The general process of psychological counseling, the problems that should be paid attention to in each process and the application skills.
The steps of psychological counseling are generally divided into initial stage, guidance and help stage, consolidation stage and end stage.
First, the initial stage
The initial stage is the first step of psychological counseling and the basis of the whole psychological counseling. A good beginning is half the battle. American consulting psychologist J.W.Worth pointed out that a bad start will hinder effective interaction. Indeed, if the beginning is really bad, it means the end of the relationship between the two sides. A mature consultant; Always attach great importance to the initial stage of psychological counseling, and finish this stage with wit and caution.
At the initial stage, three tasks need to be completed, namely, establishing consultation relationship, mastering visitor information, and analyzing and evaluating.
1. Establish a consulting relationship
Counselors and visitors must establish a trusting, sincere and acceptable consulting relationship. This is the starting point and foundation of psychological counseling, and this relationship helps psychological counselors to truly understand the situation of visitors, accurately determine the counseling objectives and effectively achieve them; For students, based on this positive relationship, they will actively cooperate with psychological counselors and have enthusiasm and confidence in psychological counseling, which will help improve the counseling effect. In addition, this positive relationship also provides visitors with a good example of interpersonal relationship, which can be used outside the consulting environment to improve their interpersonal skills. -whether a positive consulting relationship can be established, the consultant bears an important responsibility.
At the first meeting, the counselor should briefly introduce himself to the visitors who have been seeking guidance and help. After a brief self-introduction, a short silence can be allowed. The main purpose is to give the visiting visitor an opportunity to sort out his thoughts and let him fully express what he wants to say.
When meeting for the first time, the counselor can explain the nature, limitation, role, goal and special relationship of the consultation to the other party. The contents of the explanation include time limit, number of talks, confidentiality, normal expectations, etc. Explaining these problems can reduce the confusion of the other party, eliminate the anxiety caused by it, and prevent the other party from having improper or excessive expectations for consultation. When meeting for the first time, we should make clear the confidential matters: explain the necessary records in the consultation process, make a positive commitment to the confidentiality and respect of content and privacy, and eliminate the vigilance of visitors.
Be warm and polite to visitors, be patient and cautious, dress neatly and gracefully, and behave gracefully. During the initial meeting, visitors tend to be nervous and embarrassed, so the attitude of psychological counselors will have a great impact on their psychology. A warm and friendly attitude gives people a sense of intimacy and can effectively narrow the distance between the two sides, especially when they are psychologically troubled. A warm and friendly attitude itself is a kind of strength, a kind of hope and a kind of comfort, which can greatly reduce their anxiety.
In order to establish and maintain a positive consulting relationship, counselors need to master some effective methods, such as actively respecting the five conditions, accurately feeling and treating others sincerely.
2. Grasp the information of visitors
Collect all kinds of information related to visitors, and understand each other's basic situation and existing psychological problems through conversation, observation, listening and psychological testing.
The basic information of visitors includes name, age, class, family and social life background, personal life experience, hobbies, recent study and life, psychological counseling experience, etc. Through the understanding of the basic situation, master its past and present activities and lifestyle. Grasping the basic situation of visitors is helpful to grasp their main psychological problems.
Understanding the psychological problems of visitors is the basis of determining the goal of psychological counseling. This is generally much more complicated than collecting basic information, because visitors are generally worried and often unwilling to directly expose their psychological problems, or they are not sure about the nature of the problems themselves, but just feel troubled and hope to change the status quo. Psychological problems need to be understood involve many aspects, and psychological counselors should find out the nature, duration and causes of psychological problems by collecting relevant information.
3. Analysis and diagnosis
While collecting data, analysis and diagnosis also follow; Analysis and diagnosis is to further clarify the nature, degree and causes of psychological problems and make a correct evaluation on them on the basis of collecting data. Analysis and diagnosis include the following.
(1) Determine the types and nature of psychological problems and the adaptability of psychological counseling. Counselors should first determine the nature of psychological problems, whether they belong to learning problems, interpersonal problems or other problems; Whether it's developmental problems, adaptability problems or obstacles. The implementation of psychological counseling needs to consider the adaptability of psychological counseling. This is because some problems can't be solved by general psychological counseling. If it is an organic disease, it should be introduced to the hospital in time. If it is mental illness, it should be transferred to a mental hospital for treatment in time; If it is a psychological problem, it can also be introduced to the psychological counseling clinic opened in a general hospital for psychotherapy.
(2) Analyze the degree of psychological problems and treat them differently; Some objects of psychological counseling have adaptability problems and some have developmental problems. Although the psychological state of these two types of visitors is normal, there are still differences in degree. The former has psychological maladjustment in study and life, and can give necessary guidance through individual consultation; The latter may not be aware of their psychological problems, and can be guided and trained through psychological counseling lectures and courses to strengthen their psychological quality.
(3) Looking for the causes of psychological problems. Finding the reason is an important part of diagnosing the psychological problems of visitors. There are many reasons for visitors' psychological problems, which need to be dealt with from two different aspects, namely, general cause analysis and deep cause analysis. General cause analysis is to comprehensively search for biological factors and psychosocial factors that cause psychological problems. Deep cause analysis is the main psychological reason for analyzing psychological problems. Different psychological counseling theories and methods often look for and find the root of psychological problems from different angles. For example, psychoanalytic theory attaches importance to finding the roots from unconscious contradictions and childhood experiences; Behaviorism theory attaches importance to the analysis of behavior and finds out the reasons; Cognitive theory holds that bad emotions and reactions are caused by cognitive errors, and irrational cognition of visitors is the cause of their psychological problems; According to humanistic theory, people have all kinds of needs, and the reasons for psychological obstacles are that people's needs are not met, their self-awareness is distorted, and their internal potential is not brought into play. If we can grasp the deep causes of psychological problems, it will lay the most important foundation for the solution of psychological problems.
Second, the guidance and help stage.
After the initial stage, psychological counseling has entered the problem-solving stage, that is, the guidance and help stage. At this stage, there are three main tasks to be completed: setting counseling objectives, selecting counseling programs, and implementing guidance and help.
1. Set the consulting target.
The goal of psychological counseling is the result and goal of psychological counseling. The establishment of counseling objectives is of great value in the process of counseling. First of all, it makes both consultants clear the direction of their efforts, so that they can not only formulate the implementation plan in detail, but also make necessary adjustments to the implementation plan according to the objectives during the implementation process.
Secondly, it is helpful for the active cooperation between the consulting parties. With a clear goal, visitors can see hope and enhance their confidence and motivation in consulting. With a clear direction, visitors become active participants in the consultation process, enabling both parties to actively cooperate and coordinate.
Thirdly, it makes the evaluation of psychological counseling possible. Through the goal of counseling, visitors can clearly see their own changes, thus realizing the role of psychological counseling in self-growth. Counseling parties can also use this to evaluate the applicability of the counseling program and determine the progress of psychological counseling. In order to ensure the smooth progress of psychological counseling, some basic principles should be followed when formulating counseling objectives.
(1) The target must be determined by both parties through consultation. The formulation of consulting objectives must be coordinated, communicated and finally agreed by consultants and visitors. Such a negotiation goal is more objective and real, allowing both sides to work together to achieve the goal. * * * With the formulation of consulting objectives, both parties are required to reach an agreement on grasping psychological problems and analyzing reasons. For this reason, consultants should encourage and guide visitors to pour out and reflect comprehensively and profoundly, and at the same time, consultants should also feed back their knowledge, opinions and conclusions to visitors. Secondly, counselors should guide and encourage visitors to think and put forward their own requirements, and frankly put forward their views on the consulting objectives. If there are differences between the two sides, it is necessary to carefully analyze the differences in expression or content, lack of materials or different perspectives, and differences between local goals and overall goals, and gradually reach an agreement on this basis.
(2) Ensure the pertinence of psychological counseling objectives. The purpose of counseling is to solve psychological problems rather than other problems. In school psychological counseling, we often encounter some non-psychological problems, such as students' financial difficulties and failing exams. Although these problems make visitors feel uneasy, the goal of psychological counseling can only be to help visitors adjust their cognition and mentality rather than directly solve these problems themselves.
(3) The intermediate goal is unified with the final goal. The intermediate goal is the specific goal to be achieved in the process of psychological counseling, and the ultimate goal is to realize people's mental health, fully explore people's potential and improve people's personality. The intermediate goal is a step towards the ultimate goal. To determine the goal of psychological counseling, we should emphasize the dialectical unity of intermediate goal and final goal, that is, both counseling parties should not only solve the specific problems that visitors are facing at present, but also focus on improving mental health, fully tapping potential and promoting personality development, integrating the final goal into the intermediate goal, guiding the intermediate goal with the final goal, and achieving the final goal through the realization of the intermediate goal. In the practice of psychological counseling, to achieve the unity of the two goals, both counseling parties should not only find specific psychological problems and their causes, but also explore their personality characteristics, psychological quality and other deficiencies; Visitors can not only master the skills and methods of psychological adjustment on specific problems, but also transfer these skills to similar situations.
(4) The goal of psychological counseling must be concrete and feasible. Visitors' statements are sometimes specific, such as exam anxiety, insomnia, etc., but sometimes they are general and abstract, such as hoping to learn well and be good at communication. Such a goal is vague, difficult to operate and implement, and it is impossible to evaluate the counseling effect. Therefore, psychological counseling is difficult to carry out. This requires both sides to negotiate and discuss, concretize abstract goals and clarify vague goals. In short, the consulting objective must be feasible.
2. Choose a consulting scheme
Choose the consulting scheme, including the selection of consulting methods and the specific scheme of implementing these methods. There are many ways to solve the psychological problems of visitors, and there are many ways to choose from, such as support and comfort, introspection and understanding, training and learning, persuasion and catharsis, suggestion and so on. Each psychological counseling method has a certain pertinence for solving psychological problems and has its corresponding implementation process. To choose a counseling plan, we should first choose the corresponding counseling methods according to the goals of psychological counseling, and then formulate specific operation plans according to the requirements of its implementation process. When selecting the consulting scheme, the following contents should be made clear: (1) The purpose of the consulting method adopted; (2) the implementation requirements of this method, that is, what to do, how to do it and what not to do; (3) Whether this method can achieve the expected purpose; (4) Tell visitors to be patient in the process of psychological counseling. These methods can't produce miracles immediately, and all changes are gradual.
3. Implementation guidance and assistance
Different consulting methods have different requirements and practices in implementing guidance and assistance. You can use encouragement, guidance and explanation flexibly, give sincere praise, encouragement and support to the positive aspects of visitors, enhance their self-confidence and promote the growth of their positive behavior; Can directly guide visitors to do something, say something, or act in a certain way; Through the explanation, visitors can face their own problems from a brand-new and comprehensive perspective, re-recognize themselves and their surrounding environment, thus improving their cognitive ability and promoting personality perfection and problem solving.
Three. Consolidation and completion stage
Through the joint efforts of both parties in the first two stages of counseling, the established counseling goal, namely, the consolidation and end stage of psychological counseling, has basically been achieved. The work of psychological counseling at this stage is mainly to consolidate the effect and follow up the investigation.
1. Consolidation effect
Consolidating the obtained consultation effect is a task that must be completed before the consultation is completed. The specific work is as follows.
(1) Counselors should point out their achievements and progress to visitors, indicating that they have basically achieved the established counseling goals. Counselors and visitors should have a clear understanding of this. The visitor's awareness of his progress is not only a great encouragement to him, but also a hint, which indicates that the process of psychological counseling is coming to an end and makes the visitor psychologically prepared for it. Therefore, counselors should patiently and concretely analyze the achievements of visitors and guide them to truly realize their own progress.
(2) Psychological counselors should review and summarize their psychological problems and counseling process with visitors. Re-examine the causes and effects of psychological problems of visitors, as well as the consulting objectives, methods, problems and progress in the consultation process, and summarize the first two stages. This helps visitors to get to know themselves better. Understand the problem, sum up the consulting experience, understand the direction of efforts, and get useful enlightenment. This summary itself has the significance of consolidating and optimizing the consulting effect. Summarization is best done by visitors inspired by consultants.
(3) Guide visitors to consolidate the existing progress, apply the gained experience to daily life, gradually stabilize and internalize the visitors' ideas, behaviors and abilities, so that they can adapt to the environment independently and effectively. It should be pointed out that there is still a long way to go from learning experience to applying experience. Usually, under the guidance of consultants, visitors can show their acquired experience under certain conditions, but when they face the real life environment independently, it is difficult to cope. This is not only the reason why the experience is not solid, but also the psychological factor of its lack of self-confidence. Whether this transition can be successfully completed is the premise of "ending" the consultation.
2. Follow-up investigation
In order to know whether the visitors can adapt to the environment by using the experience gained, and finally know whether the whole consultation process is successful, the consultant must follow up the visitors. Follow-up investigation should be conducted within a few months to one year after the consultation is basically over. Time is too short to guarantee the authenticity of the survey results; It takes too long to understand the situation and find problems in time, which also increases the difficulty of investigation. In psychological counseling, follow-up investigation can be conducted in the following ways.
(1) Fill in the information feedback form. Information feedback forms are generally printed by psychological counseling institutions, and consultants should guide visitors to fill them out regularly and feed them back to the consultants.
(2) Invite visitors for interviews on a regular basis. Interview with visitors is an effective way to directly understand the effect of consultation. The information obtained in this way is large and easy to go deep, and it is also convenient for consultants to find problems in time and give further guidance in time.
(3) Visit others. Ask people who know about the study life of visitors, such as parents, classmates, close friends, etc., to understand the current adaptation of visitors. This practice is generally more objective. If the information obtained in this way can be combined with the information fed back in other ways, the conclusion will be more comprehensive and true. When using this method, we must pay attention to safeguarding the interests of visitors, protecting their self-esteem and privacy, and paying attention to the principle of confidentiality. So sometimes you need to do it indirectly and euphemistically.
After follow-up investigation, there may be several different results: first, the counseling effect is remarkable, that is, the problem of the visitor has been solved, and the psychological counseling process can be ended at this time; Second, the negotiation was fruitful, but the problem was not completely solved; Third, the consultation effect is not great, and the problem has basically not been solved. In the latter two cases, the consultation process should continue. The process of ending the consultation is not overnight, and some skills are still needed to end the consultation process. Before the whole consultation process is over; Let visitors know that the consultation relationship is about to end, and let them be psychologically prepared for the end and the life after it. Therefore, it is necessary to explain to visitors that their psychological problems have been basically solved, and they have gained experience and increased their ability through consultation, and they can cope with the living environment. Maintaining the consultation relationship will not be conducive to their growth. At the same time, when necessary, psychological counseling institutions will give care and help again. Explain to visitors that it is natural and common for them to end the consultation by talking as much as possible.
The gradual ending method is also often used. There are two ways to gradually end the meeting: one is to lengthen the time of two meetings, from once a week to once every two weeks or even once a month at the end of the negotiation; The second is to reduce the time of each meeting, that is, from the original one hour to half an hour or less.