The popular image of a psychologist - a male doctor with a beard, a reception at which the patient lies relaxed on a couch and talks about the intimate details of the life of his mother. The modern image of the psychologist - a beardless woman sitting at the table at the reception which the patient sits on a rigid plastic chair and discusses the daily affairs for next week. Couch or not at all, or use it for viewing daytime television. Contrary to popular belief, do not need to know the ancient Greek names of various little-known phobias, modern language successfully copes with this task. For example, the intriguing title "alektorofobiya becomes more mundane - a fear of chickens", and frightening "гиппопотомонстросесквиппедалифобия" becomes a "fear of long words."

Strictly speaking, clinical psychology involves the use of psychological theories and methods in the clinical setting, ie in the hospital. However, it must be remembered that resorting to the knowledge of these complex ideas is only a last resort. Many patients feel better, even if clinical psychologists are not doing anything at all. For several reasons.

1.Estestvennoe recovery. Some people simply must be better.

2.Effekt placebo. Once patients enter the office of a psychologist, expecting help from him (whatever doubts it may be accompanied), they are really getting better.

3.Effekt confessionals. Some symptoms may disappear if they are to tell or write, even when the questions remain unanswered.

4.Normalizatsiya. Ability to explain the human condition of his inner world and do not scare him so that he fled from the session itself has a therapeutic effect. It turns out that most of what causes fear in people - disturbing thoughts, nightmares, persistent desire to swear in a church - is a "normal" from the standpoint of statistics. Told this to the patient, you simplify its existence.

It is widely believed that different types of psychotherapy are similar to each other. The share of truth in this, but the fundamental psychologists should calmly assert the contrary. Emerge unscathed in this situation you will know only four types of psychotherapy.

Client-centered psychotherapy, or the method of "poddakivaniya"

This school of thought justifies "doing nothing" psychologist. According to its founder, Carl Rogers, the therapist must depict the so-called unconditional positive attention. In essence, it means to be friendly and show empathy towards the patient, no matter what he said. And do not ask him to do anything. If the therapist is aware that life rushes by, yet he smiles and assents statements about the weather (or weather), it can cause despair in the patient's desire to act, then you should go to the next form of psychotherapy.

Behavior therapy or treatment pushed

Behavior therapy, of course, puts more demands. As a method for changing it offers desensitization. Despite the scary name, this is a very gentle way of treating a patient and the mean incremental recognition of their human fears. In the end, and Rome not built in a day. An alternative to this method is immersion-encounter with the most terrible fear at a time (for example, throw a person suffering from fear of spiders, a tank filled with tarantulas). Not surprisingly, the most severe forms of this technique have sunk into oblivion around the same time with public beatings. Cognitive Therapy (see below) replaced these terms in more harmonious in terms of behavioral science experiments in which the patient's assumption about what happens in a particular situation (for example, "I will die from reading the poetry of Wales"), are verified in practice (" not dead ").

Cognitive Therapy or "voobrazhencheskaya" therapy

(From the words "your imagination")

Cognitive therapy (or cognitive behavioral therapy, CBT) is the most approved, from the standpoint of science, methods of psychotherapy. As it may seem, it is easy to navigate. Unfortunately, this means that too many people in it already oriented. Therefore, our strategy - to win the competition. Fans believe that CBT is based on positive thinking in fact it involves more thinking about thinking, the key word - "metacognition." Simply put, the idea of his own uselessness is perfectly normal, especially for psychologists. But if you think that this idea without reason, just because you think so then you have a problem.

Tim And Aaron Beck developed cognitive therapy in 1960. Based on the approach of "cooperation plus empiricism." Do not panic! This means that only the joint work between doctor and patient for the Exploration of the latter opinion. And without this open intention of Professor Beck to know everyone who practices CBT, meant to make people believe that they know it. Gently return to the last conversation with Tim about activating latent dysfunctional arrogance, and you will of their own. In cognitive therapy uses a useful principle - the principle of a closed circle, or a study showing that some ways of solving problems may worsen the situation, or, in other words, the decision itself may be a problem. Therapy, which focuses on the decision is also based on this principle. For example, a vicious cycle of binge eating is as follows:

I was upset - "a lot of it -" thick -> frustrated - "a lot of it, etc.

As soon as the realization of a closed circle, a man can be taught to behave differently, to break out of this trap. Whatever it was, is there a real way out of the vicious circle in the therapy or not, it helps to appreciate the beauty and at the same time, the futility of recurrence of human behavior. Life - in fact, a carousel.

Systemic / family ("gentle" therapy)

According to this methodology, the symptoms of people can be understood in the context of their current and past relationships. Entire families come to shake up his dirty laundry in front of a crowd psychologists, one of which is hidden in the room for clear on one side mirror. A session begins with the construction of the dendrogram (psychologists have borrowed a scientific word for a simple family tree), which includes not only all family members, but also a "significant other" characters, plus births, deaths, marriages, divorces, sex, life, noisy neighbors and shoe sizes . If the prospective psychologist will be able to complete this elaborate scheme by the end of a therapy session, he deserves the title of expert, then that would not happen with patients.