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Which university to enter a girl who wants to become a psychologist is not so important. It is useful for a girl to study at any humanitarian university, and where she will go to work later or get married, this is a very next question. If the question is “Where should I go to study to become a psychologist?” asks a guy who graduated from high school and is seriously thinking about his future career in the field of psychology, I will dissuade him from this idea. The profession of a psychologist is somewhat akin to the profession of an actor: the best actors are envied by everyone, and most actors live in poverty in poor theaters. Psychology is one of the best professions in the world, but most ordinary psychologists can neither earn a normal salary nor improve their personal lives.
Why? Because they did not know what to learn and because they were poorly taught.
Figure out what you want
Many people dream of working as a psychologist, but they often imagine it like this: “I will help people. I will meet good people, talk heart to heart with them and grow with them as a person.” No, you will not be paid for this. Everything is much more difficult, and difficulties will begin with study: studying “to become a psychologist” is not easy and not always interesting: there are few strong universities, training for a psychologist is weak and quickly ceases to please: theory, repetitions, impractical knowledge. Next, who are you going to study? If you are a psychotherapist, then after graduating from a university without work experience, you will most likely be hired for a meager salary in a district consultation for conversations with single women and unfortunate elderly people who want to talk to someone. However, a psychologist is not necessarily a psychotherapist, and it is not at all necessary to close oneself to help people with mental difficulties. You may want to counsel people instead who lack life experience in family relationships or parenting, but that’s not psychotherapy, it’s counseling. Or maybe you will be attracted by the excellent work of a coach, but this is a completely different format and different skills.
In any case, you will have to join one or another school. There are four strong schools today: NLP, psychoanalysis, gestalt therapy and synthon approach. They are different, and specialists in one approach often do not understand specialists in another. To decide, meet with representatives of these schools, talk, take a closer look, look for your own.
Take a closer look at working with the group
If you are a talented and successful person, then I, as a future psychologist, will recommend you to take a closer look at group psychological work. Working with a group is livelier, brighter and richer than working individually with one person. If we are not talking about interest for you, but about efficiency in terms of results, then here, too, group work often has an advantage over individual work. Of course, there are also many options here: groups can be large and small, groups of a psychotherapeutic or business format, there are personal trainings, there are trainings for specific skills, but in any case, this is really interesting work. What trainings are the most interesting to conduct? Of course, this is an amateur, but usually the most enthusiastic trainers are those who lead personal training. Another thing is that only psychologists of the highest qualification can conduct quality personal training, and there will be a lot to learn here.
What you need: professionalism, intelligence and health
It seems to many that for the work of a psychologist it is enough to be a good, kind person, to be able to listen and empathize with people. No. You must have the ability to understand and feel people, but it will not replace your true professionalism or good intelligence. A good psychologist should have a very good head, an excellent memory, fast and clear logical thinking — at least in order to study a lot of complex professional literature. To melt all this into high professionalism, you will need diligence, that is, a strong butt and the same good health. In general, please note that the work of a psychologist-trainer is associated with great physical exertion, so you need to accustom yourself to lead a healthy lifestyle, go to bed on time. If your sleep is upset, your mood will begin to “float”, and against the background of heavy physical exertion and emotional stress, depression may also begin … Total: lead a healthy lifestyle, take care of your health. It is important.
Learn how others treat you
Whether you can become a psychologist, especially a psychologist-trainer, is quite simple to find out — take a closer look at how people treat you. Do your relatives respect you, what kind of relationship do you have with relatives: with your mother, with brothers and sisters? How often do friends or family consult with you? Are you valued by colleagues and management? If you are a student and you do not yet have bosses and colleagues, who are you at the level of the student group: a leader or an outsider? Good coaches who lead psychological groups are leaders, people who are authoritative in a particular team or group. Do you have experience leading groups or teams? For example, if you went hiking, were you successful there, were you a leader? Did you participate in KVN and were you the team captain at the same time? If yes, then you have a successful base and experience in leading groups, then something shines for you. If you do not have a successful experience, then first create it, and then go to psychologists. An outsider educated in psychology and working with other outsiders is a misunderstanding, not a psychologist. «Shoemaker without boots» can hardly be considered a professional. Start with your own success, only after that you get the moral right to teach others something.
Check yourself in action
The best way to make sure that the work of a psychologist is right for you is to test yourself in practice. Yes, but how? Is it possible? Sometimes yes. In Sinton, for example, you can, with some effort, become a curator — an assistant presenter. The curator does not conduct large trainings, but helps in small classes, works with small groups of 5-10 people, where the assimilation and development of the material that the leader-master gave at the main training takes place. Of course, not everyone is allowed to work as a curator, there will also be compulsory education, but it is quite feasible, and the result is attractive. Working with a small group as a curator, you will get acquainted with group dynamics, learn how to manage the attention of the group, speak to people, present yourself, be attentive to people, and get out of difficult situations. You will gain invaluable experience as a coach-psychologist, and most importantly, you will really be able to decide whether you can and want to become a coach.
Start your career with business coaching
Business coaching is fun. Be interested in them at least due to the fact that business coaches make the best money. This is a sought-after branch of our profession, and it is easier to master it than personal training. Another thing is that real business experience and your business success are especially required here. This is not the same as a psychological education, and when hiring a business coach, the determining moment is whether he has experience in a successful business or profile work in a successful company. In any case, if you teach sales, you yourself should be able to sell cool. By the way, the most standard-demanded trainings are sales trainings: you can live comfortably on their conduct. But there is a danger here, sales training is a rather monotonous job, which after four years can become a routine: you come, work, not including your head and soul, and that’s it. There is a professional burnout, and it is important for the participants of the training to feel the energy in the trainer. Therefore, no matter where and no matter how you work as a psychologist, it is important to make sure that you have an interest in your work every day, every morning!
Prepare to study after high school
Whatever university you go to, after completing a basic psychology education, you will have to study for several more years, mastering one or another particular style of practical psychology. This is usually not taught in universities, but you will need to master: either NLP, or psychoanalysis, or the Gestalt approach, or the synthon approach … It is best, while getting a higher education, to simultaneously study as a trainer in reputable training centers. In my opinion, there are three good coaching schools in Moscow: Zhanna Zavyalova’s School of Business Coaches, Leonid Krol’s Klass Center, and Olga Paratnova’s Training of Coaches at the Sinton Training Center.
There is another way to get everything at once and seriously: these are two years of study at the «University of Practical Psychology». At the University, you will learn how to conduct webinars and trainings, master consulting and coaching, make your own website and start promoting yourself, creating a professional future for yourself. The main instrument of a psychologist’s work is his personality, and in the process of working at the Distance you will develop all the skills necessary for the work of a psychologist, develop as a person, improve relationships in the family and at work, build your career — this is also included in the study program. According to the documents, you will receive a state diploma, certificates of «NLP Practitioner», «Specialist in Ericksonian Hypnosis», «Coach Leading the Distance». Excellent graduates receive a European-style Specialist Certificate from the European Counseling Association (EAC).
And after that, for many years you will hone your skills under the guidance of masters. Understand the main thing: to work as a psychologist means to study all your life.