Psychological Consultant: Profession Of Personal Development And Deployment

Being a psychological consultant is a practice related to health promotion, which is in clear development and gaining more and more followers. It helps people solve their everyday problems on their own, without advice or guidance. And focusing on the current time of life of each one without the need to remember things or go back in time. Simply accompanying people in their story and helping them to 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 themselves and get to know each other more, and thus they 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 consistency. These are part of the theory developed by the American humanist 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 Crisis times.

The mechanisms with which a psychological consultant helps

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

All these attitudes together display in the person helped an introspection that allows them to register what is happening to them and to find within themselves the necessary resources to solve the problem that is causing them to suffer. At the same time, the person discovers himself and learns to accept himself through the acceptance he receives from the consultant. And, thus, it develops and breaks with structures that up to that moment accompanied it and thus it finds itself being more authentic and freer.

Another advantage of this type of process is that the person leaves the process knowing better and more prepared to face the different situations of his life in a more responsible way. This is, without being “the victim” of what happens, but rather, registering what is happening with what is happening. That way, you 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 looks in a new way. But, as she looks and reviews herself, she realizes that the change is positive for her. And that has allowed him to grow internally. And that his 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 partner 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 attend to people who are within the framework of the normality dimension. That is, without pathologies or disorders. These are spaces to be dealt with by psychologists and / or psychiatrists, to whom the psychological consultant must refer those consulted, as appropriate.