Psychological consultant: profession of personal development and deployment

Being a psychological consultant is a practice related to health promotion, which is in rapid development and gaining more and more followers. Helps people solve their everyday problems on their own, without advice or guides. And focusing on the current period of each person’s life without the need to remember things or go back in time. Simply accompanying people in their story and helping them listen to themselves.

In this way, and using their own resources, people find within themselves the solutions to the problems that afflict them. They learn to discover and know themselves more, and thus become more accepting of themselves and their environment.

The secret of this form of accompaniment is found in the three basic attitudes that every psychological consultant must have. Empathy, unconditional positive acceptance and congruence. These are part of the theory developed by the American humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers called “Person-centered approach” because it is based on the fact that it is the person who knows himself best and knows what he wants and needs even in his life. Crisis times.

The mechanisms with which a psychological consultant helps

Thus, the way in which a psychological consultant accompanies is by putting themselves in the person’s shoes and helping them discover what they feel (empathy). Without judging her in her vision of the world and her values ​​(unconditional positive acceptance). And the psychological consultant being authentic with himself and with the person he is accompanying (congruence).

All these attitudes together They display introspection in the person helped that allows them to record what is happening to them. and find within herself the necessary resources to solve the problem that is making her suffer. At the same time, the person discovers himself and learns to accept himself through the acceptance he receives from the consultant. And, thus, she develops and breaks with structures that until that moment accompanied her and thus she finds herself being more authentic and freer.

Another advantage of this type of process is that The person comes out of the process knowing better and more prepared to face the different situations in their life in a more responsible way. That is, without being “the victim” of what happens, but rather, recording what happens to you with what is happening. That way, he can find a solution.

But not everything is a bed of roses, since Every process of personal change involves some moment of anguish, anxiety or pain. Especially until the person sees themselves in a new way. But, as he looks and reviews himself, he realizes that the change is positive for her. And that has allowed him to grow internally. And that her suffering has even been “constructive.”

In processes of this type, the person is like a worm that comes out of the chrysalis to become a butterfly and be able to fly. The process entails a certain amount of suffering, but once it comes out, it finds itself with wings and among flowers.

Difference between a counseling or psychological consultant and a psychologist or psychiatrist

The role of the consultant is to be a companion on the path of change and development of the person, without directional interventions. That is, without giving directives or guidelines for change, but simply helping to illuminate the internal areas that the person is going through. . In order for her to discover herself and make her own decisions with her own resources.

The psychological consultant can only treat people who are within the framework of the dimension of normality. That is, without pathologies or disorders. These are spaces that psychologists and/or psychiatrists must treat, to whom the psychological consultant must refer his clients, as appropriate.

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