PSYchology

In psychological practice, psychotherapeutic, counseling, teaching and developmental work are quite closely intertwined, sometimes used simultaneously.

Psychodrama, for example, is not necessarily psychotherapy. It can be a training session, it all depends on the position of the client and the tasks of the psychologist.

However, it is important to distinguish these approaches. When a patient who needs psychotherapy gets to developmental trainings, both the patient himself and the participants of the training next to him suffer. When a vigorous and healthy person gets into psychotherapy sessions (which can sometimes be inaccurately called personal growth trainings), he has:

  • or a false opinion is formed about what growth and development of a person is (“This is for the sick!”),
  • or he himself will become ill for a while. This happens too … See →

How to determine how this specialist works or what is the focus of this group? Healthy:

  • pay attention to the style of work (how this specialist works),
  • look at the prevailing contingent, as well as
  • talk to a specialist (or read his articles) to understand his vision and philosophy.

Vocabulary and wording

This is how psychotherapists see their client with emotional blocks.

It is possible to single out beacons (signs) that help to determine whether a given psychologist (this direction) is engaged in his style mainly in psychotherapeutic work or personality development.

Subjective labels of psychotherapeutic work — words and concepts are used: «heartache», «touch the wound», «feeling of insolvency», «upset», «resentment», «problem», «need help», «caution, care», » get rid of», «acceptance».

Subjective labels of educational and developmental work (working with people as if they were healthy): the phrases “set a goal”, “solve a problem”, “find the best way”, “control the result”, “develop”, “set a skill”, “work out ability», «desire, interest». See more details →

Dominant contingent

Psychotherapists are usually visited by people experiencing life and mental difficulties, who need psychotherapy. On the contrary, personality development trainings are more often attended by people who are looking for when a new friendly environment, when new life prospects, in any case, these are usually more mentally healthy people. Accordingly, having made an impression about the contingent, we can also talk about the nature of the work of this specialist or direction.

Working with people who are characterized by negative thinking, a lot of experiences, fixation on themselves, fears, tension — working with such people is rather psychotherapeutic.

If people are more likely to have positive thinking, an active attitude to life, outward orientation towards people, a vision of opportunities, emancipation, then work is more likely to develop.

The vision of a psychotherapist and the vision of a developmental psychologist

To use a metaphor, for a psychotherapist, the world is usually big and strong, and a person (at least who came to see him) is smaller and weaker in relation to the world. In the vision of a developmental psychologist, the Man is big and strong, and the World is his workshop, in which he can do a lot of wonderful things with himself, with those around him, and with the world around him. For a developmental psychologist, there are healthy people. For the psychotherapist, the semblance of mental health is more of a façade behind which morbid processes are always revealed under the neurotic shell. In general, the author’s approach inherent in developmental psychology is usually characterized by:

  • Appeal to the client as the Author, not the Victim.
  • Reliance on the triad characteristic of developmental psychology: Positive — Constructive — Responsibility.
  • Orientation to a greater extent on the Result, rather than on the Process.
  • Orientation to the future: “Why”, not “Why”.
  • Focus on Tasks, not Problems.
  • The client is a Person with goals, not an Organism with needs.

See an example of a psychological analysis of the article by V.L. Levy «Glow, it’s also Radiation», where the themes and turns characteristic of the psychotherapeutic approach are highlighted.

Accept or fight?

The wisdom of the right choice is to fight where there is a chance to overcome difficulties, and to accept what we are unable to cope with today. See →

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