Why we psychologists do not give advice

People who have graduated from psychology or who work as psychologists know well that, in addition to asking free consultation, there is another custom that leads many people to make a basic mistake when they hear that a friend or relative is psychologist: ask for advice about life.

Of course, asking for and giving advice is not a bad thing in itself. In fact, people who are psychologists can calmly give advice, and can even disclose advice in the media, but making it clear that this is not the activity that defines your profession. That means, in the context in which a psychologist talks about her work, does not give advice; in other situations yes.

Assuming that the profession of psychologists consists of giving advice leads some people to ask for their help by posing a problem and ending the issue with a "so what should I do?" But, although it may seem strange because of the myths that circulate about the profession, psychologists do not give advice. Next I will explain why.

Psychologists: dealing with individual or collective problems

People with a background in psychology know things about behavior and processes that predispose them to know better how to deal with certain situations in a useful and effective way, Yes. But that doesn't mean they can give advice to someone "on the go."

Actually, it is not even true that all psychologists are dedicated to dealing with the vital problems of specific people. This is done only by those who are dedicated to psychotherapy and clinical intervention; there are also many others branches of psychology in which, either you work for organizations and not for isolated people (organizational psychology or Human Resources), or research is well carried out using data on many people, as is the case in psychological and science research cognitive.

In both cases, psychologists do not intervene on cases of individual psychological problems, so asking them for advice does not make much sense. But neither does it when the person does engage in psychotherapy and mental health. Why?

Magic solutions to universal problems

As we have seen, many psychologists do not focus their work on dealing with collective problems, or with problems demarcated by legal entities, not people. However, those who intervene in individual cases also do not give advice, for three basic reasons.

The need to attend a consultation

If you want individual attention, you have to buy all the pack individualized care, not just the appearance of it.

Namely, you have to attend a consultation, a context in which, despite having that name, the client is not going to ask questions that must be answered.

Psychologists do not have in memory a book that contains all the vital guidelines to follow and what to do in each case. First, because such a book does not exist, Y psychologists are normal people, made of flesh and blood, and not oracles with the ability to come into contact with something like divine and universal laws.

But then, what does psychotherapy consist of? This brings us to the second point of why the task of a psychologist is not based on giving advice.

Psychotherapy is a task for two

Get to understand which options are the best to deal with a problem It is something that must be done by both the psychologist and the patient, not only for the first.

Knowing what to do depends on the will of the person seeking help and the specific characteristics of their life, and the role of the psychologist is to guide as you go, do not transmit categorical answers to vital questions.

Of course, if psychologists had as a tool a list of laws of life, these would be so many that they would not fit in a room, and even less in a room. long term memory of a psychotherapist. Simply, the characteristics of a person's problem can be so many and so varied that there cannot be a defined action protocol for each one.

Thus, much of what an in-office psychologist does is simply listen to understand. the customer's problem and to have the opportunity to develop a series of measures individualized. For that reason alone, it is impossible that his work can be summarized with an "I give advice", something that can normally be done at a bar after 10 minutes of conversation. Not; the psychologist listens and asks many questions for a long time and in several sessions.

But what comes later, when the psychologist understands the problem, is not giving advice either.

Act on the focus of the problem

Giving advice is just that, issuing a series of statements in which they talk about what should be done in a specific case. But psychologists don't do that. Talking about what should be done is not, in itself, something that brings the person very close to solving that problem, because believing that would be falling into the error of assuming that psychological problems appear simply when a person does not know what to do make.

Thus, a person with a gambling addiction would simply need someone to push the advice to stop gambling. Once that person became aware of the problem from what he hears the other saying, the problem would be solved. It is a pity that in the real world this does not happen: psychological problems do not arise from a lack of information, but from something much deeper: inappropriate behavior patterns that need to be corrected doing more and talking less.

Thus, the job of psychologists is not to inform people what to do, but in guiding them towards a model of behavior that is useful to them and that allows them to be more happy. That is why the product of psychotherapy sessions are not aphorisms and maxims of life, but rather intervention programs such as the Self-instruction training, something like routines that are used in a gym made for our brain.

Mental health psychologists create the necessary conditions for their patients to reorient their actions and thoughts in a more appropriate way, according to your own goals. Perhaps this temptation to ask psychologists for advice comes precisely from the fact of not being very clear about the latter, the idea of ​​what you want. In the councils, the goal to aspire to is already given: "do this." Fortunately or not, what happens in a psychologist's office is much more complex.