The Couch by The Dysania Concept (2023)
In Ancient Egypt, humans identified mental difficulties, such as depression or schizophrenia, and attributed their origin to supernatural elements. In Ancient Greece, Hippocrates elevated these discoveries by concluding their source wasn’t supernatural but natural and that the brain was the centre of mental process, not the heart. In Ancient Greece, humans also started to study personality and temperament. Galen was the first human to describe the vitality of working with a therapist on your faults and the therapeutic relationship. However, it wasn’t until the XVI century that the term psychology was first used and defined, permitting it to be its branch of study, focusing on human behaviour and mental processes. Afterwards, a foundation of knowledge began to settle with minds such as William James, Ivan Pavlov and Sigmund Freud. So, in this edition of The Mindsets, we’ll explore the qualities, virtues and skills that permit Psychologists, emphasising therapists, to help us overcome our struggles. As the father of analytical psychology, Carl Jung, explained, “Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
1. Trustworthiness
Psychologists rely on their trustworthiness to create a safe space for their patients. The purpose of a Psychologist is to help you overcome any hardship you’re currently facing. However, they don’t help you by giving you the answers. Contrary, they build a safe and open space where their patients can listen to themselves and, with the questions their Psychologist asks, be guided towards a realisation or solution. Therefore, the first step for Psychologists to excel with patients is creating a trustworthy environment. Similarly, we must ensure the space we offer to our family, friends, colleagues or anyone seeking our help is built upon our trustworthiness.
2. Active Listeners
Psychologists must be active listeners to boost their patients’ sharing. Even though creating a safe space is the first step for therapy to succeed, it will always rely on the patient’s ability to share and communicate what they think and feel. Hence, Psychologists must be active listeners to aid their patients in getting more loose and confident as sessions go by. Active listening means becoming part of the conversation beyond sitting back and hearing. Keeping eye contact, nodding and reinforcing your attention, providing feedback, and not being distracted by external elements such as a clock or phone are all critical aspects of actively listening to a conversation. The ability of a Psychologist to be an active listener usually dictates the capacity a patient has to open up about themselves. So, when someone seeks your guidance, truly take the time to listen and become part of the conversation. Let them know you care for what they are saying, reinforce your attention to them and question them.
3. Analytical Skills
Psychologists depend on their analytical skills to guide their patients towards solutions. Once they’ve created a safe space and have shown their patients they want to help them and care for what they want to share and overcome, Psychologists must use their analytical skills to guide them towards realisations and solutions. These analytical skills include many more specific skills, such as open-mindedness, problem-solving, and communication. Why? Because they must analyse what their patient is saying, they must help their patients solve their problems by communicating and guiding them to the solution through questions and small reflections. So, Psychologists count on their analytical skills to ultimately achieve the goal. Thus, when counselling a family member, a friend or even yourself, remember to be analytical and open-minded about the information you have to solve the challenge you face.
Psychologists are profoundly investigative and empathetic minds. The capacity to help people overcome all sorts of challenges and struggles makes them treasured members of society as they work to help others be better. So, to have a similar influence on those around you and yourself, be trustworthy. Also, be an active listener for those who need you and yourself. And always use your analytical skills and all this encompasses to approach a solution. Take your time to understand a problem, where it comes from, how it affects me and those around me, and ultimately, how I can solve it. So, we now invite you to adopt The Psychologist’s Mindset as we continue overcoming life’s challenges and fighting towards what our minds want the most.
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