At the suggestion of my clients, I decided to write about the differences between counseling and psychotherapy (long-term). This material is dedicated to this very topic. What is psychological counseling? "I feel so humiliated... You know, I work in the cafeteria. I go out in this thick blue jacket, with a towel over my arm, I walk around and wipe the tables. I just feel that people are staring at me. Maybe it’s not so, but I feel it. I hate this job. I feel a little better at the counter, but I can’t help but feel inferior...” What the client wants to tell in these bitter ones. in words? A psychologist can to some extent be considered an artist. His task is to understand the problems of a client walking along a life path, at times in the wrong direction. If he can temporarily join the client's world and walk with him (or her), this will help the psychologist gain new understanding and respect for a path different from the psychologist's life path. Moreover, the psychologist, being in the client's value system, will be able to discover that the client wants to change and would like you to help him find new, healthy attitudes, thoughts and ways of acting. Clients who have experienced an onslaught of several problems in a short time or have appeared new problems that they have not previously dealt with... Clients who are able to see their own contribution to a difficult situation, to their difficulties... Clients who can talk about their thoughts and feelings... These are the clients with whom I work in the format of psychological counseling. In Europe, as my translator sister says, going to a psychologist is like going to the nearest market to buy bread) The purpose of psychological counseling is to help the client solve his problem. Realize and change ineffective behavior patterns in order to make important decisions, resolve emerging problems, achieve your goals, live in harmony with yourself and the world around you. How does counseling work in my practice?♦ You just need to want changes in your life experience and not strive to solve the problem of another (boyfriend, spouse, adult child, etc.).♦ I answer on the day of the request. People say that it is pleasant to communicate with me because they feel tactful, environmentally friendly, ethical and respectful. I work hard to ensure that you feel comfortable during our consultation.♦ The consultation and our acquaintance will take place comfortably via Skype, Zoom or WhatsApp via video call.♦ This is a full-fledged consultation, with diagnostics and results (75 minutes instead of the usual 60).♦ To achieve the goals of the consultation, I often invite clients to participate in one or another interesting technique or method (filling out a form for working with thoughts, visualization, emotional-rational role-playing, etc.).♦ Many questions at the meeting help change the client’s old view of problem, expanding the boundaries of his experience and taking on the role of the captain of his ship, who knows the path of further voyage, onto himself. ♦ The results of psychological consultation can manifest themselves in different ways for different clients. Some of my clients gain insights (from the English insight - insight, insight, understanding, illumination), others feel that “wings” are growing behind their backs - a special feeling of lightness and weightlessness occurs, eliminating the previous pain; some clients radically change maladaptive behavior after the meeting; someone seeks to understand the meaning of life, goals and intentions, a general attitude towards life; someone reveals their resources and increases self-esteem, etc. ♦ As a rule, clients come to me with a desire to go through the path of long-term psychotherapy - to reach a better version of themselves. Therefore, by consultation one can mean more the achievement of insights and other above-mentioned goals. And therapy is a deep study of the client’s problem until significant changes in his thinking, emotional state and behavior, which he expected and asked for in his request. There are no perfect people - infallible,ideal supermen from the comics of our childhood. But there are people who have made their thinking free from mental errors and put their feelings and behavior in order. People who wanted to change their lives. I call such people “my clients.” These are ordinary people who overcame their nightly fears of change and found the morning joy of a new life in psychological counseling. How is therapy carried out with clients? “Whatever thoughts come into my head... That it’s all my fault - a bad daughter and wife, a worthless interlocutor... I’m so tired of this mental chewing gum that I’m angry with myself and with those who always blamed me. Since childhood, my life has been within limits and restrictions, I even walk around in a kind of stupor with shackled shoulders... You say, is it the Inner Critic that acts this way?” What is the main goal in working with such a client? Psychotherapy (from ancient Greek. ψυχή “soul, spirit” + θερᾰπεία “<medical> care, treatment”) is a healing, beneficial effect on the psyche and through the psyche on the human body until the client is completely relieved of the problem. Psychotherapy in Russia in the narrow and legislative sense is the activity of a doctor - a psychiatrist with retraining in psychotherapy. In a broad sense, any psychologist is called a therapist if he works in a more or less long-term format and is able to help a client change his thinking and behavior towards light and life. Often this is the activity of a psychotherapist or psychologist (a psychologist is traditionally called a “therapist”, for example, “ Anton Danilov, cognitive behavioral therapist"), aimed at ridding a person of various problems (emotional, personal, social, etc.). Unlike counseling (psychological counseling), therapy is called long-term, since it usually takes more than 10 meetings. Psychotherapeutic work is complemented by high-quality diagnosis of the problem - verbal (discussions, testing) and projective (drawing techniques). This and some other points written above about counseling (time, format, working conditions - what corresponds to the essence of therapy) can also be applied for long-term therapeutic work. The main difference between therapy and counseling is that therapy is a deeper impact on the client’s problem. And this impact occurs not only through the efforts of the client between sessions (the so-called assignments), but also during the meeting. If a person comes with a fear of getting sick for a consultation, he will understand the reasons for his fear, the direction where he needs to go to completely get rid of the unpleasant emotion and within an hour he will begin to be somewhat less afraid of the disease. If a client comes with the same fear or low self-esteem (my original course “You are the beloved and the only one!”) to long-term therapy, he will also understand the reasons for his fear, the direction of movement towards relief and the complete elimination of fear by the end of the course. It may seem that consultation is less effective, but this is not true. She has a different task and function: to help the client at the first meeting to the extent that he is ready to accept. And the depth of the problem that can be solved here is different. Although certain elements of psychotherapy are also possible in consultation (for example, when a client requests help in changing her attitude to do absolutely everything for her adult son that he can do himself). Another difference between psychotherapy and counseling is that during therapeutic sessions, a specialist, together with clients, Using methods and techniques that suit the client’s request, they work through the problem directly at the session. And the degree of depth of such elaboration is different. At the meeting itself, the client feels how his personality changes for the better - his thinking is transformed, his emotional state improves, and the strength to change behavior comes. Whereas a consultation has shorter-term goals, and the number of consultations is usually small. On average, with a quality approach from a psychologist or psychotherapist, the duration ranges from several weeks to several months. In some cases it lasts more than a year. For example, therapy in my practice.