Psychological counseling is a set of procedures aimed at helping a person resolve psychological problems and make decisions regarding a professional career, marriage, family, personal improvement and interpersonal relationships.

Goals of psychological counseling:

1) promote behavior change so that the client can live more productively and experience life satisfaction, despite some inevitable social restrictions;

2) develop skills to overcome difficulties when faced with new life circumstances and demands;

3) ensure effective adoption of vital decisions;

4) develop the ability to establish and maintain interpersonal relationships;

5) facilitate the realization and increase of the individual’s potential.

Stages of the psychological counseling process:

1) research of problems - the consultant establishes contact with the client and achieves mutual trust;

2) two-dimensional definition of problems - the consultant tries to most accurately characterize the client’s problems, establishing both their emotional and cognitive aspects. Problems are clarified until the client and consultant reach the same understanding; problems are defined by specific concepts. Accurate identification of problems allows us to understand their causes, and sometimes indicates ways to resolve them. If difficulties or ambiguities arise when identifying problems, it is recommended to return to the research stage;

3) identification of alternatives - possible alternatives for solving problems are identified and openly discussed. The consultant encourages the client to name all possible options that he considers suitable and realistic, helps to put forward additional alternatives, but does not impose his decisions. During the conversation, a written list of options can be drawn up to make them easier to compare. The most effective alternatives for solving problems that could be directly used by the client should be found;

4) planning. At this stage, a critical assessment of the selected solution alternatives is carried out. The counselor helps the client figure out which alternatives are appropriate and realistic in terms of previous experience and current willingness to change. After this, a plan is drawn up to realistically solve the problems. However, not all problems can be solved: some require too much time; others can be solved only partially by reducing their destructive, behavior-disrupting effects. In terms of problem solving, it is necessary to provide by what means and methods the client will check the realism of the chosen solution (role-playing games, “rehearsal” of actions, etc.);

5) activity - consistent implementation of a problem solving plan. The consultant helps the client build activities taking into account circumstances, time, emotional costs, as well as understanding the possibility of failure in achieving goals. The client must learn that partial failure is not a disaster and should continue to implement a plan to solve the problem, linking all actions with the final goal;

6) evaluation and feedback. At this stage, the client, together with the consultant, assesses the level of goal achievement (the degree of problem resolution) and summarizes the results achieved. If necessary, the solution plan can be clarified. When new or deeply hidden problems arise, a return to previous stages is necessary.

The identification of stages is conditional, since in practical work some stages overlap with others, and their interdependence is much more complex.

Methods for processing the results of psychological research

Qualitative processing of research results is a method of primary data processing aimed at determining the qualitative characteristics of the mental processes and phenomena being studied.

Qualitative data processing begins with the preliminary determination of indicators by which one can judge the qualitative features of the mental phenomenon under study or the identification of these indicators in the process of analyzing factual material (for example, a study of thinking based on the assimilation of concepts by students of different ages or in different learning conditions). Next, you should select indicators that will be used to characterize the qualitative features of mastery of concepts. In the given example, qualitative indicators can be: the completeness of identifying features, the degree of their significance, the nature of the relationship between features and concepts, operating them in various situations, etc.

Most often, qualitative processing of research materials is complemented by quantitative processing, which makes it possible to determine and prove the typicality of the quality found.

Quantitative processing of the results is carried out on the basis of mathematical methods widely used in science, such as methods of variation statistics (allowing one to establish the average quantitative value of indicators, the degree of diversity and discrepancy of data, the presence or absence of a connection between a series of mental phenomena), statistical methods for establishing reliable