Why does this question arise, how does it relate to anxiety and what can actually be guaranteed in this case
Yesterday I received a letter from a new potential client: typical questions about the cost, free time for consultations on Skype, experience with similar requests... and at the end of the "test shot": what guarantees of recovery do you give?
Perhaps Yes, it is time to talk about guarantees psychologist client.
Reasons for this question
The simplest explanation for why there are such questions is this: we have become accustomed to the fact that when buying goods, we are given a guarantee of the new TV for several years, and a guarantee that the new shoes will not fall apart in half an hour.
Receiving a service, for example, dental treatment, we are also given a guarantee that the seals will not fly out after a month. The psychologist has no goods, but there are services, so why not give a guarantee on them?
That is, there is a habitual expectation of an ordinary consumer.
But I have other observations. First, about distrust: to a particular psychologist, the client to himself, to psychology as a whole.
If the client asks such a question, then he may have fears that the possible result will not be what it could theoretically be.
Either the psychologist will screw up something, or the client already knows about himself that he will do nothing. And psychology-this at all something in one pile together with magic.
In this case, it makes sense to continue to look for another psychologist, to whom there will be trust and certainty, and not "drag ticks" guarantee the result of this specialist.
If there is a distrust of yourself, you should understand that psychotherapy is not the application of a magic pill to a passive person. This is primarily the choice of the person, not his psychologist.
And one more curious observation about the possible reasons: often questions about guarantees are asked by customers who apply because of problems with anxiety. If this is not a coincidence specifically in my practice, then such a question can be considered as an indirect confirmation of intolerance to uncertainty.
When anxiety is very difficult to tolerate situations of uncertainty, so people try to find out as much as possible and get information wherever possible, including trying to get clarification and confirmation from other people.
Strangely enough, the therapy of anxiety disorders includes the training not to find out, not to clarify, not to clarify, but ... to tolerate uncertainty.
Psychotherapy is a kind of two-way service
Whatever the reasons for the question of safeguards, one example is worth mentioning. The fact is that psychological counseling is a special service. Its result is considered to be a change in another person. Therefore, to understand whether guarantees are possible, and what, psychotherapy is better to compare with paid education.
There too result-change of other person. You get a diploma not for paying money, but for having mastered the curriculum and passed the necessary exams.
You can not visit nothing to master. You can do your homework blunder. You may even like this state of Affairs. In some universities in this situation you will not be expelled, and some even give a diploma. But this is theoretically wrong.
What guarantees does the University provide?
* The University will create conditions for learning.
* The University will provide professional teachers.
* These teachers will do everything they know and know how to make you learn something and somehow changed. Whether it happens or not will depend entirely on you.
It is the same in psychotherapy: the responsibility for changing oneself lies with the client. A psychologist can guarantee that he uses professional, scientific methods in the best way he knows how. But you will change or not as a result — for this psychologist can not answer.
Personally, I would have been suspicious if the psychologist confidently claimed would guarantee "recovery". I guess it's more like trying to get a client into therapy at all costs.
What can a psychologist guarantee
And yet: what is the responsibility of the psychologist?
* Creation of appropriate conditions.
* Professional competency.
* Privacy and security.