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Psychotherapist
Last reviewed: 03.07.2025
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A psychotherapist is a person who, after receiving a psychological or medical education, has received specialization in the field of “psychotherapy”.
Today there are many currents of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.
The techniques are very different from each other, one can say that in the post-Soviet space there is now a real boom of interest in this area.
Who is a psychotherapist?
A psychiatrist and psychologist cannot practice psychotherapy. Only a psychotherapist can do this. A psychotherapist can treat both with conversation and medication. There are many schools and directions of psychotherapy: gestalt, art, hypnotherapy. A psychotherapist, like a psychiatrist, can prescribe psychotropic drugs and antidepressants. Psychotherapy is both a method of treatment and a special type of interaction between a therapist and a person who has turned to him for help. A psychotherapist helps a person to become aware of sensations and feelings, deep problems, to find the key to solving problems of the body and soul. If you suspect that you have neurosis or depression, suffer from panic attacks - your path to a psychotherapist. Ulcers, asthma and osteochondrosis are basically psychological problems, a psychotherapist can also treat these psychosomatic diseases. In any case, a psychotherapist often uses the power of words than prescribes medications. A good psychotherapist is compassionate and has good empathy, ready for constant development of his personality and professional skills. Psychotherapy is at the intersection of pharmacology, psychology and philosophy.
When should you see a psychotherapist?
You should seek help from a psychotherapist if you feel discord with others and with yourself. If you feel that you need changes in your life, but you don’t know what kind, if something is weighing you down, if you constantly feel afraid. If you are constantly in a bad mood and try to ruin it for others, if you often can’t sleep, or if the atmosphere in your home is such that you don’t want to leave work in the evenings. It is important to understand that a psychotherapist never makes decisions for the client. But he will tell you how you personally can change your negative attitude towards the world around you to a positive one.
Before going to a psychotherapist, try to start leading a healthy lifestyle, move more and work less, communicate more with people.
What diagnostic methods does a psychotherapist use?
The main method that a psychotherapist uses to diagnose a client’s problems is a conversation. You may also be offered to take psychological tests and special professional questionnaires. Psychotherapy does not deal with medical concepts. There is no such thing as “necrosis of the soul,” “food for the soul,” or “breath of the soul.” All of this applies only to the physical body. It is not enough to simply make a diagnosis. Observation, questionnaires, biographical method, psychological modeling – all of this together gives the psychotherapist the opportunity to deeply feel the client’s problem. The method of a natural experiment assumes that the psychotherapist organizes for you the opportunity to act in familiar conditions. In this case, you will most likely not know that you are being tested. This helps relieve the tension that would inevitably arise if you knew that the psychotherapist wanted to conduct an experiment. You may also be offered tests for intelligence, psychomotor skills, professional inclinations, and clinical tests. There are a great many types of tests that psychotherapists use to assess personality. You may be asked to write an essay or draw a picture. This method is called waste product analysis. The biographical method can be used to analyze your life path.
What does a psychotherapist do?
A psychotherapist helps his client to establish relationships with the world in a stressful situation, with phobias, depression, after a divorce. A psychotherapist conducts both individual and group reception of people with similar problems. A psychotherapist works with people who are on the border between normal and pathological mentality. Clients of a psychotherapist are often people suffering from anorexia, alcoholism, panic attacks, insomnia, depression, neuroses. Fears, appetite disorders, stress and psychosomatic diseases are a reason not to be embarrassed to make an appointment with a psychotherapist.
Advice from a psychotherapist
- Smile and enjoy everything that is funny and pleasant!
- Make plans for your life and implement them at all costs!
- Face your fears.
- Try to understand why you behave this way and not differently.
- Treat yourself with respect, constantly study yourself
- Develop willpower.
If you want to get rid of a bad habit, let your family know. It will be harder for you to break a promise you made to them than if you promised to quit drinking, smoking or gambling only to yourself. Play sports, surround yourself with people whose heights you would like to aspire to.
If you see that you are unable to cope with the problems that have befallen you, who knows, maybe a psychotherapist will help you? Take a risk and go towards a new life and new opportunities – the essence of the problem is always better seen from the outside.
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