Many of us ask ourselves questions like: How can we identify a good or bad psychologist? About this you can find several articles on the Internet, in magazines and many other places where they give recommendations and even instructions.
But… How can we identify if we are a good patient? What do we have to do to patients in therapy? To find out what people think about this, I conducted a survey and was able to find interesting things.
The keys to being a good patient in psychotherapy
Most of us believe that the treating psychologist should know when we lie. This idea arises from the belief that psychologists have practically psychic powers and are able to read minds. Otherwise, they may think we are bad therapists.
To counteract this we must recognize the following points and understand and respect the agreement between therapists and patients, which happens to assume that psychologists:
- They are human beings
- They don’t read the mind
- They don’t have all the know-how
And about the therapeutic process, to adopt the role of patient well, the following key ideas must be taken into account:
- If you do not say what worries you, lie and omit parts, the psychologist will give a false diagnosis or it will take longer to be able to treat the conflict.
- Therapy is a process and must have continuity
- Punctuality
- Commitment and responsibility with payments
- Keep the focus of the conflict and do not wander
- Ask when you don’t understand an intervention
- Fulfill the tasks entrusted
- Have a genuine interest in resolving their conflicts
- Be open-minded
- Arriving on your own and not obligated
- Avoid schedule changes
- Talking about your conflicts and not thinking about how to get along with the therapist
- Do not cancel the appointment if you do not have “desire” or are “afraid”
- Remember that today’s resistance has tomorrow’s knowledge
- It’s important to talk about feelings
There is also a conscious and unconscious need to manipulate and control the therapist’s interventions. This desire is completely normal, but as patients, making it aware will help to move forward and overcome conflicts in this regard.
How to achieve this?
Many of these skills are learned throughout therapy, but it is better to be informed in order to have an open mind and overcome the psychic conflicts we face.
Prejudices on the part of the patient are common when starting a treatment; that is why when going to psychotherapy we must remain firm to achieve the objectives we want. Venturing into therapy can cause discomfort, fears and anguish; But that’s also completely normal, it’s part of the process. It is necessary to address these issues with the therapist to break with the established and leave the comfort zone.
Common fears
Confidentiality is something that many patients believe is violated. But if it is an issue that can stress us, the best thing we can do as patients is to open the channels of communication and know that the therapist will always be a person we can trust.
In other cases we believe that in therapy we will be judged, that we are completely wrong in our perceptions and that can cause us many headaches. In certain contexts, therapy has had a bad reputation for thinking that if “you are crazy” you need to go to the psychologist, but this idea is not close to reality. Here I will tell you a secret as a therapist: normally, the one who wants to go to therapy is not crazy. To go to therapy you don’t necessarily have to have a recent or traumatic conflict that you feel you can’t anymore.
What to expect from the psychotherapeutic process?
You can go to therapy to…
- Know
- Improve attitudes
- Improve relationships even if they appear good
- Improve in areas of study or work
- Being able to acquire emotional intelligence
- Face everyday problems in a healthy way
- Improve yourself every day more
- Overcoming Body Image Issues
- Improving a relationship
If you go to therapy well, you can avoid major conflicts, strong traumas or losses, such as relationship breakups or family conflicts.
In addition, taking children to therapy is also very helpful; We can deal with conflicts and traumas before they become consolidated and more difficult to deal with. It also fosters their ability to learn to regulate their emotions. So in the future they will know how to manage their emotions rationally, and maintain lasting, deep and healthy relationships.
Children’s therapy is a joint work with their caregivers, a process in which they can get to know each other, reinforce family love and heal wounds, clarify confusions and help tutors to maintain a healthy and respectful relationship.
Therapy in adolescents who as children went to the psychologist therapy is very useful, to be able to clarify and reinforce good attitudes; Adolescence is a completely different stage from childhood, in which we face different problems.
As for relationships, it is an ideal option to be able to have common goals to know how to communicate, get to know each other and have a communicative intimacy that leads people to a successful and lasting relationship.
In conclusionNo, psychology is not only for the “crazy” or for those who are already bad. It is a powerful weapon that we can use to know ourselves and be able to be better and better.
