Material for those who have been thinking for a long time, but still have doubts. To go or not to go? That's the question. My personal opinion is, of course, go! If this desire and doubt has been sitting in you for a long time, you need to give it the opportunity to be resolved, at least for the sake of experiment. However, if this is not a sufficient argument for you, then read on. Many, and even specialists, often wonder how communication with a psychologist during a psychotherapeutic meeting differs from ordinary communication, for example, between two people who are not indifferent to each other? Let's sort it out in order Emotional Safety First of all, in a normal conversation, as a rule, you are not faced with the conscious task of providing emotional safety to your interlocutor. You, of course, can set it for yourself, but this is quite difficult in the context of ordinary communication, and this often requires special psychological knowledge and tools. What do I mean by emotional safety here? This is when the dialogue space is organized for you in such a way, that, firstly, you are not afraid to share your feelings and experiences, i.e. you trust your interlocutor and can be as open as possible without fear of condemnation. And secondly, if suddenly strong feelings, including traumatic ones, overwhelm you, they don’t leave you with them, but help you “environmentally” survive them and cope with the consequences. That is. In a normal conversation, you and your interlocutor can be polite, tolerant and empathetic, but neither of you in the process of communication bears any responsibility for the emotional safety of the other person. Partially and only of your own free will, you can strive for this, but none of you is obligated to purposefully work on this. While a good psychologist is directly RESPONSIBLE for ensuring that at a meeting with him you feel emotionally comfortable and safe, and Moreover, he helps you in every possible way with this. DO NO HARM is one of the professional commandments of a psychologist. And the principle of RESPECT is the first principle of the professional ethical code (Ethical Code of the RPO - Russian Psychological Society). Safe self-disclosure Also in an ordinary conversation between people, the interlocutors usually do not have the task of providing conditions for safe self-disclosure to another person. This point partially overlaps with the previous one, but this is what I would like to draw your attention to here. Even if the interlocutor is not against your self-disclosure or even really wants it, he can do whatever he wants and use the information he hears from you. Whether to help you understand it or use it against you or simply ignore it is his right and will remain on his conscience. At the same time, a good specialist works in accordance with professional ethics, and it is his direct responsibility to listen to you and help you “put everything into perspective,” using what you say, only for your benefit. The principle of CONFIDENTIALITY is also one of the most important principles of the work of a psychologist. And if you are faced with its violations, you can always contact the ethical committee of the association to which the specialist belongs, with a request to help understand the situation and resolve the conflict. Feedback from a psychologist A specialist gives you feedback based on scientifically proven or at least , information shared by an authoritative part of the professional community! A self-respecting specialist will never feed you “gag” and “subjectivity.” At the same time, the specialist is responsible not only for the content quality of the feedback, but also for the form of its presentation. It matters not only WHAT he says, but also HOW he tells it to you! His opinion is the opinion of an expert, first of all! Read more about HOW in the next paragraph. About support! In life, we often encounter devaluation and formal attitudes, even when communicating with loved ones. Well, what can we do, unfortunately, at school we are taught to multiply and subtract, but we are not taught the basics of emotionally safe communication. It’s good that at least psychologists teach this! Therefore, from!