Knowledge and practical experience are very necessary aspects to adequately perform the profession of psychologist. They have great weight, but this does not mean that they are the only thing that psychotherapists need to adequately carry out therapy.
There are several key aspects to becoming a good clinical psychologist, ranging from the most obvious ones such as empathy or having good active listening, passing through the rest to the code of ethics and also having good emotional regulation.
These and many more are the keys to being a professional psychotherapist which we are going to discover below.
What are the keys to practicing professionally as a therapist?
A positive relationship between therapist and patient is a predictor of therapy success, in addition to being a requirement for being a good psychotherapist. The more positive this relationship is, the more confident the client will be to explain their problems in the greatest detail, in addition to being more willing to explore them and introduce new strategies into their life to deal with them.
The professional’s knowledge and experiences are crucial aspects for the good performance of a therapeutic process, but it is also essential that he or she have well developed certain therapeutic skills such as empathy, active listening or emotional intelligence. Patient and therapist must experience a feeling of teamwork, establishing a positive bond and commitment toward achieving therapeutic goals.a commitment in which the skills of the professional exert an important influence.
But just because it is necessary to establish a positive relationship does not mean that it has to be like the one we have with friends or family. The relationship in therapy must be doubly asymmetrical.
On the one hand, it is asymmetrical emotionally, since it is the patient’s problems that should take center stage, not ours as psychologists, while on the other It is asymmetrical in that we, the psychotherapists, have the professional knowledge to help the patient. to improve your quality of life and mental health.
Added to this, formal rules of operation, space, duration and frequency of sessions and a commitment that the patient will actively collaborate with the professional to help themselves address their problems must be established.
Skills and requirements to be a professional psychotherapist
Do you want to know what it takes to be a good psychologist? There are many aspects to take into account when doing psychotherapy so that the therapeutic process is as effective and fluid as possible. However, all of them can be grouped into the following points.
1. Mental flexibility
Psychologists meet many different people, each with their own opinions, views and beliefs, ideas that can be as varied as they are shocking.
For this reason, to be able to adequately practice psychotherapy, it is necessary free yourself from prejudices, stereotypes, beliefs and preconceived ideas in addition to applying unconditional acceptance of what the patient thinks. It does not mean that we have the same opinion as our patients, but it does mean that we must be open to what is different and unknown.
To reach such a degree of tolerance, it is necessary that as professionals we have dared to leave our comfort zone.. We all have these types of metaphorical “zones”, made up of habits, customs and routines that give us security and comfort. In the particular case of psychologists, it means daring to put aside our beliefs and points of view to adapt to the patient and make them trust us.
Every psychologist must put into practice the art of questioning, discovering, investigating and assimilating what surrounds us, as it can serve as a true source of inspiration.
2. Empathy
It is essential in the clinical practice of every psychologist that he or she knows how to put themselves in their patients’ shoes.. The psychotherapist must have the necessary mental mechanisms and strategies to understand what the patient’s fears, needs and particular circumstances are that have made him or her feel the way he or she currently does. Only by reaching this understanding of the patient’s emotional state will the psychologist be able to address the case.
3. Introspection
Introspection is another necessary key for every good psychologist who appreciates himself.. It is a complicated task, but very beneficial for our clinical practice. We cannot understand our patients without first having carried out a self-observation exercise, analyzing and understanding ourselves.
This may seem simple, but it requires deep reflection and discovering our strengths and weaknesses in order to grow as people and correctly apply psychotherapy.
Only by knowing ourselves well will we achieve better management and control of the mental states of others.
4. Authenticity and respect
By authenticity and respect we mean that you must be personally coherent, avoid defensive responses and show attention and empathetic responses, in other words, be with the patient. It is essential to pay attention to the qualities and resources that the client has used to manage their discomfort on their own before going to psychotherapy..
As professionals, we can allow ourselves to do some self-disclosure from time to time, giving information about ourselves. This should not be too frequent because we should not steal time or attention from our patient. If personal information is revealed, it must be released gradually and with the clear objective of increasing the collaboration and trust of our patient.
5. Active listening and observation
Active listening is a sine qua non quality for practicing psychotherapy. It does not only involve listening to the patient, but also paying deep attention.be aware of everything he tells us without interrupting him other than to ask him the appropriate questions.
Not only will active listening help us better understand what the patient is experiencing, but it will also better establish the therapist-patient relationship.
Knowing how to listen makes the consultation become a relaxed atmosphere. By creating a climate of complicity, the patient will be freer to explain what their problem is.calmly and sincerely.
The patient should not be interrupted so that he can express himself freely. In this way, he will be able to answer the rhetorical questions that he himself asks out loud.
It is also important to observe how he tells us things and how he behaves gesturally. Silence is not the mere absence of words, but a pause that can tell us many things.. The professional must observe how the patient experiences these pauses, expressing emotions such as nervousness or discomfort through his non-verbal language. Therefore we must pay attention to the movement of his hands, his posture and his gestures. Everything, absolutely everything, transmits information in one way or another.
You may be interested: “Active listening: the key to communicating with others”
6. Trust and security
It is essential that as professionals we transmit confidence to our clients, making them aware that we will do everything possible to help them, that we are there for them and that with our professional practice our objective is not to harm them in the slightest.
Confidence is transmitted by feeling it in yourself. That is, it is necessary that for the patient to feel confident in the therapy, the professional must first be confident in his or her own skills, knowledge, and experience. If the therapist’s way of speaking does not show a certain air of determination and security with his words, it will be difficult for him to transmit it to those who turn to him in search of his help.
By this we do not mean that we should be excessively technical or demonstrate how much we have studied. Demonstrating confidence is not synonymous with being a pedant.
The idea is that, showing appropriate tact and without being excessively direct, we transmit the guidelines for action in a clear, concise and reliable manner. We must avoid being ambiguous, not giving contradictory messages, nor showing ourselves as inferior to our patient or hesitating.behaviors that undoubtedly harm the therapeutic relationship.
7. Be a good communicator
In addition to knowing how to listen, It is very important to know how to convey what we want the patient to understand.. It is necessary for the psychotherapist to have good communication resources to make sure that the patient understands what the objective of the therapy is and what tools are going to be used, making him understand that he must take an active role throughout the therapy but under the guidance of the therapist. professional.
Being able to become a good communicator is possibly one of the biggest challenges that psychologists face on a daily basis. The reason for this is that, although we already have many years of experience, it always happens that we must adapt our words to the patient, who will have a certain cultural level. There will be those who find it more difficult to understand a concept than others, and that is why We will be there to make it as easy as possible for you.. It is essential to have good communication skills.
Related article: “The 28 types of communication and their characteristics”
It is common for patients to like to talk, a lot. They talk and talk, and they are within their rights, because that is why they have come to psychotherapy.. In order to act, it is necessary for the professional to know how to interpret and select what the patient tells him and that is related to the patient’s main problem.
Since it is not advisable to cut off the flow of the conversation, the analytical and selection capacity of the psychologist is basic. You should stay with what is important, with the information that you can use to get to the root of the problem..
We have reached number 8 on our list, but I consider that there are two other aspects that we cannot ignore in the good practice of clinical psychology.
9. Emotional intelligence and self-regulation
This is almost obvious, but it doesn’t hurt to mention it. Every therapist must have some emotional intelligence and self-regulation. If you do not have it, you should go to a psychologist before applying therapy because otherwise it will be very difficult to do quality psychotherapy.
Emotional intelligence does not only imply having empathy, but also being able to recognize our own emotional states, knowing how to give them a name and applying tools to manage such emotions.
10. Compliance with ethical and professional requirements
This point is another obvious one but unfortunately there are quite a few psychologists who seem to think that the code of ethics does not suit them. Although the debate about whether Psychology is a science is intense and we will always find opinions of all kinds, even among colleagues in the profession, What is not debatable is that psychotherapy must be based on empirical evidence and respect ethical and professional requirements..
Among the fundamental requirements to respect are confidentiality, referring to another professional if we are not qualified to attend to the case or treat the patient’s problems for whatever reason and avoiding the development of another type of relationship beyond the professional one. Following the code of deontology is not a skill, but an ethical, moral and professional obligation and we do not risk the slightest in stating that a psychologist who does not respect it is not a good psychologist.
Among these requirements is also constant training. Psychological treatments are updated frequently, as well as how to diagnose disorders and address them. If we want to provide the best possible psychotherapies to our patients, it is essential that we keep an eye on developments in the field, ensuring that we are up to date and do not use techniques that science has shown to be ineffective.
Do you want to train in psychotherapy?
If you want to train and become professional in patient care from psychological therapy, you may be interested in Professional Online Postgraduate Course in Integrative Psychotherapy organized by Instituto Mensalus.
@professioal(2062724)
This post-university training program lasts 6 months and includes both theoretical and practical classes and all types of materials and documentation, all in 100% online format.
