From the author: Based on the materials of the book: Aisina R.M. Individual psychological counseling: fundamentals of theory and practice. - M.: RIOR: INFRA-M, 2015-2022 Consultation is not treatment. It is, rather, providing an opportunity. Stuart I understand individual psychological counseling as an area of ​​psychological practice that is close to psychotherapy, but differs from it in a number of ways. Counseling, to a greater extent than psychotherapy, is focused on the resourceful, “healthy” sides of the client’s personality and involves their actualization and transformation into a “tool” for further counseling work, during which the consultant helps the client learn to use internal resources to solve life problems. The consultant also helps the client achieve an understanding of the psychological essence of these problems, of course, if the client shows a desire and readiness to understand them. The result of counseling, which many practicing psychologists focus on, can be considered the client’s awareness of the fact that he is able to receive greater satisfaction from life than before. Individual counseling is an eclectic process that involves the possibility of combining methods and techniques developed in various theoretical directions psychotherapy. The criterion for choosing a certain methodological procedure is the specificity of the client’s personality and the characteristics of the psychological problem for which he asked for help. Taking into account the relative short-term nature of counseling - no more than 15-20 sessions, even if we are talking about person-oriented work, which involves contact with the material of the client’s unconscious, not everyone is suitable for the classical techniques of psychoanalysis or the Gestalt approach, since not every client is able to integrate previously unconscious aspects of their mental life that manifest themselves in advisory interaction in such a short time. On the other hand, for clients seeking deep work It is in counseling, and, for various reasons, not ready to embark on a longer - psychotherapeutic - journey, that it is inappropriate to offer predominantly behavioral or cognitive procedures. In such cases, you need to be able to provide the client with the opportunity to work at the level of complexity and depth he requires. However, if the consultant is not ready to do this, he must recognize the limitations of his capabilities and redirect the client to his colleague, who at this time feels more confident in psychoanalytic or gestalt therapy methodology will be an indicator of professional responsibility and mature reflection. Of course, with the exception of those cases when the consultant is simply afraid: perhaps not so much of the client as of himself - not yet sufficiently known and frank with himself... In fairness, it is worth noting that the obvious complexity of psychoanalysis stops many novice practitioners, and they They quite consciously prefer to either offer the client work in a different direction, or with another consultant. Much more “pitfalls” are associated with the humanistic and existential directions in counseling. As a teacher, I am familiar with the typical misconception of many students, which is the desire to specialize in these areas at all costs. When I ask how they understand existential-humanistic theory and practice, in most cases I hear in response a brief and not always correct statement of postulates about “sharing of responsibility”, “giving the client complete freedom of choice”, “non-directive techniques”, “empathic listening "As theoretical sources, the personality theories of C. Rogers and A. Maslow are mainly mentioned, and the list of existential therapists is usually limited to V. Frankl and I. Yalom, only sometimes they are “joined” by R. May and J. Bugental. About European