Psychological consultations

Our clients come to us with various issues and expectations. They are often not sure what kind of help and what specialist they need (a psychologist, a psychotherapist, a psychiatrist, a nutrition specialist or a coach). For that reason, the first meeting with the client is always an initial consultation. The goal of the initial consultation is to get to know each other, define difficulties, define if and how we may support the client, propose methods of working.

Konsultacje psychologiczne - Psycholodzy Cynamonowa | Warszawa

As every initial action, the initial consultation is followed by further steps. Depending on the situation, the steps may include:

psychological aid meetings, focused on one issue or problem, usually held within a definite period of time

individual psychotherapy sessions building a longer and deeper process of change

couple or family therapy sessions when the problem covers rather a relationship or a family system than a single person

support for parents and teenagers, psychological aid in behaviour problems

developmental, coaching, training meetings focused on developing specific skills

psychiatric consultations when the change requires medical support

work with nutrition specialist, if the required change relates mainly to the field of nutrition.

Psychological aid consists of several or a dozen of meetings with a psychologist or a psychotherapist devoted to various difficulties in the life of the client, dilemmas related to a specific issue, solving current problems or supporting the client in a crisis situation. Focusing on a specific issue and limitation of duration in time are characteristic for psychological aid. The role of the psychologist is often mainly supporting the client, equipping them with knowledge covering a specific area (eg. characteristics of functioning of adolescents in a particular developmental period, emotions of persons in mourning or supporting a person suffering from betrayal) as well as pointing out available resources and mobilising the client to use them.

Initial psychological consultation is the first meeting or several meetings of the psychologist with the client. During those meetings, we discuss the issues that brought the client to our office, why they decided to seek aid at this very moment, what problems or difficulties they face and what they expect to achieve during the therapy. In the course of those meetings we get to know each other better. The client has an opportunity to learn about the method in which the therapist works and ask any questions they may have. The client decides whether he or she wants to work with this therapist or seek another specialist that would better suit their needs. The therapist discusses his or her methods of work and what is possible to reach during psychotherapy and what is not. The therapist discusses also practical aspects of the therapy, eg. frequency and duration of meetings, his or her remuneration or methods of cancelling the sessions. The therapist also answers the questions the client may ask. Together with the client they define issues to deal with during the upcoming meetings and agree on further work. It may happen that after the initial consultation the client decides not to enter into further psychotherapeutic work or the therapist is not able to help the client in the issues they brought up. In such situation, the psychologist proposes other solutions to the client: names other specialists with appropriate expertise, aid centres and institutions, free aid centres, etc.