What is the process of psychological counseling? Will the consultant guide me to ? At the beginning of the consultation, will the consultant talk to me about in-depth topics?
This article is the official popular science of simple psychology. If you want to know what kind of process psychological counseling is, just read this article.
Clinical research based on psychological counseling shows that the complete psychological counseling process generally includes three stages: exploration, understanding, and action .
1. Exploration stage
In the initial stage of psychological counseling, you usually tell yourself about yourself, your confusion, growth experience, family situation, etc.
counselors will create a safe atmosphere for you and encourage you to share your experiences, feelings and ideas. The counselor tries to understand what happened to you, what kind of trouble you are suffering from, and what kind of help you expect. At this stage, you can follow your own pace and gradually become familiar with psychological counseling and the counselor himself.
At the beginning, you may feel that you are always speaking and the consultant is listening, which is a bit uncomfortable. This is normal because the counselor is paying unconditional positive attention to what you are saying. Slowly, you will adapt to and benefit from such unconditional positive attention.
This stage is also the stage where you build trust in the consultant . In the first few consultations, it is more important for you to be heard and understood, and not to rush to gain insights or make changes. establishes a trusting cooperative relationship, which is the basis for effective psychological counseling.
2. Comprehension stage
With the deepening of exploration, under the professional guidance of consultants, you begin to look at things from a new perspective. Gradually understand the causes and consequences of what happened, and get closer and closer to your true inner thoughts and feelings. Understand why you are trapped.
At this stage, the counselor will try to provide some explanations for what happened to you. These explanations may "hit" you and make you sigh "that's how it is"; they may also make you uncomfortable, and you don't agree, accept or are unwilling to admit it, and that doesn't matter. The important thing is that when any feelings and thoughts arise, you can tell the counselor promptly and truthfully and discuss them with the counselor. Perhaps you will learn about the unknown part of yourself from the discussion.
3. Action stage
slowly understood why he was stuck, and it was time to take action to make changes.
These changes may be in thinking (such as reducing one's negative thoughts), in emotion (such as reducing one's anxiety), or in behavior (such as reducing one's overeating behavior).
At this stage, the counselor will play the role of a coach or consultant, assist you in formulating an action plan, discuss the obstacles and difficulties you may encounter during the action, and support you in bringing the exploration and understanding gained from the consultation back into your daily life, so that you can finally bid farewell to the counselor and face the future alone. In the process of changing
, your worry about the unknown may be as strong as your initial eagerness to change. Therefore, feelings of achievement and frustration often alternate during the action phase. If this happens, don’t worry. Discussing your experience with these changes with a counselor will help you more.
Finally, we need to be reminded that:
) The above three stages are not completely separated or carried out in sequence. It may happen that you return to the previous stage or jump to the next stage. Overall, psychological counseling is a process of exploration, understanding and action that are intertwined and gradually deepened;) The number of consultations required for each stage, as well as the total number of complete consultations, depends on the specific problems of the visitor, the goals of the consultation and other factors. The changes in are indeed exciting, but I hope you don’t be too anxious and can take your time.
The process of psychological counseling is also a process of self-exploration and change.If you want to seek psychological counseling, but are worried about not being able to find a suitable counselor, or don't know how to start a consultation, Simple Psychology's "first consultation" service can help you.
" first consultation " uses the international standard psychological assessment scale system to help you clarify your current inner feelings and troubles; professional psychological counselors will conduct 1v1 in-depth interviews with you, create a supportive environment for you, allowing you to express yourself safely, and help you transform and grow . and at the same time, you don’t have to worry about being unable to afford it because of the high cost.
data shows that after "first consultation" entered psychological counseling, the counseling-visit matching degree is effectively increased by 5 times .
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References
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Clara E. Hill (translated by Hu Bo et al., 2013): Helping Technology—Three-stage Model of Exploration, Comprehension, and Action (3rd Edition). Beijing: China Renmin University Press.
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Editor: bird man
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