The article was co-authored with Ksenia Linkevich “I don’t understand what’s happening to me.” Yes, yes, it is in this very broad form that we sometimes hear client complaints at the first meeting. And this is quite understandable: when life changes, but there is no explanation for it, the first thing you want is to get it. At least some. The task of a psychologist is to help with this. And here there is nowhere without introspection. The logic of the psychologist’s work: try to structure the client’s scattered observations as much as possible, formulate a hypothesis about the reasons and consistently test it together with the client, teaching him self-observation. But let's talk about the same thing sequentially, point by point.1. We collect as much information as possible When visiting a specialist, a person talks about what worries him. The less understanding of what is happening to him, the shorter this story is usually (although there are exceptions). The psychologist will ask many clarifying questions that, in the client's opinion, may not be directly related to his problem. But they are necessary for the picture to be as complete as possible. Then, if necessary, the psychologist will explain why he needed this information, and this is the beginning of learning self-observation.2. Building a hypothesis The sooner the better, the psychologist will give a theoretical explanation of what is happening with the client. Further work is needed to find out whether his hypothesis is correct. But you can and should immediately compare the specialist’s assumptions with the results of the client’s self-observation. To do this, when talking about his assumption, he will ask questions like: “is this similar to what is happening to you?”, “how do you feel about what I am describing?”, “do you want to somehow supplement the story about yourself? ". Thanks to this, you can refine or change the hypothesis already in the process of searching for it.3. Testing through self-observation After the client and specialist have agreed on which hypothesis they will test, the psychologist will provide a plan for structured self-observation. He will tell you what and how the client should monitor in the near future in order to collect more information about his situation in order to obtain material for further correction. Based on it, the hypothesis may change, only become more precise, or it may turn out that there is, in fact, more than one request. But now the client not only suffers from his problem, but actively participates in its definition.4. Correcting the condition through behavior change When the overall picture becomes clearer, when a theoretical model is selected that explains the client's problem, the correction stage begins. Psychological assistance is based on the fact that the problem will not go away on its own, which means that the client must make changes to his behavior, patterns of perception and thinking. But this must be done not spontaneously, but consistently, based on the chosen explanatory model. If you do this, then, again through introspection, the client will evaluate the result: he will clearly see what and why in his life is changing for the better. Of course, all this requires a lot of clarification with a specific person. But if you contact us, you can expect something like this structure of work. The stages can sometimes be mixed up, their duration will be different for different people. But the general logic will most likely be exactly this. You can get more information about psychology in an accessible language in my VKontakte group “Psychological Guide"