In an era when the sphere of services brings in much more income than production, we are offered both that and this. Seminars and trainings for "personal growth", some support groups (for some reason they cause persistent associations with groups of anonymous alcoholics). And when, for their own reasons, girls or ladies decide to "treat" a tormented novel with an unsuitable person, finding someone who does not just listen, but also provides real help, it turns out that there are, in general, too many. And instead of solving the emotional quakes they try to understand, the psychologist and the psychotherapist are the same or not?
Psychologists, psychotherapists, and NLP masters are ready to take care of our mental health and psychological comfort, as well as those who offer a variety of therapies - from body-oriented to fairy-tale therapy, from yoga to holotropic breathing ... How not to drown in this sea of services? First, let's try to take two main directions - psychology and psychotherapy - and consider them in more detail.
The main areas working with the "soul" (psyche - from the Greek "soul"), indeed, a little. And they all fit into two main channels. But many do not understand, a psychologist and a psychotherapist are one and the same, or are they completely different specialists?
First of all, we need to remember the negative color of the prefix of each word - "psycho". The psychoneurological dispensary, psychiatric hospital come to mind ... But there they are engaged in clinical cases, and the specialist there is a psychiatrist! Therefore, we rehabilitate a psychologist and a psychotherapist - after all, they have their own clients. They deal with those who feel, to put it mildly, not in the best way. And given that only clinical idiots and drug addicts are "always high" happy, with varying degrees of probability, each person can become a client of a psychologist and psychotherapist, although this is not the same thing.
On the other hand, in the sphere of "spiritual" services they occupy different niches and differ in different degrees of "intervention".
If you are ready to understand the root causes of your behavior, "dive" in those days when your personality was just being formed, to consider yourself as the result of education in this or that environment, then you - to the therapist. If you are afraid of these processes, and are not ready for a half-year (or even longer) process of "restructuring" yourself - go to a psychologist.
Psychology as a science studies the soul, and psychotherapy cures it. Therefore, if you are ready to "lick wounds" not alone, but also effectively - to you to the therapist. And if you are ready to manipulate others or get rid of manipulation, apply tips, "lotions", "glue plasters" on your wounds - then go to the psychologist safely.
In general, both directions give a similar effect. A visit to a psychologist and psychotherapist, although not the same, leads to close but not equivalent results. But if you are ready to not just put experiments on yourself and others, but want global changes and a prolonged result - then pay attention to psychotherapy.
"I can not do this" = psychologist
At one time it was the psychologist (at the employment center) that helped me write articles. I came with a specific problem - "I can not write, if from the bottom of my heart - I" bring in ". And not from the heart - it's boring. " Left with the same decision. If a little more detail - the psychologist "on the forehead" asked me: "Who carries you in?", And I realized that there is nobody but myself.
"To me it is bad, and in what exactly - I do not know ..." = the psychotherapist
I turned to a therapist much later. I felt that I was the work of my mother. And in the end I asked myself a sacramental question: what of what is my personality - mine, and what is my mother's? A long, almost a year, the process taught me to adequately assess myself and share my and my mother's "cockroaches." I realized where my pain really is, and where - the impressionability from someone else's pain. By the way, at the same time I felt that a psychologist and a psychotherapist were not the same.
So, the psychologist needs to go with a specific problem, and the therapist is quite acceptable with the feeling "I feel bad, but why - I do not know!" Gradually, the therapist with leading questions will be able to understand what is preventing you from enjoying life, but be prepared that you are directly not reported.
To think in a new way
The process of understanding yourself and your reactions is extremely long and unhurried. This is due to our constantly defending from the changes of the psyche. But, when you get to the sensation of understanding together with the therapist what is wrong, and how to do so, you will think differently. Other categories, other templates. And most often - realizing that these are templates. Intervene in the process of your daily "thinking" can not be a single psychologist. A therapist of any direction - from existential to systemic family therapy, from a fan of Freud to a Gestalt therapist - can. Or rather, do not intervene, but simply show that there are people who, with all the same initial data as you, come to a completely different conclusion ...
Be ready!
Be ready that you will change the idea of the world and your responsibilities in the family, about what you really want if you go to the therapist. Psychology as a temporary patch can be useful in a large collective of the industrial giant, but no one will be invited to invite a psychotherapist (at least for us) to their employees. After all, therapy means liberation, and many are still so afraid of freedom ... and responsibility for themselves, their feelings and aspirations, which this freedom implies.