Why do people come to a psychologist and why are they needed at all? This question was asked by enough people to make me think about a simple but clear answer. First, let me explain who I am. My name is Natalya and I am a Gestalt therapist. I conceived a training session on meeting a colleague and decided to be in “a man’s skin.” I used a psychological technique - sometimes, to work with certain situations, we invite a person to be someone else in order to understand this other better. That's why I started a men's profile on a dating site. I will describe the results of this stay some other time, when something integral is born. But in general, if people's relationships with others are not going well, then this is where the difficulties begin. First of all, I really understand the mistrust of psychologists and psychology. Firstly, due to the culture and history of psychology in our country. In a socialist environment, thinking about a person’s emotional needs was not only not accepted, but almost prohibited. The Society of Builders of Communism needed staunch heroes of labor. What kind of emotions are there - no “spiritual practices and snot”. Only clinical psychology and psychiatry developed - when it was already so “shaky” that either the “folk psychologist” embraced alcohol, or another clinical picture pushed it to the border of psychiatry and people really had to be treated. Humanistic psychology, focused on ordinary people and their emotional needs, simply did not exist. I remember how my niece, at the age of 3, was taken to a psychologist at a dispensary for “treatment” - the girl was simply active, her parents were tired and she was diagnosed with “hyper excitability.” Thank God, only vitamins were prescribed, but the “sick” status was concocted. Currently, the other extreme. Books, television shows, the entire television and mass media industry basically tell us how to be. Every time I go to the psychology shelf in a bookstore, I feel anxiety and horror. Psychology is something that is not even remotely related to it, it is written by everyone and everything - every “socialite” is a psychologist... It is fashionable and “status”, and the shelves are overflowing with books with the concept “as you are, you have no right for life" - I would burn most of it. I would compare psychology to physiotherapy or massage. For example, when the muscles are compressed and do not have the necessary mobility necessary for movement without pain, the physiotherapist prescribes massage and therapeutic exercises; in more complex cases, he refers to a chiropractor and over time, mobility is restored. A psychologist works the same way. Only we do not work directly with tight muscles, but with tight emotions and feelings, which, due to the life experience gained in the family and social environment, a person is not aware of. Having developed a certain type of behavior or reaction to life events, a person often faces repeated situations, while experiencing depression, despair or mental pain, but does not realize why this is so. A psychologist helps a person find “what is tight” and restore balance. By the way, tight muscles also often restore mobility - the body is not a “container for brains” and often a “bodily malfunction” is a projection of an “emotional malfunction.” For example, requests that clients made “I’m no one’s woman, I’m already over 30, and I’m everything it’s a draw”, “I can’t do anything with men, with those I like. And I don’t like those with whom I get along”, “I can’t communicate with anyone, I can’t do anything, everyone runs away from me”, “My husband died and I can’t get to know anyone”, “My daughter doesn’t like anyone” decides what to do with her, my life is falling apart”, “I’m already over 50, but I really want a serious relationship and sex - is this possible? and how?”, “I’m afraid of women and I can’t even get to know anyone”, “My mother attacks every man and I can’t build relationships”, “I’m successful in terms of my career, I have everything, but my personal life doesn’t suit me”, “I’m being devoured at work, I like both the work and the conditions, but I don’t know how/40335