It often happens that people, having started visiting a psychologist, become so interested in this area that they begin to wonder whether they should try themselves in this field? Maybe become a psychologist/psychotherapist yourself? Almost all clients, while in personal therapy, go through the stage of “diagnosing” all their friends, analyzing films and books, wanting to “open their eyes” and help their loved ones. And indeed, it is personal therapy became the first impetus for many specialists to enter the profession. But the work of a psychologist/psychotherapist is very specific. It’s not enough to want and be interested, you have to be able. A psychotherapist works with a unique tool - his own psyche. And therefore, first of all, when thinking about such a profession, I would analyze the properties of the psyche. The important properties, in my opinion, are: The ability to contain: to contain not only a large amount of information, but above all, a large amount of emotional experiences of another person, often very intense and painful. It’s not enough to hold, you also need to have the ability to process and recycle. Enormous patience. If you strive for quick results, this job is not for you. Observing changes in a client (especially in deep approaches) is like watching trees grow. Unkillable self-esteem. This job will attack your self-esteem every day. Clients complain directly - it doesn’t help me, I’m getting worse and worse, why am I paying you money? Clients complain indirectly - they “cry to you”, manipulatively influence you, like children, so that you change their condition. In the end, you yourself will constantly wonder if what you are doing is right? Is therapy effective? People with pronounced narcissistic traits, even if they are able to start their own practice, will not be able to maintain it. Their psyche works not to “contain themselves,” but to “spew out of themselves.” They will very quickly leave their actual therapeutic activities for teaching, opening centers, institutes, blogging, etc. If you know about yourself that you are a bright, public person, you like to talk about yourself and attract attention, you will not stay in private practice , you will be unbearably bored. You need to do what you are predisposed to, you already have a set of strong qualities, and it can and should be used, and what you really like - then everything will work out. ***************More interesting and useful information on the topic of psychology and psychoanalysis on my Telegram channel: https://t.me/stashkova_psychoanalysta and also on the VK page: https://vk .com/stashkova_psychoanalyst