When I was preparing to speak at a conference (digging through textbooks and notes, recalling cases from practice, consulting with colleagues), the thought came to me: let me look on the Internet for lectures on a similar topic . Surely I’ll find something useful. I started looking and was horrified. The fact that my profession is full of charlatans is, of course, not news. But now there are so many of them that finding someone NOT a charlatan seems impossible. And the clients’ heads, of course, are a complete mess: go figure all these guys out. If I hadn’t worked as a psychologist myself, I would definitely have run into someone... for example, like this: - “I worked in sales for 20 years, so I know how people work and now I’ll tell you all about it. For only 50,000 rubles.” or “I was a housewife, and then suddenly ancient secret knowledge fell on my head” - “Psychologist, astrologer, numerologist” Yeah, and I’ll also remove the damage, the evil eye, drive out the Devil from your chandelier Sorry, I couldn’t resist - “Professional coach, trainer, author of a unique technique” and so on. In general, in advertising they will write you anything you want. They will choose beautiful words, come up with a selling story about themselves that will be close and understandable to everyone. And here's how it really is. No mess in my head. A consulting psychologist must study for at least 4 years + undergo 400 hours of his own psychotherapy. Because if you want to get into someone else’s head, be kind enough to first sort yourself out. A clinical psychologist (that's me) studies for 6 years + the same 400 hours. Why 6? Yes, because a simple psychologist can only work with a normal psyche, and a clinical psychologist can work with both the norm and various not very good conditions (depression, panic attacks, etc.). And to understand all this beauty, you need to study longer. Psychotherapist - 6 years in medical practice + several years in specialization + 400 hours. Because he not only treats with words, but also with pills. And all these professions have one more important nuance. There are more than 1,500 types of psychological assistance, and in order to master any of them, you need to study additionally for it. That's why I have 22 diplomas, not just one. But to conduct trainings... you don’t need to study at all! This is how our legislation is structured, unfortunately. Therefore, yesterday's electricians and imprisoned scammers (yes, a couple of eminent trainers had exactly this experience in the past) suddenly become “masters of relationships.” Who is a coach? This is a person who took the course. From a month to 1 year (at best 2), he learned to solve other people's problems and ask the right questions so that the client himself would understand his problem. This is not enough to understand how the psyche works (it’s the brain, you know. The greatest minds in the world actually struggle with how it works and how it’s structured. So you definitely won’t be able to figure it out in a couple of years). But please, don’t give up on coaches: there are situations when you don’t need to seriously delve into the psyche, and everything can be solved with “light artillery.” The coach has it. True, I doubt that each such specialist has enough depth of knowledge to distinguish one from the other. But here, probably, depending on your luck. I have met coaches who are really good, although they do not have a fundamental education. And there were those who... well, it would be better if they baked pies at home. They will cause less harm to someone else's psyche. All these numerologies, astrologies and other superstitions, of course, have nothing to do with professional psychology. And not to any other science either. Have you ever been embarrassed that not a single serious university in the world has a department of astrology or numerology?) And, by the way, many times they tried to carry out experiments in order to prove that all this works. But it has never been confirmed. Although, of course, no one forbids believing. The placebo effect has not been canceled: those who believe, are helped. This is why it “comes true” for many: after all, inspired people turn to this knowledge. But for those who are not suggestible, it somehow doesn’t work. So if you know that all these stories are useful for you, then be sure to believe them. But only good things :) What am I saying? To the point that please don't allow