Whether a person will perceive his difficulties as a task or a problem, whether the psychologist will work in a psychotherapeutic vein or in the format of a healthy psychologist, largely depends on the psychologist working with the client, more precisely, how committed the psychologist is to the psychotherapeutic setting.
The psychotherapeutic attitude sees in a person someone who needs to be treated, not taught, protected, not strained, who needs help and protection, who needs to get rid of problems. The psychotherapist looks for internal problems and other limitations that interfere with a person: “If a person has come, then something is preventing him from moving towards his goals. He needs help to sort out his problems.»
On the contrary, a psychologist who is committed to the principles of healthy psychology sees in a person someone who is able to learn and develop, who is able to set tasks for himself and successfully solve them. The psychologist-trainer sees in those who come to him — healthy people with vital tasks. In working with a client, the psychologist looks at his capabilities, determines with him his goals and a plan of action to achieve them. Defines the tasks of the client. “If a person has come, then he wants to move forward!”
“You have everything to move forward. Set goals for the next year, think over an action plan — and go ahead! — so says the psychologist-trainer.
“You have everything to move forward. Let’s see what is stopping you from taking steps forward? is the formulation of a psychotherapist↑.
If a psychotherapist is ready to see a sick person in any healthy person and has the gift of suggestion, people with problems will appear around him. The psychologist can turn both the sick into the healthy, and the healthy into the sick.
If a person began to realize (and experience) his difficulty as a problem, the psychologist may not play psychotherapy and reorient the client to a more positive and active perception: “Honey, your pimple on your nose is not a problem, but the question for you is: do you plan to turn on your head and learn not to worry, to approach issues calmly? ↑ On the contrary, the therapist can create a problem for the client where it was not originally there: “What problems are you protecting yourself from with your smile?” ↑
Do you and your client do psychotherapy? If a client came to you with a task, and you puzzled him with a problem and he was confused in the face of it, you begin psychotherapeutic work. If a client came to you with a problem, you listened to him for eight minutes, and in a couple of minutes you transferred him to the position of the Author and began to look for a solution to his problem together with him, then you were engaged in psychotherapy only for the first ten minutes↑.