When faced with the need to provide a child with professional help, be it the help of a doctor, teacher, coach or psychologist, the first question a parent faces is: “How and where to find a good specialist?” At first glance, everything seems very complicated and uncertain, but if you follow some rules, then finding a good child psychologist is not so difficult. Of course, it’s good when you have someone to turn to based on the recommendation of friends, but you shouldn’t completely rely on the impressions of other people. It would be more correct to analyze (as you see it from the outside) how much the lives of those who advise a specialist have changed in one direction or another after visiting a psychologist. If you see positive changes in the child’s behavior or emotional state after working with a psychologist, or an improvement in parent-child relationships, then you can safely contact this psychologist yourself. If there are no such changes, or if you do not have friends who can recommend a child psychologist, then you can adhere to several criteria by which you can distinguish a good psychologist from a bad one: 1. A good child psychologist must have a higher specialized education. This is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for quality work; however, it is very important to pay attention to the profile of higher education. This is especially true in the case of a child psychologist, because often a teacher or marketer with basic education begins to work as a child psychologist because he “successfully raised two (three, four...) children” or “took advanced training courses.” Believe me, this is far from enough!2. Also, a good child psychologist is simply obliged to take additional professional education courses in the field of child and family psychology, constantly and in different training profiles. It is advisable that these courses be taught by experienced and reputable child psychotherapists. A good specialist constantly improves his level of knowledge and skills by taking courses, seminars, and trainings. In addition, a good child psychologist should have knowledge in related fields, especially neurology, psychiatry and education.3. Work experience is important, both quantitative (1, 3, 5 or 10 years?) and qualitative. For example, experience as a teacher or educator, psychologist in a recruitment agency or large organization does not count - this is a completely different profile of work, so take into account your experience as a practical child psychologist. It is impossible to be a good specialist without good practical experience in this field.4. Remember that if a psychologist works successfully with adults, he will not necessarily be equally successful with children. This also applies, by the way, to child psychiatry. Russia's chief child psychiatrist, Igor Makarov, once said that a child psychiatrist, if necessary, can work with adult patients, but not vice versa. Child psychology is a special area of ​​psychology that requires highly specialized knowledge and skills.5. Before your first appointment, find out what tools, methods and techniques the specialist has. A good child psychologist must be able to work in different approaches (play therapy, art therapy, sand therapy, systemic family therapy, bodily therapy, neuro- and fairy tale therapy, etc.), since each child needs to have his own individual approach. Some people, for example, don’t really like to draw, and some don’t like fairy tales; Sand therapy is suitable for solving some problems, body therapy is suitable for others, and so on.6. And of course, your personal impression after the first consultation is very important. If a specialist inspires your trust, sympathy, a desire to tell you about the situation without hiding anything, if the psychologist himself is sincere, shows empathy, and does not judge you in anything, then this is a good child psychologist. It happens that a well-known specialist with extensive work experience and good reviews cannot find an approach to an individual child or adult -