Counseling, The Profession Of Personal Development
Counseling or psychological support is a rapidly expanding profession that attracts more and more followers since it allows people to solve their daily problems themselves, without advice or guides, by focusing only on the present. without calling on memories or going back in time, just helping the person tell their story and listen to themselves more.
In this way, and with their own means, people find within themselves the solutions to solve the problems that torment them, they learn to discover and know themselves better, thus they manage to better accept and adapt to themselves. the environment around them.
The secret of this form of accompaniment lies in the three key attitudes of any good accompanist: empathy, unconditional positive acceptance and congruence, which are part of the theory developed by the American humanist psychologist Carl Rogers which we call “Approach centered on the person”.
This approach owes its name to the very principle that each person is in the best position to know themselves and identify their expectations and needs, even in times of crisis.
The mechanisms used by a psychological accompanist
The method used by a psychological accompanist consists of putting yourself in the person’s shoes to help him discover what he feels (empathy) without judging his vision of the world or his values (unconditional positive acceptance), the accompanist remains sincere with himself and with the person he accompanies (congruence).
The association of these attitudes creates in the accompanied person a faculty of introspection which allows him to understand what is happening and to find in him the necessary means to solve the problem which makes him suffer.
At the same time, the person discovers himself little by little and learns to accept himself thanks to the method of acceptance brought by the accompanying person. In this way, the person changes and gradually gets rid of the patterns of which he was trapped until now in order to free himself from a hold and become more authentic.
This type of process also has the advantage of intervening in the short term and the person comes out of this process having acquired sufficient knowledge to face all life situations in a more responsible manner. Thus, the person no longer positions himself as “the victim” of the event but rather, as we said previously, by integrating his problems, in order to find the solution himself.
Just as the person manages their support process themselves, the decision to end it is up to them and not to the professional.
However, the journey is not a long quiet river, given that any process of personal change involves going through a painful moment. Before the person can take a new look at themselves, the first few steps are painful when they realize that things are not what they used to be.
Indeed, as she opens her eyes and reviews her judgment, she realizes that the change is positive and the suffering of the beginnings disappears to give way to joy.
During this type of process, the person is like a caterpillar that emerges from its chrysalis to become a butterfly and fly away. The process does not take place without suffering but once out of its cocoon it finds its wings to fly from flowers to flowers.
What is the difference between a psychological accompanist and a psychologist or psychiatrist?
Thereafter, the role of the support person is to guide the person on the path of change and personal development. This support will be done without directional interventions, that is to say, without giving directives to the person but by simply helping him to identify the interior zones that he will have to deepen in order to discover himself little by little, and to take the right ones. decisions on its own.
Finally, it should be noted that the psychological support can only help people with a normal state of mental health, in other words, without pathologies or disorders, because these cases are reserved for psychologists and psychiatrists.
