What is psychological counseling - stages, types and techniques of referral

Psychological counseling is one of the types of psychological assistance provided by a professional to clients in situations of various life difficulties and psychological crises. The method originates from psychotherapy, but consultation differs from it in the focus and intensity of the impact.

What is psychological counseling?

Psychotherapy is possible for people with various mental conditions, including borderline disorders, and as an auxiliary method for helping mentally ill patients. Psychological counseling is an option for mentally healthy people with a relatively high level of self-awareness and responsibility, who are willing to take responsibility for the decisions made in the session and work intensively on themselves.

The areas of psychological counseling can be different - it can be assistance to people who find themselves in difficult life situations, as well as recommendations on personal growth, self-development and finding a path in life.

In simple terms, psychological counseling is necessary in two situations:

• when a person is faced with new circumstances, but does not know how to behave in them;
• when a person is in a familiar environment, but wants to change it.

Going through the stages of psychological counseling, a person changes his attitude towards the world around him, towards himself, and learns new ways of behavior.

Is it possible to counsel friends and family?

Personal counseling by a specialist in the field of psychology of your friends, family and friends is not considered correct for a number of reasons:

1. Worrying about the state of people you know prevents the psychologist from perceiving the situation objectively; emotions are a bad adviser.
2. If the problem worsens, it is possible that the person who recklessly gave recommendations will be considered to blame for the outcome of the case. Moreover, this can happen regardless of whether the person being counseled followed the advice or not.
3. It is possible that the specialist will make a mistake. It will be difficult for him to accept the consequences professionally - to draw conclusions and continue to work.

The material issue cannot be ignored. A large amount of time will be spent on providing assistance, a considerable amount of information will be processed, but not everyone is able to demand payment from a loved one. In addition, people are not inclined to treat properly what they got for free. 

Basics of psychological counseling

Psychological counseling is based on a set of measures aimed at improving a person’s mental well-being and harmonizing relationships - within the family, team and other groups. In the process of psychological influence, the client changes the form of his behavior, attitude towards himself and the world, receives recommendations and support from the psychologist.

The main areas of consulting are:

• stimulating the individual to make informed decisions;
• learning new forms of behavior;
• development of the client’s personality and expansion of his horizons.

The central education of counseling is conscious interaction, where special emphasis is placed on the responsibility of the client, in other words, counseling emphasizes the independence of the client as an individual, his ability to make independent decisions and work to change his own personality.

The goals of psychological counseling are determined in each case individually, depending on which psychological school the professional adheres to and what request the client came to him with. However, we can highlight the main areas in which psychologists-consultants work:

• transformation and improvement of behavioral reactions. Changing the client’s habitual forms of behavior helps to increase productivity in the client’s life, harmonization of relationships, and a satisfied attitude towards the quality of one’s own life, even in the absence of changes in the financial situation;
• developing coping skills when faced with everyday challenges and changing world conditions;
• training in balanced and effective decision-making that is important for the client;
• facilitating personal growth and self-realization;
• improvement of interpersonal relationships.

Despite the differences in approaches to the counseling process itself, all psychological schools agree on a single scheme of the counseling process. It consists of several successive stages, replacing each other, the meaning of each of which follows from the content of the previous one. The following stages are distinguished in counseling:

1. Establishing mutual trusting contact. Research of the client's problem area.
2. Definition of a specific problem situation. At the same time, the problem is studied in two planes - in the cognitive and emotional spheres.
3. Search for alternatives. Establishing possible ways to solve the problem.
4. Planning. Development of a step-by-step plan for each of the options for solving a problem situation.
5. Consistent implementation of the developed plan.
6. Evaluation of the work done. Feedback from client to consultant. Checking satisfaction with the achieved result.

In practice, not everything happens as sequentially as described in this diagram. For example, difficulties may arise in identifying the problem, or the client may refuse to contact the psychologist. As the plan progresses, there may be difficulties with its implementation and it may be necessary to return to previous stages of the consultation process. At the last stage, the client may remain dissatisfied with the changes that have occurred, and then the process will have to start from the first stages. Thus, the counseling process is much more complicated than described in the diagram - it all depends on the client’s problem situation and his readiness to work on himself.

Types of psychological counseling

There are several types of psychological counseling, depending on the problem situations and the characteristics of the people who turned to a professional. A psychologist's clients may differ in age, marital status, personality traits, religion and culture - all this requires different approaches from the psychologist. The following types of psychological counseling are distinguished:

• according to the form of implementation - individual, group, family;
• by focus - psychological and pedagogical, business, multicultural;
• by age - consultation for children and adults.

These are not all possible types of psychological counseling - they are created by various scientific schools, and practical applications require more and more new options for psychological services.

Individual counseling is practically the most common type of psychological counseling. During this process, the client is left alone with the consultant. This form of consultation is suitable for those people who want to solve a problem in their own minds - get rid of fears, grow personally, become more successful, etc. Psychological counseling is widespread as a method of reducing anxiety and aggressiveness among school-age children.

Group counseling involves several clients and one consultant. Consultation is carried out on common problems that unite clients, for example, counseling teams at work about unity, or counseling different married couples.

Family counseling involves members of the same family as clients in order to resolve their interpersonal conflicts or prepare for an important event, such as the birth of a child. This form of consultation is the most difficult from the organizational position, since it is especially difficult to gather people separated by conflicts for a common cause.

Psychological and pedagogical counseling is aimed at teaching people how to interact with children and older students. Issues of optimizing training programs, applying methods, educational innovations, etc. are covered.

Business psychological consulting can be characterized in various ways, depending on the organization or field of activity in which it is applied. In addition to focusing on professional activities, the goals of business psychological consulting are to unite employees, increase work efficiency, advise managers on more effective management, etc.

Consulting work

As soon as all questions and conditions are determined and accepted, the consulting work begins. The methods and techniques used depend on the problem, its severity, and relevance:

• The process can use art therapy, drama therapy, and narrative practice. These methods are relevant for identifying underlying problems and their painless resolution.
• Conversation is used, discussing the positions of different parties in conflicts.
• When working with problem behavior and aggression, new ways of responding to difficult situations are developed.
• In case of fears, self-doubt, anxiety, it is important to understand the client’s past - what kind of relationship there was with parents, whether there were any difficulties with adaptation.
• If there are problems in relationships in the family, with peers, or colleagues, group trainings and family counseling can be used.
• Questions of the meaning of life can be effectively discussed from the perspective of existential therapy.

Consulting children with a psychologist

Age-related psychological counseling, or psychological counseling for children, is one of the types of individual consultation. It is aimed at education on issues of mental development in different age periods. At such consultations, parents are given recommendations regarding the characteristics of their child’s mental development, optimal upbringing and principles of education. These consultations are dedicated not only to parents, but also to employees of various institutions who have direct contact with children.

In addition, such consultations can be aimed at the children themselves - they are designed to resolve issues of difficulties in academic performance, in interaction with the team, teachers, parents, and peers. For teenagers of high school age, consultations are held on career guidance - choosing a future profession based on identified aptitudes.

This type of psychological counseling is aimed at monitoring the normal development of the child’s mental functions, identifying developmental delays, and correcting abnormal personality development. Simply put, the need for age-related psychological counseling lies in the desire of parents to raise a harmonious, successful personality, ready to make independent decisions and choose their own path in life.

The personality and situation of psychological counseling for children is fundamentally different from a similar process carried out with an adult. While it is still possible to convince a teenager of responsibility for his decisions and get him to act independently, this is fundamentally impossible with young children. Therefore, in such consultations, the active subjects are adult members of the family in which the child is being raised.

Upbringing and the influence that parents have on a child are the main shaping factors for his worldview and behavior. Therefore, while the child is within the family, the main work of the psychologist is focused on his parents.

We list the basic rules that a specialist must adhere to during consultations with children:

1. Confidentiality. The psychologist acts as a safe figure for the child, who can (and must) be entrusted with information that cannot be told to parents, teachers and friends. All information received from the child must be kept confidential and used solely in the interests of the client.
2. Honesty on both sides. The psychologist must be honest with the client if he wants to obtain truthful information from him.
3. Non-judgmental acceptance. Psychological counseling assumes that the consultant unconditionally accepts the client’s position, regardless of his internal consent. The client must feel that he is understood and accepted for who he is - otherwise it will not be possible to establish trusting contact.

The main task of the consultant is to overcome the barrier between him and his little patient. When children go to a psychologist, they turn out to be unmotivated; they do not understand why they need sessions and what is required of them - after all, going to a specialist is encouraged by their parents.

In addition, young children with psychological problems often have low self-esteem and negative experiences with adults - with parents or teachers. The psychologist, as an adult figure, also automatically causes a negative reaction, which he needs to overcome in the course of establishing contact with the client.

Teenagers, unlike younger children, turn out to be more straightforward and capable of displaying aggression. They deny that they have any problems, react emotionally to indications that they are wrong, and resist the psychologist’s recommendations.

Psychological counseling techniques

Techniques of psychological counseling are inextricably linked with its stages. Let's look at the stages of counseling in psychology and the techniques used during each of them.

The first stage of psychological counseling is a meeting between the client and the psychologist. During the first session the following techniques are used:

1. Greetings. When greeting, the consultant uses standard phrases that indicate his location and openness: “Glad to see you,” “Nice to meet you,” etc.
2. Guide the client to the location. The consultant leads the visitor, showing him the way and inviting him to the office in front of him.
3. Establishing a positive attitude. In psychological counseling, both active and passive methods are used for this. Passive methods include the pleasant appearance of the consultant, office, friendly facial expression, adherence to etiquette and communication areas. Active methods mean directly encouraging or otherwise positively influencing the client through words or actions.
4. Liberation from psychological barriers. It is quite natural for a client to feel nervousness before the first visit to a psychologist, and the client’s true thoughts and feelings cannot always pass through this anxiety. It may take more than one session to remove psychological barriers. However, this process can be facilitated with the help of free conversation, inviting music and other techniques.

The second stage is devoted to collecting information about the client and his problem. It includes the following methods of psychological counseling:

1. Diagnosis of a client’s personality consists of a combination of observation, conversation and interview. Observation occurs in passive mode throughout the entire communication session. The consultant notes the characteristics of the client’s behavior, gestures, and conversation. The conversation flows freely and allows the client to “speak”, to freely express his thoughts. An interview differs from a conversation in that the consultant practically does not take an active position in it, but only asks questions. In addition, unlike a free-flowing conversation, interview questions are purposefully designed and should lead the conversation to a specific point.
2. Clarification of the essence of the problem is carried out using two techniques - dialogue and active listening. During the dialogue, the consultant actively leads the client to reveal his deepest experiences. If the client is already mentally prepared and talks about what worries him, the active listening technique is used. During this process, the psychologist listens to the client without interrupting, showing him that he is included in the conversation, nodding, paraphrasing and asking clarifying questions.

The third stage is drawing up a strategy to overcome the client’s difficulties. It can be divided into three stages, each of which involves the use of special techniques:

• Determining possible ways out of a problem situation. For this purpose, techniques such as advice, information, persuasion and clarification are used. It should be understood conditionally - the client should not take the recommendation given by the psychologist on faith. It should be discussed in detail during a joint discussion, as a result of which the client must put forward his own solution to the situation.
• Coordinating the action plan. At this stage, the client, together with the psychologist, will have to develop a plan for implementing the option that was selected at the previous stage. This is done using techniques for finding multiple solutions, specifying expectations, stimulating questions, and establishing a sequence of solutions.

Thus, in the course of resolving the client’s psychological difficulties, various techniques are used. There is no universal scheme that will help any client cope with the problem - the skill of a consultant lies in mastering a wide range of psychological tools and masterfully selecting the necessary equipment in each specific situation.

Analysis of techniques and techniques used by the psychologist during the session

In today's session I used the following techniques:
Techniques

Conditions for the effectiveness of consultations with a psychologist

Psychological counseling is successful only when several factors are combined:

• The client is motivated to make positive changes in life and work on consciousness and behavior. The consultation is conducted by a psychologist, but the results depend on whether the person himself wants to influence his life, since during consultations the specialist only helps to come to conclusions, but does not do the work for the client.
• The process and stages of psychological counseling are selected individually, taking into account the personality characteristics of the person applying and his problem situation. It is impossible to advise everyone using the same scheme. A professional always shows flexibility in the selection of certain techniques and their options in order to convey to a person the essence of his internal problems.
• The client attends all necessary sessions scheduled by the consultant. In addition to the fact that during psychological counseling a person comes to the conclusion that changes are necessary, he needs to learn to behave in a certain way and consolidate the achieved result. Many clients give up visiting a psychologist and, as a result, cannot resolve the situation, because after some changes others occur, for which the person is also not ready. As a result, the problem returns again without finding an adequate solution.
• During consultations, a mutual trusting relationship is established between the client and the professional. This is important, because otherwise the consultant will not be able to obtain reliable information or influence the person needed for productive work.
• The consultant is not focused on temporary effects. Even if a strategy for solving a certain situation has been developed jointly with the client, the person, having overcome the problem, may at any moment encounter a new problem. Therefore, it is important that the professional does not direct all his attention to temporary relief of the situation, but works on the underlying cause of the current situation - the lack of necessary forms of behavior or the presence of an internal unresolved conflict.

Thus, the effectiveness of psychological counseling depends not only on the personality and professionalism of the consultant, but also (to a greater extent) on the work that a person does on himself. If you are looking for a professional, we recommend contacting psychologist Nikita Valerievich Baturin, who has been helping to get rid of various anxiety disorders for many years.