Psychologist - what kind of specialist is this? Let's find out more

Who is a psychologist and why is he needed?

The word “psychology” is translated from Greek as “the science of the soul” (“psycho” - soul, “logos” - knowledge).
Accordingly, a psychologist is a specialist who studies the inner world of a person, its relationship with the environment, as well as the psyche and its structure. Only a person who has received an appropriate higher education can be called a psychologist. Depending on his qualifications and specialization, he can work with different age groups, as well as with various spheres of human life - family, business, educational, sports, etc.

There are several branches of psychology:

1. General psychology – studies human mental activity;
2. Personality psychology – studies the inner world of a person;
3. Developmental psychology – studies the human psyche from birth to death;
4. Educational psychology – studies methods of education and training;
5. Psychology of communication – studies and solves problems of interaction between people;
6. Medical psychology (more recently clinical psychology) - studies mental phenomena from the point of view of their relationship with diseases.

Most often, experienced psychologists work with several sections of this science at once, but there are also more narrowly focused specialists who work with only one of them.
Don’t be confused, a psychologist is not the same thing as a psychiatrist. Unlike a psychiatrist, a psychologist deals with solving the internal problems of mentally healthy people - liberation from emotional traumas, complexes, establishing relationships with certain people, etc.

In order to carry out psychological activities, a psychologist does not need in-depth medical education, unlike a psychiatrist, who receives it first. A psychiatrist works with mentally ill people who have serious mental illnesses and disabilities.

The role of psychologists is currently very important - many enterprises, schools, and higher education institutions cannot do without these specialists. It is psychologists who resolve most conflicts and misunderstandings that arise during the work process.

Psychology of Personality

What qualities do you need to have?

An analytical mind and the ability to remain calm even in the most emotionally charged situations are key qualities that a psychologist should have. Imagine: hundreds of clients contact a practicing consultant every month. Each of them has their own problem, each of them is stupid in their own way, 99% expect instructions for action from a specialist, which do not exist and cannot exist.

The skills of not losing composure, looking at things soberly and analyzing situations with a cool head come to the fore.

A psychologist should not empathize with the client - he is constantly faced with other people’s traumatic and stressful situations, and taking all this “on oneself” is simply unacceptable. Otherwise, objectivity is lost, and the specialist himself may soon find himself seeing a psychiatrist.

Another important quality is independence from assessments and opinions. 9 out of 10 of your clients are likely to be unhappy with the consultation because they were hoping to receive instructions or learn a secret. And the task of a psychologist is only to direct a person’s thoughts in the right direction - he must himself become aware of the problem and ways to solve it.

Features of the profession

The work of a psychologist is based on communication with people, so a specialist in this field must have such personal qualities as:

1. Stress resistance;
2. Humanity;
3. Goodwill;
4. Listening skills;
5. The ability to penetrate to the essence of the patient's internal problems.

A competent specialist will never allow himself to interrupt a client, infringe on his dignity, or belittle the significance of his internal problem.
When communicating with a patient, the psychologist is faced with the task of establishing communicative contact with him and finding the most appropriate technique for solving the patient’s emotional issue. There are several types of psychologists who specialize in communicating with clients:

1. A consultant
   is a specialist who conducts a conversation with a patient. The work of this psychologist comes down to discussing problems with the client, establishing communicative interaction with him;
2. An art therapist
   is a psychologist who solves patients’ internal problems through artistic activity;
3. Psychotherapist
   is a specialist who specializes in solving the patient’s internal problems using bodily practices;
4. NLP psychologist
   is a specialist who helps solve problems by selecting individual techniques for developing mental, spiritual, and creative abilities.

Psychology of the eyes: color will tell you about your character

Clinical psychology

Clinical psychologist

Clinical psychology is one of the most developed and most complex branches of psychology. It is aimed at studying and diagnosing a person’s personality, his inner world, emotions and experiences from the point of view of their relationship with mental illnesses or disorders.

A clinical psychologist is a specialist who helps his patients get rid of the consequences of severe nervous breakdowns and injuries, find inner peace, and rehabilitate mentally after certain traumatic situations.

Clinical psychology is borderline with psychiatry, but its scope of activity is broader and is not aimed at the rehabilitation of mentally ill people. Much attention in this branch of psychology is given to the unconscious.

Clinical psychology considers human behavior and his inner world as a reaction to certain psychological and physical traumas, complexes and disorders.

The clinical psychologist most often encounters:

• Victims of psychological or physical violence;
• People with disabilities who experience deep emotional feelings about their physical characteristics;
• Patients experiencing a deep spiritual crisis (for example, due to the death of a loved one);

In addition to all of the above, a clinical psychologist can work with patients who do not have serious psychological disorders - married couples, children, adolescents and the elderly. In this case, he helps patients adapt to a particular life situation.

Clinical psychology includes several subfields, each of which is closely related to the other. When diagnosing a patient’s psychological health, indicators from all sectors are taken into account:

1. Pathopsychology
   – studies mental disorders from the point of view of damage to the central nervous system;
2. Neuropsychology
   – studies human behavior and character from the point of view of the functioning of the brain and nervous system;
3. Psychosomatics
   is a section of clinical psychology that studies human behavior and psychological state from the point of view of bodily diseases;
4. Psychological therapy
   is a section of clinical psychology aimed at the internal rehabilitation of a person, getting rid of traumatic memories and behavioral methods.

Clinical psychology, when working with a patient, uses methods such as testing, conversation, collecting information about treatment or diseases, experimental methods, and diagnosing the patient’s creative products.
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The psyche is a “repository” of both conscious and non-conscious experience

You can explain what the psyche is using the following metaphor. You can compare the psyche to a computer hard drive. In this repository, as it were, our entire lifelong experience accumulates, part of this experience we remember and are aware of, the other part is forgotten by us or pushed out of our consciousness into the depths of the psyche. Much of the information is simply absorbed from our environment. A lot of things fall into our subconscious without any reflection or awareness, but at some point we seem to remember something that we seemed to have never heard of; thoughts suddenly come to our minds, which we attribute to our intuition.

In some situation, a young man may suddenly begin to behave like his stepfather, although his stepfather left the family when this man was still very young and no longer remembers this temporary friend of his mother.

On the other hand, many useful and not so useful programs are recorded on the hard drive of our psyche, which can be put into action both at a conscious level and at a not so conscious level. In such cases, we can talk about family or social scenarios, parental curses, predictions, or psychological games that, for various reasons, are sometimes played in our souls.

Thus, our psyche can store a lot of different information and experiences. A lot of different “programs” are also recorded in it and periodically start working. Some of these programs turn out to be useful , since we can do a lot of things automatically or at a semi-conscious level and we do not have to relearn those behavioral patterns that we have long mastered.

But at the same time, various mechanisms can be triggered in our psyche or programs can be launched that lead to distortion or even blocking of our intellectual and communicative activity and can encourage us to perform actions that are not very useful for us. We can make the same mistakes, enter into relationships with people who are similar to each other and fall into the same life traps, act according to the same scenario, play endless destructive games.

Psychologists in Russia – average salary

In order to become a highly qualified specialist, you must obtain a diploma of appropriate education.
Today, there are various psychological courses, but sometimes a certificate of completion is not enough to get a job. A psychologist’s salary depends half on the quality of his education and the scope of his activity - research, scientific (experimental psychologist, psychologist-scientist), practical (clinical psychologist, child psychologist) and teaching (psychology teacher). How much a psychologist earns is a controversial issue, since in most cases the salary is in proportion to the personal qualities of the psychologist.

Factors that influence the income level of a specialist in the psychological field are:

1. Quality of education and its degree (master's, bachelor's, postgraduate);
2. Work experience – experienced specialists are paid on average 1.5 times more than beginning psychologists;
3. Type of education received (clinical psychologist, general psychologist, child psychologist, etc.);
4. Organization or place of work of a psychologist (in developed companies, consulting psychologists receive more than psychologists working with children in kindergartens).

In different cities of Russia, the salary of a psychologist depends on the subsistence level of the region.
The average income of a psychologist is 20,000 rubles. The highest income for specialists in the field of psychology is noted in Moscow - on average about 30,000 rubles. The cities of Kazan, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk are in second place in terms of average wages - a little more than 20-25 thousand rubles. In other cities, psychologists receive from 11 to 17-20 thousand rubles, depending on work experience.

In some organizations, employees are rewarded with high bonuses. Sometimes the average salary of a psychologist can increase by 1.5-2 times, the better and more competent he is as a specialist.

Psychological fact: emotional pain lasts 12 minutes. Everything else is self-hypnosis.

Where to get training

In addition to higher education, there are a number of short-term training on the market, usually lasting from a week to a year.

Interregional Academy of Construction and Industrial Complex and its courses in the direction of “Specialist in Social and Organizational Psychology”.

The Interregional Academy of Additional Professional Education (MADPO) provides training in the specialization “Social Psychology and Pedagogy” and issues diplomas and certificates.

The Institute of Professional Education "IPO" invites you to take distance courses in the direction of "Psychology (3 different courses)" (there are options 256, 512 and 1024 academic hours) to receive a diploma or state-issued certificate. We have trained more than 8,000 graduates from almost 200 cities. You can undergo external training and receive interest-free installments.

Psychologist you shouldn't see

Psychotherapy has recently become very popular and fashionable. But among the huge number of specialists in the treatment of human souls, it is very difficult to find a good professional psychologist. Sometimes you can find your specialist only after several attempts. The search takes time, money and nerves. But even if a grief psychologist does not appeal to Vedic theories and cleansing energy therapy, a toxic psychologist may be hiding behind a scientifically based explanation.

Psychologist – “dropout”

Such psychologists do not have a diploma from a psychological university, even one that has lost its accreditation.
He didn’t even take courses in any area of ​​counseling. Usually they hide this annoying fact of their biography and avoid direct questions. Short-term courses should not be mistaken for full-fledged psychological education. Sometimes even 5 years of full-time education cannot guarantee the professionalism of a psychologist. This also requires knowledge of practical consulting. Abroad, before a newly minted psychologist has access to work, he must practice for free for a year. Many “half-educated” psychologists believe that a lot of life experience is enough to advise people. It is this experience that prevents such a specialist from looking at the problem not with his own eyes, but with the client.

Undeveloped psychologist

Even after a very advanced education, before starting to practice, every psychologist must first work through all his mental problems.
Each psychologist has his own psychologist. A specialist with advanced problems is so mired in his wounds that even his clients can see it. There is a lot of passive aggression in his work. He constantly provokes and looks at many things through his projections. Through his own fears and beliefs, a psychologist who has not worked through his own conflicts will attribute his own problems to the client. Very often, people with psychological problems begin to get involved in psychology, hoping to understand their own lives. It is important that the psychologist, when starting practice, already understands himself.

Psychologist – “moralist”

It is not uncommon for a psychologist to call his client to shame, or even categorically evaluate his actions.
He will indirectly or directly evaluate actions and actions, appealing to a system of certain values. Despite the existence of religious psychologists, religion and psychotherapy cannot coexist together. While psychology calls for changing your life, accepting your own shortcomings and freeing your consciousness from guilt, religion requires you to renounce everything sinful and come to terms with the precision of existence, endure suffering in order to gain eternal life after death. It’s even worse if a psychologist gives recommendations based on the attitudes of a certain part of society about what true women and real men should be. To save effort, time and money, do not hesitate to ask a psychologist about what kind of education he has. Does he have experience? You should not tolerate it if a specialist allows himself to be rude, tactless, or disrespectful in his work. Leave the psychologist immediately if he provokes shame, inferiority, or guilt in you instead of working through these states. When a psychologist makes value judgments, break up with him. As with Faith in a miracle, that a good specialist will solve all your problems for you. This can be done with the help of a good specialist, but only by yourself.

Driving school instructors can become psychologists

Psychologist as a specialist by heart

Now, after answering the question, who is a psychologist, you know what features this profession has.
The more the life of society develops, the more varieties of psychology appear. However, clinical psychology still remains the most voluminous. Psychology arose more than two thousand years ago, when people first began to think about the relationship between the soul, body and emotions and the influence of these three components on human behavior and character.

Do you think modern society is capable of existing without this science? And if so, how can a person learn to independently find a way to himself in difficult emotional experiences? Share your opinion in the comments and be your own best psychologist!

Klyushnikova Renata May 04, 2020

Final word

In fact, there are still a huge number of myths associated with the profession of psychologist and psychology in general. We have selected only the most common ones. In our opinion, it is they, in most cases, that prevent a person from asking for psychological help. We hope you liked our article and found it useful. Also, we hope that as a result of reading this article, your attitude towards psychology and psychological services has begun to change. And, of course, we hope that soon this attitude will change in all countries that are still misinformed about the possibilities and benefits of psychological help.

Author Anastasia Filatova

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