also provide support to someone. And most importantly, when a person supports another, he learns to ask for and receive help himself, and sees that there is nothing terrible in not having a resource.

3. I am strong and used to dealing with problems on my own.

This myth is very related to the previous one. I would just like to add that real strength lies in the ability to assess your capabilities and stop in time. Try to mentally imagine that you are approaching a loved one and saying, looking at their head, the phrase: “I need your support.” Difficult? Undoubtedly. But this very skill is a manifestation of strength, something that we must teach our children by example.

4. My situation is such that no one can help me.

This myth is most often associated with the narrowing of a person’s thinking during a crisis, when there is no way out in sight, and it seems that all options have already been tried. The situation in your life may indeed be very difficult, such that it cannot be solved in one day or even a month. But thoughts about the “exceptionalism” of the problem only increase suffering. Psychologists know that a simple conversation with others allows you to see that your feelings can be withstood, that someone has already encountered this before you. That’s why support groups, forums, marathons, etc. are so popular now. Hearing the words “I see you”, “I had this too” is important, especially when it seems that there is no way out.

5. I’m fine, my loved ones need help.

If you're doing well, that's great! But this means that you are now the person who can be a support to your partner, friend or child. This myth often prevents parents from seeking help from psychologists when the issue concerns their child. Although it is the child who is a reflection of our hidden problems, which has long been proven in psychotherapy. In any case, if you are filled with strength and knowledge, you can competently provide support to someone who is having a hard time right now.

6. Time heals, the problem will solve itself.

Of course, any crisis ends. Another question is whether we will come out of this crisis stronger, with new skills and abilities, or more divided, with resentment, powerlessness or low self-esteem. A good example in this case is the teenage crisis. Parents often ask for help at this time. But often - with issues of study, conflicts, household responsibilities, and not with issues of relationships. In most cases, many teenage problems will indeed end over time. Therefore, it is extremely important during this difficult period to maintain contact with the child, trust, and not turn into two strangers who see only negativity in each other and communicate only in raised voices. If we get used to talking to a teenager at this time only in terms of superiority, criticism and alienation, it is unlikely that in two years we will easily become friends. Not to mention that during a crisis a person is susceptible to developing addictions, depression, suicidal tendencies, etc. It is better not to wait until the problem worsens and ossifies, but to seek support at a stage when a minimum of attracted resources is sufficient.

7. People themselves must understand that I need help.

And the last, most important myth, brings us back to the realization that any communication is a two-way process. Receiving support and help is the same as communication. And no one among our loved ones can read minds. When a person does not know how to ask for help, he can resort to various kinds of manipulation and passive aggression. For example, a child says: “I’m tired of this school, I won’t do anything else, it all goes to hell.” Instead of saying, “I can’t do my homework, I need your help.” Unfortunately, children and adults can resort to more autogressive ways to show that they need help: illness (“I don’t have any strength anymore and you give me a headache”), self-harm (“It would be better if I didn’t exist, no one loves me” ), working until exhaustion (“I did so much, and you just sat on the couch”). As soon as we non-aggressively declare that help is needed, options immediately appear - instead of negative emotions and resentments. It’s not for nothing that the Bible says: “Knock and it will be opened to you, ask and it will be given to you.”

We have sorted out the myths regarding support, and now I would like to give examples of how to constructively provide support and what its main types are.

There are three types of support: emotional, intellectual and action support. Different types of support are best suited to different situations, and furthermore, different people need different types of support.

We are often only able to provide one kind of support, and it is not always appropriate for the person we are providing it to.

The main differences between the three types of support:

1. Emotional support

– about feelings and emotions, the supporter encourages a sincere conversation and gives the person the opportunity to speak out and live their feelings. The purpose of this type of support is to help the person calm down.

Basic principles:

1. We are not in the business of solving the problem.

2. We let the person talk

3. We accept all a person’s feelings as important and correct.

4. We help a person calm down and reduce the intensity of emotions

2. Intelligent support

– searching for solutions to the problem, building a plan, analysis, invitation to brainstorming. Goal: to help find the best way to solve the problem.

Basic principles:

1. We are looking for different solutions to the problem

2. The supporter is absolutely confident in himself and in

that a solution will be found

3. We engage in intellectual reflection and

don't delve into emotions

4. Emphasis is placed on real facts and cause-and-effect relationships.

3. Action support

–
specific advice and ready-made solutions
, calls to action to change the problem situation. Goal: solve the problem as quickly as possible.

Basic principles:

1. We are determined to deal with the problem right now

2. The supporter must be active, focused and confident in his advice

3. In a situation of danger and threat to life or health, the supporter takes a leading position and calls for action loudly, clearly and actively

All three types of support are appropriate in different situations. The best way to understand what will help a person is to simply ask him: “What help do you need? How can I help you?" Don't forget that you can also ask yourself these phrases and questions! Showing love, care and compassion towards yourself as to the closest person. And if you ask for support, try to think about what exactly you expect from the other person and voice it.

Take care of your psychological strength, learn to feel when it’s running low and get help on time! Including in our Center and with our specialists.

List of sources used:

1) Raevsky, Chugueva “Support. Psychological game." Library of the Union for Mental Health. Publisher: Gorodets Publishing House, 2022.

Psychological prevention

Psychoprophylaxis is aimed at:

• prevention of mental illness (various types of addictions, for example);
• rehabilitation (restoration of lost or impaired psychological mechanisms).

This type of assistance includes psychological education (lectures, seminars, etc.). It is of great importance in the field of education.

• Primary psychoprophylaxis is working with the entire group (for example, with all students of a certain age at school).
• Secondary – working with participants who are at risk and prone to certain problems.
• Tertiary - working with those who already have certain problems.

Prevention of personal and social problems, for example, is aimed at developing in people an adequate attitude towards drugs, alcohol, smoking, advertising, conflicts, and sexual contacts.

To implement prevention programs in this area, trainings are used that teach aggression management, assertive behavior (that is, the ability to politely defend one’s position and say “no”), critical perception of advertising, etc.

Psychological correction

As you can easily guess from the name, this method is aimed primarily at changes (changing behavior, overcoming developmental deviations).

There are many types and forms of psychological correction. Most often it is used in child psychology and medical psychotherapy.

Sometimes correction means psychotherapy, sometimes a whole range of psychological influences on a child to overcome deviations in his development and behavior.