Consultation of a Psychologist: The Specifics of Therapeutic Discourse and Its Perception

Abstract

This article examines a unique perspective on therapeutic discourse in the situation of psychological counseling and its perception by the client. The author, in the dual role of client and discourse analyst, uses autoethnographic notes as a foundation for analyzing the specificity of therapeutic discourse in the dynamics of the 'psychologist-­client' interaction. The main focus of the article is to identify characteristic features and methods used in counseling practice. Such features include redefining the client’s problem that takes place during the consultation, focusing communication on the topics of parent-­child relations at the psychologist’s initiative, as well as 'maintaining personal boundaries' as a component of the ideology of the therapeutic discourse encountered in the counseling session. To clarify the specifics of the counseling situation, the article presents an attempt to compare counseling and friendly relations as alternatives. In addition, interdiscursive manifestations were found in the recommendations of the psychologist, which referred to the field of bodily practices and osteopathy. The autoethnographic observation made it possible to fix the perceived 'gaps' of the therapy discourse in the field of politics, when the actualization of political events in the client’s life was the reason for the termination of the consultations. The author’s approach in the form of diary notes allows for an examination of the counseling process both from the client’s perspective and through the lens of analytical research. The text of the article presents analytical conclusions, as well as illustrative fragments of diary notes made by the author based on his own empirical experience as a client in a counseling situation.