Psychotherapist as a professional and as a person Gennady Maleychuk The “therapist-client” position contains a peculiar paradox. On the one hand, this is a vertical position: the client is not equal to the therapist, the therapist is a professional, and the client turns to him for professional help; on the other hand, this is a horizontal position: the client and the therapist are equal - the client and the therapist are individuals, each with their own experience, experiences, feelings, values, meanings... Overcoming this paradox is possible by understanding the dual essence of the therapist - the therapist as a professional and the therapist as an individual. Let's consider these entities. The psychotherapist as a professional Acting in the role of a professional, the therapist, of course, is not equal to the client. He is equipped with professional knowledge and skills, owns a whole arsenal of various psychotherapeutic methods and techniques, and has a wealth of therapeutic experience. Thanks to this, he, in fact, can solve the problems stated by the client. The client does not have all this, and this is why the therapist is important and valuable to the client. The presence of a professional level creates a vertical (oblique) relationship between the therapist and the client, with the client recognizing the authority of the therapist. Thanks to this, in fact, therapy as a profession and therapeutic relationships as professional ones become possible. If the therapist did not have a professional component, and the client did not have an image of the therapist as a professional, the client would hardly be interested in him, and there would be no talk of any professional relationship, it is unlikely that the client would go to therapy in this case (a heart-to-heart talk is much more It’s more pleasant with close friends). Indeed, the therapist has an impressive professional baggage of knowledge, abilities, skills, methods, techniques and techniques, experience - thanks to this, he is a professional in his field, capable of providing professional assistance to the client. Thus, the presence of professional qualities in a psychotherapist is a condition for professional (“non-human”) relations. The professionalism of the therapist attracts the client and creates in him a readiness for vertical, “unequal” relationships: the person who seeks psychological help accepts the position of the client, and considers the psychotherapist as a professional capable of providing him with this kind of help. The psychotherapist as a person, however, the above set of knowledge , skills, methods, techniques, etc. is not enough to create what is most important in therapy - the therapeutic contact or alliance. Without it (contact) there can be no therapy as such. It can be anything - psychocorrection, psychological counseling, psychopedagogy, but not therapy. Everyone knows the statement that has already become an axiom: “The main instrument of therapy is the personality of the therapist.” It is thanks to this “tool” that a therapeutic relationship becomes possible, in which a “Meeting” of the therapist and the client is possible as a condition for the latter to change. And for this, the therapist needs to take the risk of appearing at the border of contact with the client without a professional mask, to present his own experience of his soul, to be ready to share his emotional experiences. What kind of instrument is this (the therapist’s personality), and what are its properties? The presence of only professional baggage, how As was said above, it is not enough for a Meeting with a client, in the space of which, in fact, the latter’s personal changes occur. To do this, the therapist needs to present his “unprofessional,” “human” part to the client, and drop his professional mask. What qualities and conditions should a psychotherapist have to make such a Meeting possible? In my opinion, they are the following: • Courage, which gives the therapist the courage to appear before the client without a mask, the willingness to sincerely share his feelings, thoughts, experiences, his individual human experience. In professional language, such sincerity is called authenticity; • Empathy, allowing the therapist to understand the phenomenology of the soul.