Psychological psychotherapy in a broad sense is the most diverse activity aimed at working with psychological problems.
Psychotherapy begins where the client has a problem and ends where the problem disappears. No problem, no psychotherapy.
Actually, here is the boundary between psychotherapy and coaching, psychotherapy and healthy psychology. When people work with a psychologist not in connection with problems, but in connection with tasks, this is no longer psychotherapy.
The same difficult situation for a person in the position of the Victim will be a problem, and for a person in the position of the Author — a creative task. Accordingly, the first one will come for help to psychotherapy, and the second one can turn to a specialist for psychological counseling.
Is it possible to live without problems?
A supporter of constructive problematization will say: “Positiveness is wonderful, and the ostrich position “Everything is fine!” — mistake. You need to be able to identify and acknowledge problems. When I cut my finger, I don’t have to close my eyes and tell myself “everything is fine” — you just need to take a bandage and stop the bleeding. Although at the same time it is necessary to maintain a normal presence of mind.
A supporter of a constructive positive will answer this: “Everything is reasonable, but — if a finger is cut, it is not necessary to make a problem out of it. Just take a band-aid and stop the bleeding!”
Even constructive problematization, it seems, is not always needed. It is important to understand that life’s difficulties are not yet problems. Problems can be created from difficulties, and people do this by creating the ground for psychotherapy. If the client is used to creating problems for himself, he will always need psychotherapy. If the therapist has created a problem for the client, he also now has something to work with …
People create problems out of difficulties for themselves, but what people have created can be redone. Problems, as a way of understanding life’s difficulties, can be turned into tasks. The difficulty in this case does not disappear. it remains, but in the task format you can work with it more efficiently. 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 there was none in the first place: “What problems are you protecting yourself from with your smile?” — Apparently, this is not quite ethical and simply not a professional approach.
On the other hand: sometimes finding problems with the client and even creating problems for him is reasonable and justified. A person with psychopath traits behaves in such a way that people have problems, while he does not have problems. This is not good, and one of the first steps for him to start caring about other people is to create a problem situation for himself.