Why doesn’t a psychologist give advice?

Why doesn’t a psychologist give advice?

Very often in initial requests from clients the phrase is heard: “I don’t need consultations, just advise me what to do.” When planning to come to a psychologist for help, people who have not encountered such a practice before perceive him as a specialist who will explain, give advice, and tell what is right or wrong in a given situation. But nothing like this happens in a psychological consultation. The result is unjustified expectations and disbelief that they can be helped.

Why is this happening?

We can say that giving advice is a matter of ethics, because any advice is very subjective and reflects only the point of view of the advisee. We can say that only you yourself should decide how to act in a given situation, based on your own experience, beliefs and value system. This means that only you bear responsibility for the decision made. But I want to answer simply: “Because it doesn’t work.”

And the problem is not your ignorance of what exactly needs to be done. The point is that, even if you are provided with precise instructions, you cannot do this. Something is in the way. When asking the question: “What should I do?”, a person tries to find a way out of the situation using logic, trying, like in a puzzle, to find the only correct answer. And he reasons: “I’m fine, and I understand everything, I’m just doing something wrong. If I do everything right, the situation will definitely change.” The approach is familiar, but…