Individual counseling for children and adolescents. Psychological counseling for children

Adolescence is called a critical age in the broad sense of the word. More precisely, to single out the teenage crisis as a transition from primary school age to the actual

teenage. Another normative age crisis dates the transition from adolescence to early adolescence.

For psychological counseling, the adolescence of our clients' children is one of the most difficult. Psychological counseling statistics confirm that the number of cases of seeking psychological help during this period increases dramatically. At the same time, the range of requests from clients (i.e. parents) sharply expands: from the problems of the first, often unrequited love, their daughters and sons - to the danger of drug addiction and alcoholism, from signs of dysmorphism - to unwillingness to go to school. This period of a child’s life is even more distinguished from the point of view of the peculiarities of psychological counseling by the fact that now the teenager himself for the first time becomes a client - the subject of treatment for psychological counseling, informing, and sometimes not informing his parents about this.

All this makes the task of describing the characteristics of counseling for parents of adolescents and adolescents themselves very difficult. And yet we must single out the most distinct landmarks here.

First, the developmental psychologist-consultant in his work always proceeds from psychological normative tasks of age.

The psychological tasks of adolescents of this age are known - these are, first of all, the tasks of self-determination in three areas: sexual, psychological (intellectual, personal, emotional) and social. The problems of this age may be related to the search for ways to satisfy six basic needs: the physiological need, which gives impetus to the physical and sexual activity teenagers; the security needs that adolescents find in belonging to a group; needs for independence and emancipation from the family; attachment needs; needs for success, in testing one's capabilities; finally, the need for self-realization and development of one's own ..

Secondly, in the case of counseling parents of children of any age, and even more so of adolescents, an age-related psychologist-consultant must necessarily be able to look at the situation presented to him through the eyes of a child, in this case - teenager. This feature, being one of the values ​​of the developmental psychological counseling of parents and their children, is based on the well-known position of theoretical developmental psychology: the objective social situation of the development of a child (adolescent) determines his mental development and determines his mental health not by itself, not automatically, but only being refracted in his subjective experiences, mediated by his position in this social situation.

This important substantive principle of the psychologist-consultant's work significantly complicates his work. The very first experience of counseling parents of adolescents in a developmental psychological consultation at the Department of Developmental Psychology of the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University (1984) or in the advisory center of the Institute of Childhood of the Russian Children's Fund (1989) showed that adolescents themselves relate to the counseling procedure in a completely different way than younger children . If children up to the sixth grade, inclusive, parents quite calmly brought to counseling, and the children fully and meaningfully answered the psychologist's questions, feeling more like subjects than equal subjects, then adolescents in the context of counseling, the initiative of which came from their parents, felt "not at cases." It was, as a rule, very difficult to “talk” to such a teenager; the reliability of their performance of psychodiagnostic procedures left much to be desired. As a result, short-term psychological counseling (two or four sessions) for parents of adolescent children did not give counseling psychologists the opportunity to reliably look at the stated problems through the eyes of adolescents themselves, and this was and remains one of the values ​​of precisely age-related psychological counseling for parents and their children.

One of the possible ways out of this kind of situation is the targeted creation of confidential contact with adolescents outside the consulting room, namely, in the process of group psychological).

Thirdly, when counseling the parent-adolescent dyad, many recommendations and features come into play, characteristic and for counseling a married couple. Here is how Yu. Aleshina describes them

Benefits of working with a couple: greater diagnostics of a conversation with a married couple, visibility of problems in a couple; working with both spouses allows you to directly appeal to the patterns of their relationship “here and now” during the consultation, right in the conditions of the consultation, which is always more convincing than an analysis of what is happening outside it;

the presence of a couple allows the use of some techniques of counseling and psychological intervention - psychodrama, family sculpture, organization of joint activities, etc., which is simply impossible when working with one client;

the arrival of a couple in a consultation means a more serious motivation for work; it is expected that such work will be deeper and longer; Counseling couples makes it easier for clients to discuss what happened during the consultation: they were both participants in counseling work and changes in one of the spouses are more understandable and accepted by the other.

Difficulties when working with a couple: it is more difficult to conduct a consultative reception of two clients at once than one: they still need to be taught to cooperate in counseling, and not to interrupt each other or not to become offended, etc.; one of them; working with a couple is more vulnerable: the unwillingness of one spouse to work interferes with working with a couple as a whole; working with a couple, it is necessary to deal with the problem of confidentiality in a special way.

These features of working with a couple of spouses are almost completely transferred to working with a couple of parent-teenagers.

Fourthly, when counseling parents of adolescent children, such a principle of age-related psychological counseling works in a special way as analysis of the case through the prism of a holistic life path of the individual.

As you know, there are several ideas about the integrity (systemic whole) that the psychologist-consultant deals with in his work. For a family psychologist, such a systemic integrity is the family. Methods of diagnostics and intervention, which are used by the family psychologist-consultant, are adapted to such a whole. For individual psychological counseling, the individual consciousness of the client often becomes the integrity. Some counseling psychologists say so: "I am dealing in counseling with the consciousness of an individual subject."

Other ideas about this integrity are also possible, for example, the inclusion of the client's body in it, if the psychologist uses the methods of body-oriented therapy, or even the planets and stars and their relative position, which undoubtedly takes place in the work of an astrologer-consultant psychologist.

What are the ideas about the integrity that the developmental psychologist-counselor deals with in his consultative work?

Our hypothesis (it is based on the experience of many developmental psychologists-consultants) is that this integrity is individual life path of the child, which removes in itself (in the Hegelian sense of the word) the family situation today and yesterday, risk factors, diseases, past and future, genetically predetermined and culturally acquired, features of the passage of normative age crises and features of the formation of psychological neoplasms of all previous ages, and much more.

Not the “parent-child” dyad, not the family, not the consciousness of mom or dad, and not even the child itself as such, but the child’s individual life path - this is a systemic holistic object that an age-related psychologist-consultant deals with in his advisory practice. His diagnostic methods, corrective-developing and rehabilitation techniques are most adequate to this vision of the integrity of his work.

When working with parents of adolescent children, it is often necessary to admit that the difficulties of a teenager, as well as the difficulties of relations between a teenager and a parent (parents), are natural. remote consequence problems of bygone ages of his life.

An excellent, albeit hypothetical (based on genetic reconstruction) description of the formation within the life path of such "relief" individual personality traits of adolescents as cruelty, a tendency to steal and the use of lies for personal gain was given in his time in his works by L. B. Filonov .

This pattern - the influence of the characteristics of the passage of previous ages on the passage of subsequent ones - takes place in all previous ages, but it is precisely in adolescence that this becomes precisely a distant consequence more difficult to recover in a counseling setting. In addition, an adolescent is incomparably more the subject of his own holistic life path than a preschooler and even a primary school student (this is noted by A. G. Asmolova, emphasizing that for the first time an adolescent chooses for himself the leading - in the psychological sense of the word - activity ..

In the same sense, it can be said that the so-called syndromic analysis of typical cases, developed and successfully used by A.L. Wenger in psychological counseling of parents of children of preschool and primary school age, is relatively less suitable for analyzing the problems of adolescence.

The need to take into account the influence of the distant past on the problems of a teenager or the problems of parents with a teenager surprisingly corresponds with the need to take into account the influence of the distant future on these problems. It is typical for a teenager to expand the framework of the “here and now” into the past and into the future. Many specific techniques of psychological counseling adolescents use precisely the methods of work with the adolescent's orientation in time - in the future and in the past, in the individual and generic for the adolescent.Even such psychological processes that are significant for adolescence, such as personal and professional self-determination, are more important for the future than for the present.

Finally, fifthly, a distinctive feature of psychological counseling work with adolescents' parents and with adolescents themselves is the much greater attention on the part of the psychologist to the adolescent's emerging sexuality than at previous ages. Children of primary school and preschool age are not sexless creatures, but only when working with adolescents does a psychologist-consultant for the first time have to behave with them at every moment of time as with a nascent man or a nascent woman. The task of gender identification is central to adolescence. There is even a hypothesis about the leading activity of adolescence as an activity for age-gender identification.

Control questions and tasks

1. Describe the specifics of the social situation of the development of a child in preschool age,

2. What types of activities are typical for preschool age and what psychological problems can be caused by their impoverishment or loss from the life of a preschooler?

3. What is the system of normative neoplasms that are formed during preschool age?

4. What are the main indicators for monitoring the mental development of a preschooler?

5. What dictates the need for the earliest possible diagnosis and correction of psychological problems in a preschooler.

6. Name the most common psychological problems of preschool children.

7. Why do the psychological problems of a preschooler require an age-psychological approach and a comprehensive examination?

8. Build a conditionally variant forecast for the development of a preschooler with difficulties in communicating with peers when entering school.

9. What is the strategy of psychological assistance to a somatically ill child?

10. What types of psychological problems can occur in a preschool child due to a lack of communication with parents?

11. What aspects of the formation of the personality of a preschooler are affected by conflict relations between siblings?

12. Why, in your opinion, the problem of speech development of a young child is most often stated when contacting a consultant?

13. What determines the success of the speech development of an early child

age?

14. What is the reason for the reluctance of a young child to let go of

yourself a close adult?

15. To what extent it is necessary to provide a young child

freedom of action?

16. What problems of early childhood development are associated with the peculiarities of its development in infancy?

17. What is the content of the concept of psychological readiness for

learning at school?

18. What are the three forms of work of a psychologist-consultant with the problem of school maturity do you know?

19. What are the points of view on the problem of psychogenic school maladaptation?

20. Name the features of the psychological examination of a younger student in need of age-related psychological counseling.

21. What are the features of psychological counseling for adolescents and their parents?

Literature

Aleshina Yu. Individual and family psychological counseling. - M., 1992.

Antropov Yu.F., Shevchenko Yu.S. Psychosomatic disorders in children. - M., 2000.

Bezrukikh M. M. Left-handed child at school and at home. - Yekaterinburg, 1998.

Venger A.L., Zuckerman G.A. Scheme of individual examination of children of primary school age. - M., 1993.

Vygotsky L. S. Problems of child (age) psychology. - M., 1984.

Gapiguzova L. N. The problem of social isolation of children // Vopr. psychol. - 1996. - No. 3.

Galperin P.Ya., Zaporozhets A.V., Karpova S.N.Actual problems age psychology. - M., 1978. - S. 4 - 51.

Gutkina I. I. Psychological readiness for school. - M, 1993.

Zakharov A.I. Psychotherapy of neurosis in children and adolescents. - M., 1982. - Ch.2.

Cle M. Psychology of a teenager. - M., 1992.

Korsakova N.K., Mikadze Yu.V., Balashova E.Yu. Underachieving children: Neuropsychological diagnosis of learning difficulties in primary school children. - M., 1997. - S. 54-60.

Kravtsova E. E. Psychological problems of children's readiness for schooling. - M., 1991.

Langmeyer J., Mateychek 3. Mental deprivation in childhood. - Prague, 1984.

Lidere A. G. Psychological training with teenagers. - M., 2002. Lisina M.I. Problems of the ontogeny of communication. - M, 1986. Lichko A. E. Psychopathies and character accentuations in adolescents. - M., 1983.

Communication of children in kindergarten and family / Ed. T.A. Repina, R. B. Sterkina. - M., 1990.

Ovcharova R.V. Reference book of the school psychologist. - M., 1993.

Piaget J. Selected psychological works. - M., 1968.

Psychology of giftedness in children and adolescents / Ed. N. S. Leites. - M., 1996. - S. 10-86; 215-23.3.

The development of communication between preschoolers and peers / Ed. A. G. Ruzskoy. - M., 1989. - S. 144-166.

Workbook of a school psychologist / Ed. I.V. Dubrovina. - M, 1991.

RemshmitX. Psychology of adolescence and youth. - M., 1994.

Family in psychological counseling / Ed. A.A. Bodalev, V.V. Stolin. - M., 1989. - Ch. 2.

Smirnova E. O. Formation of interpersonal relations in early ontogenesis // Vopr. psychol. - 1994. - No. 6.

Spivakovskaya A. S. Prevention of childhood neuroses. - M., 1988, - Ch. 1.

Trzhesoglava 3. Mild brain dysfunction in childhood. - M.,

ElkonshD. B. Selected works. - M., 1998.

Erickson E. Identity: Youth and Crisis. - M, 1996.

The goals of counseling children and adults are similar, but the methods of the counselor's work must be adapted to the characteristics of the child. Psychological counseling of children is distinguished by the following characteristic features:

1) children almost never seek help themselves, usually adults come to a consultant in connection with the child's problems;

2) the psychotherapeutic effect must be achieved very quickly, since one problem gives rise to new ones, which significantly affects the mental development of the child as a whole;

3) the consultant cannot make the child responsible for solving existing problems, since thinking and self-awareness in childhood are not sufficiently developed; in addition, any significant changes in the life of a child depend on adults (Gutkina, 2001).

Most of the obvious differences between a child and an adult lie in the level of communication used. The dependence of the child on adults forces the counselor to consider the problems of family members in close relationship with each other; in the vast majority of cases, family therapy is needed to solve the psychological problems of children (Shostrom, 2002).

Lack of mutual understanding is one of the main difficulties of therapy. The child is limited in his communicative abilities for two reasons. First, he has an insufficiently developed ability to distinguish and integrate the external world and internal experiences. The conceptual thinking of the child is at a primitive level, it has gaps and inaccuracies, there are elements of magical thinking. Secondly, the child's verbal abilities are imperfect, he has so little communication experience that his conversation does not build a strong connection between him and the counselor. To achieve adequate communication with the child, the counselor has to rely more on non-verbal communication. Due to the peculiarities of children's thinking, play therapy has become widespread - both as a means of establishing contact and as an effective therapeutic technique.

Due to the lack of independence of the child, one of the adults is always involved in children's therapy. A close adult, usually the mother, provides the counselor with preliminary information about the child and assists in planning therapy. Interaction with the mother gives the counselor an opportunity to assess her role in the child's problems, her own emotional disturbances, and gain some insight into family relationships. Establishing a good working relationship with the mother is especially important if the child is being raised at home. Poor cooperation with parents makes it extremely difficult to work with a child. As already mentioned, parental attitudes and behaviors are critical to the development of children, so parental therapy can play a leading role in changing the child's environment.

Since the child is less resistant to external influences and stresses and cannot control the environment that surrounds him, the consultant, helping him, takes on more responsibility. When treating an emotionally unstable child, the first step should be to change the environment: the more comfortable the child feels, the more effective the process as a whole. When a child succeeds where he previously experienced continuous failure, his attitude towards the environment begins to change, he begins to realize that the world is not as hostile as it seemed before. Sometimes the solution to the problem can be summer camp or a new school. The counselor may act in the child's best interest, such as facilitating a transfer to a new school or reporting child abuse to the appropriate authorities.

Compared to adults, children are much less aware of the possibility of outside help. Due to limited life experience, children in need of psychological help are much more likely than adults with the same degree of impairment to believe that the current situation is “usual”, “in the order of things”. Most often, the child does not understand that he needs help, and, as a rule, he gets to the consultant precisely because his behavior does not suit adults in some way. Usually the child claims that there is no problem, while the parents or teachers believe that there is a problem.

It is much more difficult to explain to a child the purpose of his meetings with a counselor than to an adult. This is largely due to the fact that the child is simply not able to understand what role the consultant plays, what are his functions. Past experience tells him that adults are authoritarian figures who dispense punishments and rewards. The expectation of a reward can seriously affect the child's behavior during the session, he will try to behave in accordance with his ideas about how “good children” should behave and hide hostile reactions. Similarly, the fear of punishment can greatly distort his behavior, increase anxiety, and even cause emotional distress.

The immaturity of the child often prevents the development of any firm line of therapy. One of the reasons for this is the inability of the child to separate the real from the imaginary. Therefore, he can build relationships based on a mixture of the imaginary and the real, which makes it difficult to achieve sustainable therapy results. For example, a child who has worked through a deep emotional conflict in the first session may only mimic something seen on TV or insist on wanting to play in the next session. The variability of children's behavior is another of the difficulties of child therapy.

As a rule, the child cannot interrupt therapy for own will. Even if the counselor informs the child that it is up to the child to continue or end therapy, in reality parents or teachers may insist on continuing until the child's behavior changes for the better.

A child is rarely ready to talk about his problems to another adult, and besides, he does not always understand what is the source of his troubles. Therefore, the primary task of the consultant is to "feel" the problem and understand the source of its occurrence, in other words, to make a diagnosis. In most cases, the child's behavior, about which adults complained, is based on the negative emotional experiences of the child. L. S. Slavina, who specifically studied children with affective behavior, defines negative emotional experiences as “such experiences that are based on the dissatisfaction of any vital needs for the child or the conflict between them” (Slavina, 1998). As a rule, such experiences are eliminated in children only after the situation that causes them changes. If, due to some objective reasons, it is impossible to change the situation, the psychologist must be able to change the personal meaning of the situation for the child and thereby change his experiences. To achieve this, the consultant must show the child the situation not from the usual point of view, but from a completely different, new position. Moreover, this new position, which the consultant proposes to take the child, should be attractive to the counselee and correspond to his personal claims.

One way to change the personal meaning of the situation for the subject is to take it beyond the vital needs of the child. A change in meaning is fixed by some sign, for example, a verbal formulation. In this case, the child, getting into a situation that previously caused negative behavior, utters a phrase-sign in his mind, which helps him master his own behavior.

Identification of the emotional experiences of the child - the main task clinical conversation used in consultative practice. In a clinical conversation, the social situation of the child is studied through his experiences, that is, the features of the perception of the current situation, the child's attitude towards it are studied. Understanding the child's experiences will allow the psychologist to see what needs to be changed in existing relationships and in life conditions in order to change the child's behavior.

So, the consultant has two approaches to change (used separately or in combination). He can:

1) change the impact of the environment (actions and attitudes of other people, as well as living conditions);

2) change the child's attitude to these influences (change in the personal meaning of the situation).

In the first case, the consultant works with people around the child, in the second - with the child himself. In both the first and second cases, the work is based on data obtained in a clinical conversation. The successful work of the consultant in both cases leads to therapeutic change. In the first case, behavior is changed by changing or eliminating the stimulus that caused negative experiences, as a result of which the latter disappear. In the second, behavior is changed by creating an artificial stimulus-means (sign) that allows the child to master his behavior, that is, to eliminate or smooth out negative experiences. In both cases, the therapeutic effect is achieved very quickly, which, as already mentioned, is especially important in childhood.

Below is a diagram of the clinical work of a child psychologist-consultant (Gutkina, 2001):

1. Initial conversation with the adults who applied and listening to their complaints;

2. Collection of facts and observations concerning the life and behavior of the child; compiling an anamnesis based on the information received;

3. Formulation of the primary hypothesis about the causes of the child's problematic behavior;

4. Clinical conversation with the child, during which the consultant clarifies his primary hypothesis and makes a diagnosis, that is, reveals the cause of the child's behavior. In this conversation, you should explain your hypothesis to the child and offer him the implementation of specific independent actions that allow you to change the situation. Since the child himself is very ill and difficult in the current situation, he, as a rule, agrees to try to do what the adult suggests, hoping that this will improve his situation;

5. A repeated conversation with the adult who applied, in which the consultant's hypothesis and the diagnosis made by him should be explained and the adult should be invited to change his actions and the child's living conditions in such a way that the situation that causes the latter's negative experiences leading to problem behavior changes;

6. Discussing the child's problem with all the people involved in the current situation and describing a plan of action that changes the current situation in such a way as to eliminate the negative experiences of the child;

7. Observation of changes in the behavior of the child. With the correct diagnosis and the exact fulfillment of the requirements of the psychologist on the part of adults and the child, the behavior of the latter begins to change very quickly (it happens that after a few days the problematic behavior disappears);

8. Patronage supervision.

Children very often express their feelings predominantly through behavioral responses. Consequently, the counselor's success depends to a large extent on his ability to observe, understand and interpret the child's actions (Shostrom, 2002). Since the child uses gestures more often than the adult and assigns personalized meanings to the gestures of others, the counselor should be attentive to their own facial expressions and gestures and understand the meanings that the child may attach to them. For example, if he suddenly raises his hand in an explanatory gesture, he may frighten the child. Moreover, a raised voice or even just a long pause can be perceived by the child as anger. Based on these reactions, the counselor can better understand the child and also learn how best to express an accepting, loving attitude towards him.

Many counselors believe that expressing genuine empathy more important than words. Some experts suggest using the gestures that Small child. For example, if the child stamps his foot to avoid talking, the counselor also stamps his foot; if the child shakes his head, the counselor does the same.

The counselor's verbal responses should reflect the child's attitudes and feelings with simple, gentle, and natural phrases and gestures. By keeping reactions sincere and understandable, the counselor builds a bridge of understanding that will allow the child to change their attitudes and behaviors.

Some of the counselor's behaviors apply to all children:

1. The speech of the consultant should be simple and understandable to the child, all his behavior should be soft and natural, demonstrating attention and care;

2. You should not shout over the child, abruptly interrupt his conversation and allow other actions characteristic of an authoritarian figure;

3. It is helpful for the counselor to sit in a low chair or directly on the floor so that their eyes are on the same level as the child's. This helps to create a sense of "we", promotes contact;

4. The counselor must always be aware of the sensitivity of the child to the sincerity of adults.

The first task of counseling children is to help the child gain inner strength so that he can better cope with the impact. environment. This goal naturally arises when the child demonstrates good interaction. Having achieved understanding, the child learns to grow emotionally and gains confidence in himself as a responsible person.

There are three main positions inherent in the qualitative interaction of a psychologist with a child: faith in the child, acceptance and respect (Shostrom, 2002).

faith in the child

necessary in the first place in order to overcome the negative effect of parental judgments. The counselor must sincerely believe in the child's ability for self-development and self-realization. On early stages developmentally, the child usually considers himself a significant person, a person who can do something important for himself and for others. If a child comes from a family with a negative and critical emotional climate, he is less self-confident. A child's self-esteem is closely related to how his parents evaluate him. You can express your confidence in your child with verbal comments such as “What do you think? I'm sure you know more about this; what you feel is very important."

Acceptance is a term that is popular in counseling but is easily misunderstood. Acceptance is not a passive, noncommittal attitude. Acceptance is a positive action that consists in nonjudgmental acknowledgment of the client's feelings and perceptions.

Respect for the child arises on the basis of trust and acceptance. The counselor's respect helps the child understand that "bad" feelings do not make him or her bad and that he has the right to express negative emotions. When the child sees that the counselor respects and accepts his feelings and desires and is genuinely interested in them, this increases the effectiveness of teamwork.

Child Counseling Methods

The child-centered approach (Landreth, 1994) is often used as the theoretical basis for individual remedial work, based on the following basic principles:

1) sincere interest to the child and inner world;

2) unconditional acceptance of the child as he is;

3) creating a sense of security in the child for the possibility of exploring himself and freely expressing his feelings;

4) providing the child with the means of self-expression;

5) the gradualness of the correctional process, following the pace of the child.

Khukhlaeva (2002) suggests the following tentative structure for a session of individual work with a child.

The introductory part, as a rule, consists of body-oriented methods of work. The theoretical origins of these methods are the ideas of W. Reich and his followers about the “muscle shell” that develops with the systematic suppression of feelings and deprives a person of energy and joy of life (Reich, 1997, 1999). Accordingly, a person's self-expression is facilitated by working with the body, mobilizing its energy and returning to the primary nature - freedom of movement and freedom from muscle tension. Body-oriented methods are best applied at the beginning of the session. On the one hand, they are perceived by children as elements of physical education and therefore do not cause fear. On the other hand, children who experience a lack of physical activity at school are happy to be involved in such work. In addition, the joint participation of a child and an adult in the exercises leads to the rapid establishment of contact between them.

All exercises used in this part can be divided into two groups:

1. Exercises for the awareness of movement in general (for example, being a monkey, walking on hot sand, stroking a big dog, fighting with the Serpent Gorynych, etc.);

2. Exercises aimed at correcting specific fears: fear of falling, fear of heights, lack of soil under your feet, etc.

For this part of the work, you need a children's mattress or sports mat, as well as several sofa cushions.

The central part is devoted to working with anger and introjects. As a theoretical model, the provisions of Gestalt therapy are recommended, the use of which in counseling children is described in the work of V. Oklender (Oklender, 1997). She convincingly proves that the problem of expressing anger is one of the central ones in the development of the child, and the majority of neurotic symptoms are associated with the suppression of aggression. This is because anger is an unacceptable emotion. The anger of a child, according to adults, has no right to exist, is rejected by them, along with anger, a part of the “I” of the child is rejected, which becomes weak, diffuse, loses the ability to develop.

Oaklander distinguishes several stages in the work on introjects:

1) recognition of their existence;

2) identifying those parts of the "I" that the child hates;

3) careful development and personification of the hated parts;

4) separation of polar opposites in each of the negative introjects;

5) learning to accept yourself and take care of yourself.

The following techniques are most effective when working with introjects.

Free drawing with a conversation about the drawing: the imaginary transformation of the child into a part of the picture, his story (in the first person) on behalf of the part of the picture. At the same time, to facilitate self-expression, not only ordinary means are used: felt-tip pens, paints, but also atypical ones: theatrical makeup, shadows, lipstick, nail polish, etc. For example, theatrical makeup allows you to draw with your fingers.

Dramatization games.

A small performance is played either on the basis of the content children's drawing, or on the basis of a specially chosen fairy tale-metaphor containing a problem close to the problem of a child. If possible, the performance is played twice with a change of roles so that the child is in polar roles: the offender and the offended, the aggressor and the object of aggression, etc.

Exercises with polarities, in which the child, moving from chair to chair (from pillow to pillow, moving from one sheet of paper to another), plays the polarity of various social and family roles: bad - a good student, a kind one is a strict teacher, a kind one is a strict mother, etc. evenings - bad student, then good.

Exercises to study the various parts of the "I".

This is the most difficult group of exercises. As an example, the game "Flight into space" is proposed. Circles are laid out on the table - the planets of the solar system. The child is offered to come up with what kind of people live on each planet, and visit these planets. Usually the inhabitants of invented planets correspond to forbidden areas of behavior or problematic parts of the "I". So, a boy suffering from short stature invents one planet of giants, another of dwarfs, on the other planets there are people who are always fighting, swearing people and people who are always being forced to do something.

The final part involves reaching out to the deepest problems of the child and is one of the most common options for play therapy - non-directive (non-directive) play therapy. Non-directive psycho-correction is based on the free play of the child in a certain system of child-adult relations, it gives the child the opportunity to explore the experience of real life and express a wide variety of feelings. The main characteristic of the child-adult relationship system is the unconditional acceptance by the adult of the child and his play actions, which is necessary for the development of the child's inner freedom, a sense of security, and strengthening of the "I". In addition, it is important to free the child from control, which allows him to be himself, teaches self-control in combination with responsibility, provides the opportunity to make independent choices and be responsible for it.

Thus, the following logic can be traced inside each correctional lesson:

1) physical activity the child at the beginning of the lesson is maximum, at the end - the minimum, which allows the child to quickly join the lesson and just as quickly leave it - switch to other things, go to a group or class;

2) directiveness of the facilitator in the first part gradually disappears by the end of the lesson;

3) there is a gradual expansion of the range of feelings expressed by the child, deepening into the problem to the final part.

Examples of General Techniques

Hereinafter, in the description of exercises-games, we call the leader “adult”, since many of these exercises, especially those designed for individual work with children, can be carried out not only by psychologists during consultations, but also by educators, teachers and (optional) parents. Below are examples of exercises used in individual counseling of younger students, regardless of the nature of the problems (Khuhlaeva, 2002).

Exercise 1 "Let's play small"

This exercise is performed only if there is sufficient trust between the child and the adult. An adult invites a child to play as a baby. The child lies on the mattress and tries to reproduce the chaotic movements of the baby's arms and legs, the leader helps him by swinging his legs and arms. If two adults participate in the exercise, then one of them swings his legs, the other swings his arms. If the weight of the child allows, the adult takes him in his arms and carries him around the room, saying that the mother loves her child very much.

Then the child "grows up" a little and begins to "learn to stand up." On the mattress, he kneels, holding the table with his hands, tries to get up, the adult “helps” him fall several times. The child is still “growing up”, he already knows how to say “no”, he lies down on the mattress, hits it with his heels, shouts loudly: “No, no, no!” The child is still growing. He already knows how to fight. An adult and a child fight with pillows, while the adult asks who the child is fighting with and why.

This exercise is especially useful if the child is trying to close himself off from an adult and at the same time does not allow himself to recognize and accept his anger towards his parents and other significant adults or brothers and sisters.

Exercise 2 "The cave of my soul"

An adult tells a story to a child:

“There was a boy. The most ordinary boy. He lived in a big house with his father and mother. And like all ordinary boys, he had a grandfather and grandmother. And all the relatives, as best they could, took care of him. But he didn't need their worries. He was so alone. He thought that no person in the world could understand him. No one in the world knows what he is. And he really wanted to know. He tried to draw attention to himself, jumped and squealed, and nothing - all the adults just frowned and grumbled. He fought, tried to prove that he was strong, and to achieve friendship. But all the classmates sighed, rubbed the bumps and bruises, but were friends with each other and were not at all interested in him. And one day, out of nowhere, a fairy appeared and turned him into - who would you think? In a hedgehog. You think he has needles sticking out everywhere - no. He began, like needles, to scare people away with his answers. Whatever you say to him, whatever you ask, in response: “No, I won’t.” And he, like a hedgehog, tried to hide in a corner so that they would not touch him, would not teach him, so that they would not care about him. So the boy from the witchcraft of the fairy became completely lonely. But one day the boy was walking somewhere and accidentally wandered into an old tower. And a girl came out to meet him - in fact, it was the same fairy who turned him into a hedgehog. She smiled at him and said, “Hello boy. Let's sit down and you can tell me everything. I am listening to you". From these words, his needles immediately decreased. The boy sat down and began to tell amazing stories about his life, about his feelings, experiences, that he was lonely and bored. The boy talked for a long time, and the fairy listened, looked at him affectionately and did not interrupt. The longer the boy spoke, the smaller the needles became, and the dark cave in his soul became brighter. Evening came. It was getting dark. “Mom is probably worried,” the boy said, “I’ll run, goodbye.” “See you, bye,” the fairy said affectionately.

This exercise is especially recommended for working with children who are characterized by increased isolation. Listening to a fairy tale, they identify themselves with its hero, and following him in the process of drawing, as a rule, begin to talk about themselves.

Below are some exercises that are used in individual work with children suffering from developmental disorders. They can also be used when working in small groups (2-3 people). Many exercises are suitable for working with children with various disabilities. The exercises given here and in the section on group exercises are taken from the works of the following authors: Lyutova, Monina (2001, 2003); Khukhlaeva (2001).

Individual work with autistic children.

At the initial stages of correction, individual forms of work prevail, although in further child can be included in a small group of two or three people. At the same time, it is desirable that parents be present at the classes, who could continue teaching children at home. At all stages of work, especially at the initial stage, it is necessary to establish a trusting relationship with the child.

To make work with an autistic child more effective, it is advisable to start it with the development of mental processes, especially sensations and holistic perception. Particular attention should be paid to the development of muscular, tactile, visual-tactile perception. If the child's holistic perception is well developed, classes can be held to develop other mental functions (attention, memory, imagination), depending on the child's intellectual capabilities. For the development of visual-motor coordination, classes in front of a mirror are useful, when a child, together with an adult, looks at his own reflection and repeats the names of body parts after an adult (Oklander, 1997).

Exercises for individual work with autistic children

Exercise 1 "Assembling puzzles"

The exercise is aimed at developing communication skills. Collecting puzzles is one of the favorite activities of many autistic children, so the exercise is a great pleasure for them.

First, the child is offered to collect one or more puzzles that correspond to his age and mental development. Then one part is quietly removed from the box. A child puts together a familiar puzzle and suddenly discovers that a piece is missing. Then he asks for help. If the child is not yet ready for this kind of communication, an adult can help him: “I have this detail. If you need it, you can ask and I'll give it to you." At first, you can even help the child formulate a request. The acquired skill is fixed gradually, with each repetition of the game, and then transferred to other activities.

Exercise 2 "Talking Drawings"

The exercise is aimed at the development of observation, communication skills.

The child receives a pictogram and performs the action depicted on it. Then he tells the adult about how he figured out that it was necessary to do just that. After a short dialogue, the child and the adult can switch roles. Now the adult performs the task schematically depicted by the child, and then answers his questions.

Icon example:

Exercise 3 "Symmetrical drawings"

The exercise is aimed at developing communication skills, the ability to work with a partner.

An adult invites the child to draw a symmetrical object together. Everyone draws half on one side of the axis: the child is on the right (or on the left if he is left-handed), the adult is on the other side, symmetrically. An adult puts the key points of the drawing on the sheet in advance (as the skill develops, you can make fewer such points or apply only one, the initial one). Pencils are placed at the same time at one point and draw lines in the same rhythm.

Exercise 4 "Draw a cartoon"

The exercise is aimed at developing communication skills and teaches to restore the sequence of events.

An adult invites the child to remember the main events that happened during the day (yesterday or today). A long narrow sheet of paper is folded into an accordion so that small cards are obtained. An adult, together with a child, makes sketches for the main points of the day. On a sheet of thick paper, an adult draws a TV, cuts a window in it and arranges a “cartoon” viewing: “So you got up in the morning, remember what you said to your mother? Then you sat down to have breakfast, leaving the table, what did you say? - etc. At the end of the lesson, the child can take the "cartoon" with him to watch it at home with mom and dad. The game should be played over several sessions.

Exercise 5 "Magic chest"

The exercise contributes to the development of tactile sensations, the formation of coherent speech skills. The game is based on one of the favorite activities of autistic children - looking at and learning new objects.

Various small items are placed in a beautifully designed chest. It is necessary to get them out of the chest, examine them, play with them. You can build classes to consolidate the properties of objects: fantasize where it might come in handy, etc. You can put in the chest small toys, as well as shreds of fabric, fur, buttons, balls of yarn and other items from which you can make various crafts so that the child wants to return to the magic chest in the next lessons.

Individual work with aggressive children

In accordance with the theory of social learning, to understand the phenomenon of the emergence of aggression, it is necessary to consider:

How was the aggressive behavior model learned;

Factors provoking its manifestation;

Conditions conducive to the consolidation of this model of behavior.

Aggressive reactions are acquired and maintained through direct participation in situations of manifestation of aggression, as well as through passive observation of its expression. Thus, there is a direct connection between the manifestations of child and adolescent aggression and parenting styles in the family.

Corrective work with aggressive children should be carried out in four directions:

1) learning how to express anger in an acceptable way;

2) teaching children the techniques of self-regulation, the ability to control themselves in various situations;

3) development of communication skills in conflict situations;

4) the formation of such qualities as empathy, trust in people, etc.

Since the behavior of aggressive children is often destructive and associated with unpredictable emotional outbursts, the problem of teaching a child acceptable ways to express anger is one of the most acute and important issues facing adults. According to V. Quinn (2000), there are four main ways to deal with anger:

1. Directly (verbally or non-verbally) express your feelings, giving vent to negative emotions;

2. Express anger in an indirect form, taking it out on a person or object that seems harmless. Without reacting immediately, a person will sooner or later feel the need to throw out anger from himself, but not at the one who caused this feeling, but at the one who turns up under the arm, who is weaker and cannot fight back. This expression of anger is called transference;

3. Keep your anger in check. In this case, gradually accumulating negative feelings contribute to stress;

4. To restrain aggression in advance, without giving it the opportunity to develop. At the same time, a person tries to find out the cause of anger and eliminate it as soon as possible.

Sometimes aggression manifests itself in a passive-aggressive form: the child tries to perform all negative actions and deeds (pushing, pinching) on ​​the sly. According to R. Campbell (1997), this form of manifestation of anger is the most destructive. In this case, in the process of correctional work, it is desirable to teach children acceptable ways to relieve emotional stress, such as:

1) transferring anger to a safe object (rubber toys, balls, paper balls, musical instruments, etc.);

2) verbal expression of anger in a polite form (“I am angry”, “I am angry”);

3) constructive skills of interaction with peers and adults in conflict situations.

Positive ways to express anger include:

- the ability to verbally direct anger at an object. At the same time, the main complaint is expressed, without deviations to the side;

- polite expression negative emotions;

- the desire to find a constructive solution.

The transfer of feelings to safe objects is useful mainly for young children, who cannot always verbalize their thoughts, much less their feelings. To work with such children, you need rubber toys, rubber balls that can be thrown into a bathtub filled with water, pillows, foam balls, a target with a dart, a “shouting cup”, a hammer, nails and a piece of log, sports equipment, etc. All these items are needed so that the child does not direct anger at people, but transfers it to inanimate objects, splashes it out in a playful way. This technique is useful when working with timid, insecure children, but is sometimes inadequate when correcting the behavior of an overly open child (Ranshburg, Popper, 1983).

Aggressive children are often characterized by muscle clamps, especially in the face and hands. Therefore, any relaxation exercises are useful to them.

Aggressive children sometimes show aggression only because they do not know other ways to express feelings. The task of an adult is to teach them to get out of conflict situations in acceptable ways. To this end, in a group (or in a circle), you can discuss with the children the most common conflict situations.

The development of empathy contributes to a decrease in the level of aggression. Empathy is “an irrational knowledge of the inner world of other people by a person (empathy) ... empathizing, a person experiences feelings identical to those observed” (Psychological Dictionary, 1997). You can develop empathy and form other positive qualities during joint reading. By discussing what they have read, the adult encourages the child to express their feelings. In addition, it is useful to compose fairy tales and stories with the child. It is desirable that in the process of reading, parents talk with children about the feelings that certain actions of the characters awaken in them.

By observing a child's aggressive outbursts, a psychologist can demonstrate to parents or caregivers the following tricks impact:

1) the use of a physical obstacle before a brewing outburst of anger. D. Lashley (1991) advises to stop the hand raised to strike, hold it by the shoulders and firmly say “no”;

2) switching the child's attention to an interesting toy or some activity;

3) soft physical manipulation (calmly take the child in your arms and take him away from the place of conflict);

4) removal of the frustrating object.

As practice shows, in the process of corrective work, after establishing a trusting relationship with a psychologist, the child begins to feel freer and more relaxed, and manifestations of aggression in his behavior may intensify. Thus, the child tries to emotionally respond to negative life situations, after which, with the help of a psychologist, he can find new constructive patterns of behavior.

Part of corrective work with an aggressive child is to explain to parents the causes of such behavior and ways to prevent it. The psychologist may suggest that parents attend classes with their children, which helps them establish a more trusting relationship with the child and analyze their views on parenting.

Exercises for individual work with aggressive children

Exercise 1 "Emotional Dictionary"

The exercise is aimed at developing the emotional sphere.

A set of cards is laid out in front of the child, on which mimic manifestations of various emotions are depicted. An adult asks: what feeling is depicted here? After that, the child is offered to remember when he himself was in such a state, how he felt at the same time, if he would like to feel it again. “Could this facial expression reflect another feeling? What other feelings are you experiencing here? An adult writes down all the examples given by children from life on a piece of paper; The child is offered to draw a picture corresponding to this emotion. After 2–3 weeks, the game can be repeated, while comparing the child’s previous states with those that have arisen recently. You can ask the child: “What conditions have you had more in the past 2-3 weeks - good or bad? What can you do to experience as many pleasant feelings as possible?

Exercise 2 "Flower-seven-flower"

The exercise is aimed at developing the ability to assess one's condition, analyze behavior.

An adult in advance, preferably with a child, cuts out seven flower petals from cardboard. On each of the petals they draw figures of people - children and adults - in various situations. The child looks at the petal and talks about the cases when he was in a similar situation, describes the emotions that he experienced. Such classes should be carried out repeatedly, from time to time discussing with the child whether his views on others and on himself have changed. For example, if a child initially said that he was happy when he was given gifts, and after 2-3 months said that he was most often happy when other children take him into the game, you can talk about this and ask why his ideas have changed.

Exercise 3 "In the Far Far Away Kingdom"

The exercise is aimed at developing empathy, establishing mutual understanding between an adult and a child.

An adult and a child, after reading a fairy tale, draw a comic book on a large sheet of paper, which depicts heroes and memorable events. Then the adult asks the child to mark in the picture the place where he would like to be. The child, drawing, plays the role of the main character of the fairy tale, describes "his" adventures. An adult asks him questions: “And what would you answer the hero of a fairy tale if he asked you ... And what would you do in the place of the hero? And how would you feel if the hero of a fairy tale appeared here?

Exercise 4 "Emotions of heroes"

The exercise is aimed at developing empathy, the ability to assess the situation and the behavior of others.

The child receives cards with images of various emotional states - using facial expressions or symbols. (It is better to draw cards together with the child, discussing what feelings are depicted on them.) An adult reads a fairy tale, and the child, in the process of reading, puts aside several cards that, in his opinion, reflect the emotional state of the hero in various situations. At the end of the reading, the child explains in what situation and why the hero was cheerful, sad, depressed, etc. The tale should not be too long, taking into account the age, level of intelligence, attention span and memory of the child.

Individual work with anxious children

When conducting remedial classes with an anxious child, K. Mustakas (2000) recommends adhering to the following principles:

1) accept the child as he is, believe in him, respect not only his dignity, but also his fears, destructive forms of behavior, etc.;

2) encourage the child to spontaneous expression of feelings.

As a rule, having come to the playroom, an anxious child waits for specific instructions and instructions from an adult: what can and cannot be done. Many children are silent and feel insecure. The psychologist comments on the child's actions, encouraging his independence and initiative. Thus, during the game, the child learns to make decisions, gains courage and self-confidence. Working with anxious children, it is important for a psychologist to establish contact with both educators (teachers) and parents.

1) do not involve anxious children in competitive games and similar activities;

2) do not push anxious children with a phlegmatic and melancholic temperament, give them the opportunity to act at their usual pace (such a child can be seated at the table a little earlier than the rest, dressed first, etc.);

3) praise the child even for minor achievements;

4) do not force the child to engage in unusual activities, first give him the opportunity to simply watch how his peers do it;

5) use toys and materials familiar to them when working with anxious children;

6) secure a permanent place at the table, a crib for the child;

7) if the baby does not leave the caregiver, instruct the child " important role» assistant.

Corrective work with anxious children is carried out in three main directions:

1. increasing the child's self-esteem;

2. teaching him how to relieve muscle and emotional tension;

3. development of self-control skills in traumatic situations.

Work in all three areas can be carried out simultaneously or sequentially.

An anxious child is characterized by low self-esteem, which is expressed in a painful perception of criticism from others, in self-accusation in case of failures, in fear of taking on a new difficult task. Such children, as a rule, are more likely than others to be manipulated by adults and peers. In addition to growing up in their own eyes, anxious children sometimes like to criticize others. To help them improve their self-esteem, they should be supported, genuinely cared for, and as often as possible positively evaluated their actions and deeds (Quinn, 2000).

Emotional tension in anxious children is most often manifested in muscle clamps in the face, neck and abdomen. To help children reduce tension - both muscular and emotional - you should teach them relaxation exercises. When working with anxious children, it is also necessary to use exercises that include physical contact with the child.

The next step in working with an anxious child is to develop self-control in traumatic and unfamiliar situations. Even if the child's self-esteem has increased and he has learned to reduce muscle and emotional tension in the familiar environment in the classroom and at home, there is no guarantee that in a real - especially unforeseen - life situation, the child will behave adequately. At any moment, such a child can become confused and forget everything he has been taught. That is why practicing behavior skills in real situations is a necessary part of working with anxious children. This work consists in playing out both familiar and possible situations. For this you can apply role-playing games.

Exercises for individual work with anxious children

Exercise 1 "Fight"

The exercise is aimed at relaxing the muscles of the lower face and hands, learning the skill to relieve feelings of anxiety and fear.

An adult says to a child: “Imagine that you had a fight with someone and now a fight will start. Take a deep breath, clench your teeth with all your might, clench your fists as tightly as possible, hold your breath for a while ... Now think: maybe you shouldn’t fight? Hooray! Trouble behind! Exhale and relax, shake your hands. Did you feel how easy it became? This exercise is also useful with aggressive children.

Exercise 2 "Roll the doll"

The exercise is aimed at removing clamps in the muscles of the hands, increasing self-confidence.

The child is given a small doll or other toy in his hands and is told that the doll is afraid to ride on a swing. The task of the child is to teach her to be brave. First, the child, imitating the movement of a swing, slightly shakes his hand, gradually increasing the amplitude of movements and changing their direction. The adult asks the child if the doll has become bold. If not, you can tell her what she needs to do to overcome her fear. Then the game can be repeated again.

Exercise 3 "Kind - evil, cheerful - sad"

The exercise is aimed at relaxing the muscles of the face.

An adult invites the child to recall various heroes of favorite fairy tales and answer the questions: “Which of these heroes is the kindest? And who is the most evil? Who is the funniest? And who is the saddest? And what other heroes do you know - surprised, frightened? etc. The child draws all the named characters on sheets of paper. After that, the adult says: “Now I will try to show you what one of the characters looks like. And guess who it is." The adult makes a cheerful (sad, angry, etc.) facial expression, and the child guesses which of the drawn characters this corresponds to. Then the adult and the child switch roles. This game is especially useful for anxious children to play with their anxious parents.

Individual work with hyperactive children

V. Oaklander (1997) recommends that when working with hyperactive children, first of all, focus on smoothing out tension and giving the child the opportunity to fulfill his needs. The main mistakes adults make when raising a hyperactive child are (R. Campbell, 1997):

1) lack of emotional attention, replaced by medical care;

2) lack of firmness and control in education;

3) inability to develop anger management skills.

As a rule, a child shows signs of hyperactivity to a much lesser extent, remaining alone with an adult, especially when emotional contact is established between them. “When such children are given attention, listened to, and begin to feel that they are taken seriously, they are able to somehow minimize the symptoms of their hyperactivity” (Ocklander, 1997).

Since hyperactive children do not always perceive the boundaries of what is permitted, the psychologist should Special attention on restrictions and prohibitions introduced in the process of working with a child. They should be done in a calm, but at the same time confident tone, be sure to give the child alternative ways satisfaction of his desires.

In working with hyperactive children, three main areas are used:

1) development of deficit functions (attention, behavior control, motor control);

2) development of specific skills of interaction with adults and peers;

3) learning to control the manifestations of anger.

Work in these areas can be carried out simultaneously, or, if necessary, one priority area can be selected.

With the development of deficient functions, corrective work should be carried out in stages, starting with the development of one function, since it is especially difficult for a hyperactive child to be attentive, calm, and non-impulsive at the same time. After achieving sustainable positive results you can move on to training two functions at the same time, for example, attention and control over motor activity or attention and control over behavior. Only then can you use exercises that develop all three deficient functions at the same time. In the sections devoted to individual and group work with hyperactive children, there are exercises aimed at developing both individual functions and several at the same time.

Work with a hyperactive child should begin with individual lessons. At this stage, you can teach the child not only to listen, but also to hear, understand the instructions of an adult, speak them out loud, formulate the rules of behavior during classes and the rules for performing a particular exercise. At this stage, it is advisable to develop a system of rewards and punishments together with the child, which will subsequently help him adapt in the children's team. The next step is to involve the hyperactive child in group activities.

When developing the skills of interaction with adults and peers, when working with anger, the same principles are used as when working with aggressive children.

When selecting games, especially mobile games, one should take into account such individual characteristics of hyperactive children as the inability to obey group rules, fatigue, inability to listen and follow instructions, and inattention to details. In the game, it is difficult for them to wait their turn and take into account the interests of others. Therefore, such children should be included in collective work in stages.

Invaluable help in the work is provided by relaxation exercises and exercises for bodily contact. They help the child to become more aware of his body, as well as to control physical activity.

Hyperactive children especially need the assurance of unconditional parental love. One of the forms of work of a psychologist with parents of hyperactive children can be group sessions, which are attended by 2-3 couples, consisting of a parent and a child.

Exercises for individual work with hyperactive children

Exercise 1 "Conversation with hands"

The exercise is aimed at learning to control behavior.

An adult offers the child to trace the silhouette of the brushes on a piece of paper, then revive the palms - draw their eyes, mouth, color the fingers with colored pencils. After that, you can start a conversation with your hands. “Who are you, what is your name? What do you like to do? What don't you love? What are you? If the child does not join the conversation, the adult leads the dialogue himself. At the same time, it is important to emphasize that the hands are good, they can do a lot (it should be listed what exactly), but sometimes they do not obey the owner. You need to finish the game by “concluding an agreement” between the hands and their owner. Let the hands promise that within two or three days (depending on the real capabilities of the child, perhaps only tonight) they will try to do only good deeds: make crafts, say hello, play - and will not offend anyone. If the child agrees to such conditions, then after a predetermined period of time, it is necessary to play this game again and conclude an agreement for a longer period, praising the obedient hands and their owner.

Exercise 2 "Talking to the Body"

Exercise teaches the child to control his body.

This exercise is a modification of the previous one. The child lies on the floor on a large sheet of paper or a piece of wallpaper. An adult traces the contours of the child's figure with a pencil. Then, together with the child, he examines the silhouette and asks questions: “This is your silhouette. Do you want us to paint it? What color would you like to paint the arms, legs, torso? Do you think your body helps you in certain situations, like when you are running from danger? What body parts help you the most? And there are situations when your body fails you, does not obey? What do you do in this case? How can you teach your body to be more obedient? Let's agree that you and your body will try to understand each other better.

Exercise 3 "Klub"

The exercise teaches the child self-regulation.

The child is offered to wind bright yarn into a ball. The size of the ball can become larger and larger each time. An adult secretly tells a child that this ball is not simple, but magical: as soon as you start winding it, you immediately calm down. When the game becomes habitual for the child, he himself will begin to ask an adult to give him “magic threads” whenever he feels that he is upset, tired or “wound up”.

Exercise 4 "Archaeology"

Sand and water play is soothing to the child and is especially suitable for hyperactive children. These games do not have to be played only in the summer on the beach, they can be organized at home. Adults should pick up the appropriate toys: boats, rags, small objects, balls, tubes, etc. and, especially in the first lessons, help the child organize the game. To facilitate the inevitable cleaning, sand can be replaced with grits, preheated in the oven.

Here is just one example of such a game aimed at developing muscle control. An adult lowers his hand into a basin with sand or grains and falls asleep. The child carefully digs out his hand - makes "archaeological excavations." In this case, you can not touch the hand. If a child touches an adult's palm, they switch roles.

Exercise 5 "Little bird"

The exercise is aimed at developing muscle control.

The child is given a fluffy, soft, fragile toy bird or other animal in the palms. The adult says: “A bird flew to you, it is so small, tender, defenseless. She is so afraid of the kite! Hold her, talk to her, comfort her." The child takes the bird in his hands, holds it, strokes it, says kind words, calming it, and at the same time calms down himself. In the future, you can no longer use the toy, but simply tell the child: “Do you remember how to calm the bird? Calm her down again." Then the child himself sits on a chair, folds his hands and calms down.

Adolescent Counseling

Senior teen and adolescence, perhaps the most difficult for parents, teachers, and counseling psychologists. During this period, the internal psychological separation of the child from the family begins, the independence of his self-esteem from the assessment of his parents appears, and all hidden and obvious conflicts between family members become aggravated (Bodalev, Stolin, 1987).

Statistics show that the number of requests for psychological help for adolescent problems far exceeds the number of requests for children. The range of requests is also expanding dramatically: from the problems of the first, often unrequited, love and relationships of a conflict nature to the threat of drug addiction and alcoholism or suicide (Malkina-Pykh, 2004).

When counseling adolescents, a psychologist or psychotherapist proceeds, among other things, from the psychological normative tasks of development. It is important to take into account the inconsistency of these tasks. The central task of adolescence is self-determination. Its main feature is the need to take the position of an adult, to realize oneself as a member of society, to define oneself in the world (to understand oneself and one's capabilities, one's place and purpose in life). The psychological problems of a teenager are primarily related to self-determination in the sexual, intellectual, personal, emotional and social spheres. This age is characterized by the search for understanding, constant readiness for contacts, the need to receive “confirmation” from the other. Accordingly, the problems of adolescents are most often related to the sphere of relationships - in a group of peers, with persons of the opposite sex, with parents, teachers. Frequent reasons for seeking psychological help are also problems related to self-awareness and learning difficulties.

Today, many parents already understand that various violations in the development of their children are caused by mistakes in education. Some parents are not sure whether they are raising their children correctly and come to a psychologist for prevention. At the same time, they do not declare the existence of any serious problems. Thus, already at the first meeting, it often becomes clear that it makes no sense to waste time on taking an anamnesis or other diagnostic measures. Instead, in most cases, it is enough to conduct one or more educational and advisory conversations. In this case, we are primarily talking about the questions that parents have in connection with the upbringing of a teenager. Sometimes the psychologist gives practical advice (for example, about planning the daily routine in the family), helps organize additional classes with the child at school, or recommends that parents sign up for special courses.

As a rule, a parent who has applied for a telephone consultation is invited to the initial appointment. Important factors for successful counseling are the participation of both parents (in the case of a complete family) and the attitude of the adolescent himself to therapy. When parents bring children of preschool and primary school age to counseling, children, as a rule, are willing to answer the psychologist's questions and are ready to establish contact with him. Adolescents in a parent-initiated counseling situation often feel out of place. However, if the psychologist's interest is genuine and manifested in a tactful, unobtrusive way, adolescents rarely refuse to communicate with a psychologist.

In some cases, the consultant must provide psychological support, which in real life relationships missing or distorted, to take on the role of an intermediary, to help restore normal ties with the world. In the future, this function comes to naught, it is transferred to close people, teachers, peers, older comrades. A consultant can also act as a coach - to teach a teenager communication skills, self-regulation techniques, self-knowledge. Sometimes professional advice is also relevant.

The basis of individual work with adolescents is the principles of dialogic communication, equal relations with the aim of jointly studying a specific situation and resolving it jointly. The effectiveness of counseling at this age largely depends on the ability of the psychologist to stimulate the internal dialogue, which is regarded as the most important factor in development. Then you need to translate it into an external dialogue.

Individual counseling for adolescents is mainly carried out in the form of talking therapy, i.e. it is speech (and not play, as in younger children) that serves as a means to restore psychological health. At the same time, such aspects of the relationship between the teenager and the counselor as the full acceptance of the teenager as he is, the ability of the counselor to show empathy and at the same time be himself are of particular importance. A teenager very accurately feels any falsity in the behavior of adults, so only the absolute truthfulness of the consultant will help establish contact (Khukhlaeva, 2001).

Counseling for adolescents is carried out in accordance with the generally accepted scheme:

Establishing contact with a teenager;

A teenager's request: a description of the difficulties and desired changes in oneself, specific people, situations;

Diagnostic conversation: search for the causes of difficulties;

Interpretation: The counselor hypothesizes about the possible causes of the adolescent's difficulties;

Reorientation: joint development of a constructive approach to difficulties.

The counselor establishes contact by "joining" the teenager with the help of verbal and non-verbal means (voice, gestures, posture, words). This stage can be difficult for a budding consultant, who often wants to make contact as soon as possible. In this case, he often resorts to flirting with a teenager, actively trying to please him (“Oh, how glad I am to see you!”), Violating his personal space.

Diagnostic conversation using projective techniques allows you to quickly talk to a teenager. In the work, you can use the techniques "Non-existent animal", "Self-portrait", "House - tree - man" (Stolyarenko, 1997).

The interpretation stage is one of the most difficult, it requires the consultant to be able to convey his view of the cause of the problem (hypothesis) so that the teenager can understand and accept it. The most effective and safest is not a direct conversation about the hypothesis, but an indirect one - the method of "analyzing other people's problems." The consultant says that many guys experience similar difficulties. Then he offers the teenager pre-selected excerpts from the protocols of conversations with other clients, asks him to first formulate their - "foreign" - problems, and then think - maybe they are similar to his own. Indirect presentation of the problem allows the consultant to rely on the activity of the teenager himself, and the teenager to formulate the problem in his own language and decide for himself how much he wants to go into it.

The stage of reorientation is, first of all, not the search for ways to get rid of the problem, but its translation into a constructive channel, opening up opportunities for development in it. Sometimes it is useful to transfer the problem "from liability to asset", that is, to create conditions in which a teenager helps peers who have similar problems.

It must be remembered that a teenager cannot be subjected to a rigid scheme: each case of counseling has its own characteristics. The main thing is that the counselor should remain open to the adolescent's experiences and sincere with him and with himself.

The main areas of work with adolescents (Ann, 2003):

Formation of a new level of thinking, logical memory, sustainable attention;

Formation a wide range abilities and interests, determining the range of sustainable interests;

Formation of interest in another person;

Development of interest in oneself, the formation of the desire to understand one's abilities, actions, learning the primary skills of introspection;

Development and strengthening of a sense of adulthood, the search for adequate forms of asserting independence, autonomy;

Development of self-esteem, internal criteria for self-esteem;

Teaching communication skills in a peer group;

Development of moral qualities, sympathy for other people;

Formation of ideas about the changes associated with growth and puberty.

One of the main goals of counseling teenagers is to give them as much freedom as they can handle. In individual counseling of a young man, one more task is added related to the theme of the crisis of “meeting with adulthood” - the theme of choice, around which the anxiety of young people is concentrated. Of course, most of all they are concerned about the near future, the choice of a specific way of applying their own strength.

Sometimes a teenager turns to psychological counseling on his own initiative, and he may not inform his parents about it (Menovshchikov, 2002). There are also cases (for example, in school practice) when the psychologist acts without waiting for the student to ask for help.

Child counseling, or counseling for children and adolescents, is in the vast majority of cases directly related to family counseling. As a rule, the parents of the child or adults replacing them (guardians, parents of foster and foster families, caregivers of residential institutions) turn to the consultant. However, counseling for children is very different from counseling for adults.

When counseling adults, the consultant deals with an established personality experiencing certain life difficulties, while in childhood, according to most experts, the personality is only being formed, and its problems, as a rule, are described from the words of adults. In addition, as noted above, the consultant works with a mentally healthy person. And if in adulthood the presence of pathologies is usually diagnosed, i.e. Since we are dealing with an “established pathology”, in most cases in childhood it is very difficult to separate the norm from the pathology, since the term “mental health” refers to an already established personality. Professor B.D. Karvasavsky, clarifying the concept of “mental health”, says that it is defined not only as the absence of maladjustment, “breakdowns” at different points in life, but also “as the ability for continuous development and enrichment of the personality by increasing its independence and responsibility in interpersonal relationships, more mature and adequate perception of reality, the ability to optimally correlate their own interests with the interests of the group. Therefore, unlike adult counseling, when working with the problems of children and adolescents, the consultant to some extent also carries out psycho-corrective measures.

In child counseling, counseling for children of preschool, primary school and adolescence is distinguished. In counseling practice, the following types of problems are most often encountered: preschool children: 1) difficulties in establishing normal relationships with a first-born child up to 2-3 years old (excessive activity of the child, or vice versa, passivity, apathy, deficiencies in language development, problems of cognitive development, etc.); 2) in a family where there are older children, normal relationships do not develop; 3) disagreements between spouses on methods of education; 4) unwillingness of a preschool child to go to school; 5) problems associated with early learning and development of the child; 6) problems associated with preparing the child for school.

In order to identify the real problems of the child, in addition to talking with parents, it is necessary to use psychodiagnostic methods appropriate for the age of the child. The use of graphic methods is very effective. The drawing activity of children has long attracted the attention of researchers as a possible method for studying the inner state of a small person, his ability to reflect the picture of the world, the world of his experiences. Researchers of children's drawing emphasize that a child's drawing is a kind of story about what is depicted in it, and, in essence, does not differ from a verbal story. Actually, this is a story, made in a pictorial form, which must be read. It is effective to use a variety of gaming practices, as well as methods of fairy tale prevention and fairy tale therapy. The advantage of fairy tales in terms of diagnosis and psycho-correctional development of the child is the absence of direct didactics, moralizing, the uncertainty of the scene and the main character, the imagery of the language, the presence of mystery and magic, the victory of good and, ultimately, psychological security. A fairy tale is a model of socialization, entry into the human world. However, when choosing fairy tales, the following rules should be taken into account: a fairy tale must strictly correspond to the age of the child, and even slightly lag behind; the plots of fairy tales should be adapted to the age of the child and correspond to modern folk culture; the set of fairy tale plots should be small - 15-20 basic texts.

Parents children of primary school age most often seek help from a consultant to solve such problems as poor academic performance, lack of independence of the child, disruption of relationships with peers and teachers, complaints about the child’s bad temper, his bad behavior(disobedience, lies, theft, conflict).

The reasons for poor performance can be objective and subjective. Objective reasons include the child's lack of ability to acquire knowledge due to psychophysiological problems, lack of development of cognitive functions (attention, memory, thinking), unfavorable psychological atmosphere in the family, poor material conditions. The subjective reasons for poor academic performance include insufficient development of the parents' cognitive activity, the child's undeveloped attitude to study, etc. These subjective reasons may be the result of the fact that: 1) the parents themselves did not study well, did not like to read; 2) the value of mastering knowledge is not formed in the family; 3) parents are arrogant towards people in general and towards the school and teachers in particular; 4) there is no orientation in the family to work, to make efforts to achieve the goal; 5) the elementary school teacher did not show attention to the individuality of the child; 6) parents are poorly involved in the school process, do not show interest in school concerns. Independence in children develops as a kind of "advance of trust" in the child's ability to cope with something. Disobedience may be due to the fact that adults demand “non-childish” qualities from a child. The problem is expressed in the form of statements “I don’t want”, “I can’t”, “I won’t”.

For parents who have teenage children , and adolescents themselves have the following problems: 1) constant conflicts between parents and children on a variety of issues; 2) the difficulty of educating adolescents, expressed in defiant behavior, unwillingness to study, fulfill their duties, promises; 3) parents are worried that the teenager is often not at home, avoids communicating with them, parents suspect that the teenager is hiding something from them; 4) a teenager does not do anything serious, from the point of view of his parents, does not want to be engaged in his development. These and many other problems of adolescence are rooted in the crises described in section 2.2. The consultant should carefully understand what the teenager really cares about, why he behaves this way. Here you can use various methods of conducting a conversation, psychodiagnostics.

The most common type of deviant behavior among adolescents is avoidance of study and work, almost the same number of adolescents have been in antisocial spontaneous groups, leaving home and vagrancy were noted; 27% of adolescents with deviant behavior pay attention to the fact that this study was carried out somewhat earlier (1992) than the mass manifestations of homelessness and early vagrancy of our time.

The manifestation of deviant behavior in the form of leaving home, vagrancy, which have become a symbol of our time, in adolescence took place in different periods both in our country and abroad. The departure of children from their homes by foreign researchers was initially interpreted as a behavioral manifestation of some kind of psychopathology. At the same time, a number of foreign studies express the opposite point of view: psychopathology as a universal explanation for the departure of adolescents from their homes is rejected.

Shoots often begin in childhood, before the start puberty. The first escapes in children are usually made in fear of punishment or as a reaction of the opposition, and as they repeat, they turn into a "conditioned reflex stereotype." Abroad, runaways in children and adolescents were systematized most thoroughly by N. Stutte (1960), who singled out: 1) runaways as a result of insufficient supervision, for the purpose of entertainment and pleasure; 2) running away as a protest reaction to excessive demands or insufficient attention from loved ones; 3) escapes as a reaction of anxiety out of fear of punishment in the timid and downtrodden; 4) "specifically pubertal escape" due to fantasy and daydreaming, etc.

Under certain social conditions, teenagers running away from home can become epidemic. Examples of this are the mass homelessness in our country during the period civil war and post-war devastation, as well as in the modern period, in the United States, 1929 is a time of severe economic crisis. In all these cases, the teenagers were driven out of the house by hunger and want. Less understandable was the massive spread of shoots in the United States in the 60s and 70s. As reported in the United States News and World Report (24 th April, 1972; 3d September, 1973), if in 1929, in a difficult year of crisis, 200 thousand teenagers ran away from home, then in 1963 - 300 thousand, in 1970 - 600 thousand, and in 1972. the number of fugitives reached almost a million! Since the late 70s, shoots have somewhat declined. However, the number of girls who ran away from home began to exceed the number of runaway boys.

Neglect, quarrels with parents, "protest to school, family, whole lifestyle", the search for adventure and "freedom" are cited as reasons for mass escapes in the United States. It is assumed that the increase in the number of escapes is associated with such unfavorable social changes in American life as an increase in the number of divorces (in 1972, the number of divorces in the United States reached 33% of the number of marriages), the collapse of the "big American family" with grandparents, etc. P., who now live separately and do not show much interest in grandchildren, the constant mass migration of the population due to unemployment and the search for better work (in the United States every year about 20% of the population moves to other cities) and, finally, filling almost all children's leisure television (64% of a schoolchild's free time on average), which replaced everyday contacts with parents and weakened emotional attachment to them. As a result, in the United States, teenage runaways ("Runaways") have become a social problem. Modern Russian society also faced the same problem. Homelessness, neglect and vagrancy among children and adolescents is currently at the level of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Escape typology. A.E. Lichko, typifying runaways from home, strictly connects them with psychopathological problems of personality development and identifies the following types of runaways in children:

emancipation escapes. These escapes are the most frequent among adolescents (45%) and are committed to get rid of the guardianship and control of relatives or caregivers, from bored duties and compulsions and surrender to a free, fun, easy life. The beginning of these shoots falls mainly at the age of 12-15 years. The reason for the first escape is often quarrels, or rather clashes with parents or caregivers of the boarding school. But it is not the fear of them, but the thirst to get rid of the supervision, the annoying regime, the bored way of life, pushes to escape. Emancipatory escapes are often made with one or two buddies, or are acquired in the course of the escape itself. In 85% of these escapes are preceded by absenteeism, in 75% they are combined with delinquency, in 32% - with alcoholism during the escape. The emancipatory type of shoots is most characteristic of psychopathy and accentuations of the character of hyperthymic and unstable types.

Impulsive shoots(from English, impunity - impunity). This type of shoots accounted for 26%. Most often, the first escapes were the result of ill-treatment, harsh punishments, "reprisals" on the part of relatives or comrades in the boarding school. The escape was facilitated by the position of an outcast or "Cinderella" in the family, persecution by fellow students in a boarding school or school. Such escapes are usually made alone. During them, all the behavior of a teenager is built in such a way as to forget, to be distracted from the difficult situation that pushed him to flee. During repeated escapes, they often look for fellow travelers, and delinquency may already appear in the repertoire of behavior.

Demonstrative run. These escapes in adolescents were the result of the reaction of the opposition and were observed in 20%. Their first distinguishing feature is usually a relatively small area: they run away not far or to those places where they hope to be seen, caught and returned. In the escape, they behave in such a way as to attract the attention of others. The reason for such escapes is the desire to attract the special favor of loved ones or to regain their attention, lost or weakened due to any reasons (for example, a sibling illness or the appearance of a stepfather). Demonstrative shoots can begin throughout adolescence - from 12 to 17 years. Most of them fell on representatives of the hysteroid type (these shoots were in 10% of the examined hysteroids). Occasionally, demonstrative shoots were found in labile and epileptoid types of psychopathy and accentuations.

Droma escapes. This type of escape and vagrancy is the rarest in adolescence (only 9% of surveyed adolescent runaways). These shoots are preceded by a sudden and unreasonable change in mood (“some kind of boredom”, “longing”). There is an unmotivated craving for a change of scenery, for distant places. They start off alone, there are no fellow travelers or they are acquired by chance. The range is rapidly expanding from escape to escape. During the escape, suddenly there is a desire to return home - they return exhausted, hushed, obedient. They cannot explain the reason for the escape, they are ashamed of their deed, and too much persistence when questioning can push them to a new escape. Dromomanic escapes can be combined with dysphoria and drive disorders in the form of hypersexuality, the desire to get drunk drunk "to blackout", sadomasochic actions. Some teenagers noted that during such escapes their appetite sharply decreases, they sleep much less than usual, they are always in some unusual, excited state. Dromomanic shoots are found in the epileptoid type of organic and constitutional psychopathy.

Adolescents seeking to leave home (“travelers”) are distinguished by increased readiness for aggressive behavior; a tendency to demonstrativeness, increased emotionality, the desire to be in the spotlight, which is part of the structure of hysteroid traits; an increased likelihood of committing unmotivated acts and a decrease in subjectivity in social relations.

Counseling on the problems of adolescence should be aimed at the formation of personal identity, based on respect for the emerging personality. The family must adjust to the growing independence of adolescents. At the same time, it should be taken into account that in adolescence, the role of the family weakens and the role of peers and significant others increases.

Control questions

1. What issues are covered in problem counseling personal development?

2. The role of studying the client's lifestyle in counseling on personal development. Choice of life path.

3. What is the strengthening of identity and the formation of personality as a subject of activity?

4. When is peer counseling used? Its meaning and effectiveness.

5. Tasks of professional consulting. Historical aspect.

6. Types of professional consultations.

7. Consulting on the problems of job search and employment.

8. Professional adaptation. Formation of an individual style of activity.

9. Career counseling.

10. Crises of professional activity: features of counseling.

11. The value of leisure counseling.

12. The main directions of family counseling.

13. Counseling for couples.

14. Family counseling for children and adolescents.

15. Counseling for blended families.

16. Features of children's counseling.

17. Methods used in counseling on the problems of preschool children.

18. The main problems that arise in parents of children of primary school age.

19. Adolescence counseling.

20. Counseling on the problems of leaving children from home.

Main literature

1. Abramova, G.S. Practical psychology: Textbook for university students / G.S. Abramov. - Ekaterinburg: Business book, 1999. - 512p.

2. Kolesnikova, G.I. Psychological counseling / G.I. Kolesnikov. - Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 2004. - 288s.

3. Nemov, R.S. Psychological counseling: a textbook for students. universities / R.S. Nemov. M.: VLADOS, 2001.- 528s.

4. Psychology of work: Proc. for stud. Universities / Ed. Prof. A.V. Karpov. - M.: VLADOS-PRESS, 2003. - 352p.

additional literature

1. Ananiev, B.G. Selected psychological works. In 2 volumes / B.G. Ananiev.- M.: "Pedagogy", 1980. V.2. - 230s.

2. Ananiev, B.G. On the problems of modern human knowledge / B.G. Ananiev. - M.: Publishing house "Nauka", 1977. - 380s.

3. Berkowitz, L. Aggression: causes, consequences and control / L. Berkowitz. - St. Petersburg: Prime-EUROZNAK, 2001. - 512s.

4. Bozhovich, L.I. Problems of personality formation / L.I. Bozovic. - M.; Voronezh, 1995. - 320p.

5. Brushlinsky, A.V. Problems of psychology of the subject / A.V. Brushlinsky. - M., 1994. 320s.

6. Wenger, A.L. Psychological drawing tests / A.L. Wenger. - M.: VLADOS-PRESS, 2002. - 160p.

7. Vygotsky, L.S. Collected works.: In 6 volumes / L.S. Vygotsky. - M., 1984. - T.1. 397s.

8. Klimov, E.A. developing man in the world of professions / E.A. Klimov. - Obninsk, 1993.

9. Kovalev, V.V. Socio-psychiatric aspect of the problem of deviant behavior in children and adolescents / V.V. Kovalev. // Behavioral disorders in children and adolescents. M., 1981. - S.11-23.

10. Craig, G. Development Psychology / G. Greig. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2002. - 992s.

11. Lichko, A.E. Psychopathies and character accentuations in adolescents / A.E. Lichko. - L .: Medicine, 1983. - 255 p.

12. Machover, K. Projective drawing of a person / K. Machover. - M.: 1996. - 187c.

13. Merlin, V.S. Lectures on the psychology of human motives / V.S. Merlin. - Perm, 1971. - 124 p.

14. Mastery of psychological counseling / A.A. Badchen, M.V. Badchen, S.M. Zelinsky and others / Under the village. A.A. Badkhen, A.M. Motherland. St. Petersburg: "Brest", 2004. - 183p.

15. Orlov, A.B. Psychology of personality and human essence: Paradigms, projection, practice: Proc. allowance for students. psiol. fak. universities / A.B. Orlov. - M .: "Academy", 2002. - 272 p.

16. Parishioners, A.M. Teenager in the textbook and in life / A.M. Parishioners, N.N. Tolstykh - M., 1990. - 125p.

17. Psychological Encyclopedia. 2nd edition / Ed. R. Corsini, A. Auerbach. - M, St. Petersburg: "Peter". 2003.- 1094p.

18. Rean, A.A. Social pedagogical psychology/ A.A. Rean, Ya.L. Kolominsky. - St. Petersburg: CJSC "Publishing house "Piter", 1999. - 416s.

19. Reisner, M.A. Social psychology and the teachings of Freud / In the book. Ovcharenko V.I., Leybin V.M. Anthology of Russian psychoanalysis. - M.: Moscow Psychological and Social Institute: Flint, 1999. T.I. - S. 470-474.

19. Romanova, E.S. Graphic methods in psychological diagnostics / E.S. Romanova E.S., O.F. Potemina. - M.: Didakt, 1992. - 256 p.

20. Rubinshtein, S.L. Fundamentals of general psychology / S.L. Rubinstein. - St. Petersburg: PETER, 1999. - 527 p.

21. Sidorova, N.P. Family Studies: Textbook for High Schools / N.P. Sidorov. - Khabarovsk: DVAGS, 2006. - 192p.

22. Stepanov S.S. Diagnosis of intelligence by the method of drawing test / S.S. Stepanov. - M.: Monuments of historical thought, 1995. - 83p.

23. Feldstein, D.I. Psychology of personality development in ontogenesis / D.I. Feldstein. - M., 1989. 453s.

24. Symanyuk, E.E. Psychology of professionally conditioned crises / E.E. Symanyuk. - M .: Publishing house of the Moscow Psychological and Social Institute; Voronezh: NPO "MEDOK", 2004. - 320p.

25. Encyclopedia of social work. In 3 volumes. Per. from English. - M.: Center for Human Values. 1993. Vol.1. - 480s.

26. Erickson, E. Identity and crisis: Per. from English. / E. Erickson. – M.: Progress, 1996. 397p.

Annex 1

Questionnaire SAN

This blank method is intended for the rapid assessment of functional states (well-being, activity, mood).

The subject is asked to correlate his condition with a number of signs on a multi-stage scale (Osgood scale). The assessment is made on a 7-point scale (3210123) between thirty pairs of words of the opposite meaning, reflecting mobility, speed. rate of functions (activity), strength, health, fatigue (well-being), as well as characteristics emotional state(mood). The subject must choose and mark a number. most accurately reflects his current state.

During processing, the digits are recoded as follows: index 3, corresponding to an unsatisfactory state, low activity and bad mood, is taken as 1 point; index 2 following it - for 2 points; index 1 for 3 points; 0 - 4 points and so on up to index 3 on the opposite side of the scale with a positive assessment, which is taken as 7 points. In this case, it must be taken into account that the poles of the scale are constantly changing: positive states always receive high scores, and negative ones are low.

Based on these given scores, the arithmetic mean is calculated both in general and separately for activity, well-being and mood. For example, the average scores for a sample of Moscow students are: well-being 5.4; activity - 5.0; mood 5.1.

It should be noted that when analyzing the functional state, not only the values ​​of its individual indicators are important, but also their ratio. The fact is that a rested person's assessments of activity, mood and well-being are approximately equal. and as fatigue increases, the ratio between them changes due to a relative decrease in well-being and activity compared to mood.

I work with children ages 12 and up and advise parents on parenting or relationships with children of that age and above.

Frequent reasons for contacting

Relationship Improvement

If your relationship with a child or a parent (for grown children) is in crisis, you can agree to have a Skype meeting together, and I will do my best so that you can understand and hear each other better. The issue of mutual understanding between parents and children is almost always relevant. Misunderstandings and conflicts make it nearly impossible to collaborate productively on any issue, as well as exhausting the parties involved.

Help a child

If you feel that your child needs help, but he does not take it from you - the parents, you can try to arrange your child to work with a specialist. Some simple steps that can help:

• Talk to your child about the fact that a psychologist is not a person who will find and correct his shortcomings, but one who can help him develop and solve existing problems more effectively. As a business consultant, he helps the head of the company to find new ways for its expansion and prosperity.

Questions of education

Counseling for Mothers of Troubled Teenagers is helpful if you're vacillating between several options on how to deal with your child or if you feel like you're acting inconsistently at times. Getting your composure back is very important not only for you, but also so that you can be a guide for your child.

What is a Family Psychologist?

« Family psychologist"- a collective name for three or four different types of psychologist's specialization, quite common on the Internet and mass media. It is best to find a specialist who understands exactly your topic. Therefore, I decided to write about the types of psychological assistance to families.

So, about the areas of work of psychologists

Family relationship counseling

Essentially, this - one on one with a psychologist (the most common type of work). During this consultation, you will be able to find answers to the following questions:

• Am I doing something wrong?
• How could I deal with this better?
• What is the main reason for the dissatisfaction that I now experience?
• What can be fixed or changed?

A common theme of individual consultations is also the adoption of responsible decisions, which one would not want to regret in the future.

The work of a psychologist with a couple

Couples do not necessarily mean married, for example, there may be a mother-teenage couple. This format of meetings implies the interest of both in improving relations with each other and the willingness to turn to a psychologist.

Family counseling for parents with children

Parents can turn to a psychologist with their child if he causes them some concern. At the same time, it is often assumed that the psychologist can somehow either change the child or positively influence him. But in fact, in this case, with the exception of some situations, the psychologist works mainly not with the child, but with the parent(s). And a good result will be the acquisition, finding by the parent in the course of interaction with the psychologist of new means for solving old problems associated with education.

Sometimes a decision is made to work with the child and the parent as "with a couple." In this case, the psychologist contributes to greater mutual understanding and, accordingly, to the clarification of accumulated conflicts. This method is especially effective for working with teenagers and their parents.

And, finally, the psychologist and parents can agree on the beginning of individual meetings of the psychologist with the child.

Psychologist for a child

1. If a child has experienced a traumatic experience (for example, the death of a close relative), a psychologist can help him cope with the loss and other difficult feelings, and recover.
2. If, while watching a child, you have concerns (excessive closeness, frequent failures, low control of emotions, aggressiveness), then you can try to arrange him to cooperate with a psychologist (see above).
3. If a child has quirks, combined with poor academic performance and poor social adjustment, a neuropsychological examination is advisable. At the same time, try not to frighten the child ahead of time at the stage of your guesses, it is extremely important that he does not form unfair fears that “something is wrong” with him. Any, even negative features of development tend to be smoothed out with the timely identification of causes and the creation of more favorable conditions.

Everything in life is good, and at the same time something goes wrong… Familiar?

You clearly want more, but it is not clear how to achieve it;
- You are stuck in a routine, it seems that one day is exactly like the other;
- There is no necessary level of understanding with other people;
- Do you feel that something in life is not going the way you want;
- Do you sometimes think that it is very difficult to work with other people;
- Sometimes it is difficult for you to agree with others or your agreements are violated;
- Everything seems to be fine, but clearly I want more!

Find yourself in at least one point?Yes?

I have great news for you: everything can be changed!

Have you decided that you need a change?

Are you tired of walking in a vicious circle and stepping on the same rake?

Sign up for a Skype meeting Skype: Tatyana Oleinickova and learn how to find a solution to your problem, situation or problem. Together we will examine each situation in detail and deal with them.