The 10 main requirements to be a good therapist

Being able to practice as a psychotherapist is not only about having "a special sensitivity" or the fact that we like to deal face to face with people. There are a number of skills, both theoretical and practical, that must be mastered in order to offer the best possible service.

The requirements to be a therapistUltimately, they have to do with both our practiced skills and our knowledge acquired through training and study. Let's see what they are.

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The basic requirements to offer psychotherapy

The ones you can find below are a series of basic requirements that every psychotherapist must meet.

This will depend on whether or not you offer guarantees that a quality service is being offered, so it is convenient to master all those areas of excellence.

1. Reject prejudice

Several years of psychological research show that, spontaneously and involuntarily, prejudices and labels appear in our minds when we begin to relate to someone who we know little. This, which in certain contexts is useful, must be taken into account in the consultation, and that is why it is necessary to ensure that identify these biases about patients and prevent their influence from spreading to our further decisions and analyzes relevant.

What it is, then, is constantly review what is believed about the other person, detect valuations with little support and isolate their effect.

2. Learn to master silences

In a dialogue, like those that take place in psychotherapy sessions, silences are always something, they are never "nothing." Namely, provide us with information and also produce an effect, just like words.

That is why among the requirements of a good therapist is the ability to master silences; do not avoid them, but use them in the most appropriate way so that the sessions progress.

3. Self-control

Psychotherapists must learn to separate their own preferences from the goals of the consultation sessions they offer. So cannot be carried away by impulses, within what is considered ethical. Although their work relies heavily on dialogue, that does not mean that they offer informal conversations in which both parties try more to give a good image than to make the exchange of ideas work Useful.

4. The ability to read between the lines

Often times, patients do not directly reveal certain information, but rather hint at it. This is something that happens very often, beyond psychoanalytic interpretation about the mechanisms in which the unconscious is expressed. It may be that the other person, completely voluntarily, prefer to give only part of the information because you are embarrassed speak more directly.

In the same way, sometimes the interlocutor misses an idea that can be intuited if we analyze the type of speech that is used.

5. Ability to work in a team

Psychotherapists increasingly work in collaboration with other professionals in the field of health and wellness. That is why, although in front of the patients the only party that acts from a professional role is the therapist, once the session has ended, the work continues establishing bridges of fluid communication with speech therapists, pedagogues, parents, teachers, etc.

6. Knowledge of the code of ethics

An essential point to guarantee that we act according to a code of ethics. Offering treatments whose effectiveness has not been scientifically validated, for example, or talking to others about details of the life of a patient that he has revealed in the sessions, are clearly unethical behaviors that can be reported.

7. Ability to establish a therapeutic link

Therapy sessions consist not only of the information that is covered in them, but also of the therapeutic relationship that is created between the different parties. To do this, we must gain the trust of patients, showing that we do not prejudge or make value judgments about what is told, among other things.

• Related article: "Rapport: 5 keys to creating an environment of trust"

8. Professional assertiveness

Therapists often find themselves in a situation where they must try to get the other person to talk about painful or embarrassing aspects of her life. It is necessary know how to deal with these issues without avoiding them so as not to bother the patient. Now, it is necessary to do it tactfully.

9. Knowledge of the most effective techniques

Therapists must be sufficiently trained to know the tools that psychology has at the time of the intervention. In addition, it is necessary to take into account that there are no universal solutions and that each problem is associated with a treatment that has been scientifically validated for those cases.

10. Knowledge of the diagnostic criteria

Finally, therapists must know what are the characteristics of different mental disorders and how they are detected. This requires a lot of study and continuous training.