From the author: The goal is to look at the psychotherapeutic process from the perspective of an observer. DEFENSE REACTIONS DURING PSYCHOTHERAPY Psychologists know that the client makes a true request in the first 5 minutes. During these 5 minutes, the client unconsciously pronounces his desired reason for coming. Then, during the therapy process and in response to the psychologist’s question “What brought you to me (what is important to you, what are the difficulties, your request, etc.)”, the client, already analyzing, gives a socially acceptable form of his problem. That is, he unconsciously lies, since he responds with a mind half limited by parental attitudes, social norms and personal (often “bitter”) experience. Actually, getting the client’s true request out is already half the success. This is where all sorts of surprises await us, psychologists. The closer the psychotherapist gets to the true request (and the cause of the problem), the more noticeable the client’s defensive reactions - from negative to positive. Moreover, defensive reactions arise precisely when the therapist has located the problem area. Signs of defensive reactions are assumed to be sudden and repeated changes in the client, visible visually by the psychologist. I would divide them into: - body postures (sharply back and forth, swaying exactly at this point in our speech, waving the arms, clenching the hands into a fist, fiddling with the hem of the dress, jerking the leg, cracking the fingers, etc. - facial (yawning, swallowing, freezing, crying...) - verbal (repetitions of words, phrases, screaming, whispering...) - intonation (significant raising and lowering of the voice, transition to screaming, hoarseness, unexpected silence) - nervous reactions (bodily tremors, sharp headache, pain in the body (any bodily organ), tears, nervous laughter, sweating, running to the toilet, smoking, less often - leaving urgently) - denial: “I’m not...” “I’m fine.”..” “no, no, no -no, no..” “yes-yes-yes-yes-yes...” - sensual (the most elusive) - fear in the eyes, horror on the face, tension in the maxillotemporal muscle, mask-like expression on the face, hatred in the face, drooping shoulders , bent sharply, straightened up sharply, jumped up... And now that the psychologist knows “where the dog is buried” - what do you now order to do so as not to frighten the client? After all, he is already scared, wary, tense! Trust is minimal. All in fear - a narrow corridor of his feelings, or insensibility. And it is necessary! Need to work! And here in each case everything is individual. There are no general rules or even recommendations. We act on inspiration, intuition, based on practical experience. The main thing is not to be afraid of the psychologist himself, to believe in yourself. The main thing is that the predominant value of the psychologist at the moment is the value of helping the client, and not the value of “not losing face, not disgracing yourself.” Then external priorities, such as “helping a person, and therefore the World in his person,” will definitely lead you to the right path. Trust my experience. This is how it always happens. And this happens to you too. “I see, I “read you”, I believe in you, my dear colleagues. In the process of therapy, if suddenly the client begins to resist, refuse or agree too actively (if only they would leave him alone) - this is a sure sign that you are on the right path to finding reasons for the client's problem. ). For example, my client admitted to me that she hates it when she repeats “I accept this situation with gratitude for the experience...” every time. For 2 years she repeated this phrase (and with excessive enthusiasm), and only now she admitted it to me....).Identifying the cause, as you know, is the most difficult and most important. Having identified the cause, you can always find ways to implement it (what to do, how to do it, who to do it, when to do it, why and why... and is it necessary at all..). What can help us in “breaking through” the client’s defensive reactions? Defensive reactions play the role of self-preservation of the body for safety according to the principle “even with fear inside, even with a problem - but it’s familiar, and therefore safe.” Here is a typical portrait of a Client with a defensive reaction: “Otherwise, right now, when I remember how everything will rise again1 Scary !.