Why are People Usually Hostile Toward Seeing a Psychologist?

Seeing any type of doctor is always a little nerve wracking and uncomfortable, but often times so many people are very strongly opposed to the suggestion of seeing a psychologist. There are a lot of factors that bring this feeling of uneasy and opposition on. One common reason is because it's a type of doctor or person working in the medical field, so it naturally makes us uneasy like doctor or dentist visits. A second reason could be due to the fact that the public image of seeing a psychologists means you must be crazy. This of course is not true. All you need is some extra assistance to help sort out a difficult situation or issue, and it certainly doesn't mean you're loopy.

A report that the Highland Users Group (know as HUG), which is a collective advocacy group, published might shed some more light to this question of hostility toward psychologists and the stereotypes that go along with seeing a psychiatrist. One thing they found was that people had so many different perceptions on what a psychologist would be like, ranging from "'the nutty professor’ to ‘the analyst’ to ‘the aloof interrogator'"(HUG,2006). If this is what psychologists were like, we would all have a good reason to be scared! Of course though, stereotypes are always very over exaggerated and have very little to no truth in them.
The HUG also thought of different ways to improve the bad rap that psychologists often receive. They said that if people got to know psychologists better, then the image would probably change. They also found that psychologists themselves may be the cause of some of this nervousness and hostility. They always seem a little harried with their hectic schedules and that may cause patients to be a little edgier as well. The HUG proposed that if psychologists adapted a more relaxed and calm attitude, the patient would be more at ease as well.

To learn more about the research and results that the Highland Users Group found, you can click here.

So with a little improvement from both sides, the patient and the psychologist would greatly benefit both parties and result in a more positive experience overall!

The Couch in Psychology

The use of the couch in psychology was made famous by Sigmund Freud. He believed that the couch would be useful in medical treatment in reliving early experiences by conversation between doctor and patient. This tactic is shown in the media. In most television shows a character sits on a couch and is asked how he feels by a counseling psychologist.

Counseling Psychology on Television

This is from the popular television show Hey Arnold. The girl in this is a main character, Helga, she is going to the counseling psychologist to get her emotions sorted out. In this clip the psychologist asked her about her emotions and uses the ink blot test.

Confronting Racism

Racism is something that effects people everyday. Whether you are black, white, Asian, Hispanic, Indian, etc., there are things that people will stereotype you with. People will act a certain way to avoid being the typical person of their race. When you think of counseling psychology, racism isn't the first thing that pops into your mind but it is something that is very important. People like to pretend that it isn't as prominent problem anymore but in fact it is. The only difference is that it is better hidden today. While researching counseling psychology, i came across an article called New Study Shows Confronting Racism Raises Self-Esteem. The article talks about how confronting racist actions or talking about racism as a whole helps raise self-esteem.

This study focused on Filipino Americans. The study wasn't focusing on hate crimes extreme racist actions, but more so on the everyday racism that people encounter on a regular basis. This includes things like ridicule, being ignored, and being treated differently than others. This study was conducted by Alvin Alvarez. He surveyed 199 Filipino American adults, both men and women, in the San Francisco Bay Area and found that 99 percent of participants had experienced at least one incident of everyday racism in the last year (Philippine News). For men, dealing with racism in an active way, such as reporting incidents to authorities or challenging the perpetrator, was associated with decreased distress and increased self esteem. "Some coping methods are healthier than others for dealing with everyday racism," says Alvarez . "We found that when people deny or trivialize racist encounters, they can actually make themselves feel worse, amplifying the distress caused by the incident."

It makes sense that if you have a problem, keeping it inside will not be helpful. It would get you thinking and make you feel bad about yourself even though you have done nothing wrong. Talking about issues, confronting them, and realizing that you are not alone make a person feel more comfortable in their skin. You don't have to feel like there is something wrong with you. It brings the problem up for discussion and people can help each other out. This is the whole idea behind counseling psychology, talking it out. Racism is a touchy subject that people don't like to think about, but it needs to be touched upon more often. That is how it is going to be solved, not by avoiding it.

Self-Tests/Quizzes

I was doing a good 'ol google search for all things on counseling psychology and found this site, of course all credit is due to them! The specific link here leads to a section of the site that lets you take quizzes or tests (short ones) about different aspects and topics of counseling psychology.

For example it has a quiz titled the 'K10' that tests whether you have a high level of anxiety or depression by ten simple questions. The important thing to keep in mind though is that it is only a quiz that might make you aware that something may be going on. In no way does it give a 100% positive or negative result or a very specific result in any way. Talking to a psychologist or a doctor is the proper way to get a diagnosis. These quizzes are simply to make you aware of something that you might have suspected, but talking to your psychologist or doctor is the best way to know.

Personally, after thinking it over myself, I probably wouldn't take one of these online quizzes or tests and interpret as a serious diagnosis because they're mostly very short so it usually covers very general aspects. With that said, it becomes less reliable because every person has different opinions and personalities and can't possibly fit into one generalized critique or model. For example, I glanced at the K10 anxiety and depression test which was a simple 10 questions in the form of "In the past so-and so- weeks- have you felt nervous?" To me, that seems a little too general. Some people can deal with stress and nervousness better than others and maybe you were a little more nervous this past month from before but that could be because a number of factors that aren't able to be addressed in a simple text-only computer-generated test.

Again, this proves that talking to a human, preferably a psychologist,doctor, or psychiatrist would be more helpful. This is because talking it out can put the issue in perspective and also helps to make you feel mentally and physically better. Hasn't something ever bothered you in the past and after talking to someone you say something like 'glad I got that off my chest'? You mentally and even physically feel better talking about things and can potentially solve whatever issue it is by talking about it with someone rather than staring at a computer screen flashing back some confusing or scary results that you won't be able to talk about with the computer. With a person, you can talk to them about what test results reflected , what it means and what the next step is.

Also, some quizzes are geared toward specific disorders like schizophrenia disorder tests or as general as some kind of Internet addiction quizzes.

The main point is that, as always, the Internet and nifty websites like these are a good way to start any type or research, but talking to a doctor or psychologist is the best bet to getting the most help and support for the issues that you are trying to overcome!

Did you know?

Counseling psychology attends to the necessities of the ever-evolving world and societies demand for fast, accurate, and useful information increases everyday. This can affect peoples’ daily routines in ways that can produce feelings of dissatisfaction, turmoil and disempowerment. In this video we are given an intriguing example of just how fast the world is advancing and the fear that this may cause. At some point in this video you may feel confused about life, but remember that counseling will always be a place to find help.

Do you want a job in counseling psychology?

What is a Counseling Psychologist?

Counseling psychology is one of the most popular fields in psychology. As a psychologist you would deal with the causes, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of individuals with psychological problems. A counseling psychologist would mostly work with patients dealing with everyday stresses such as career, marriage, and family difficulty problems. You would need at least a masters degree in psychology however many careers require a doctorate. You may be able to find a job working in individual practices, schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, and other mental health facilities.

So what are some pros and cons of the job?

The pros may be a feeling that you are helping people, possibly being your own boss, a changing environment, self fulfillment, and the learning experience.
The cons may include long hours, high risk of burning out, paperwork and unchanging clients.




How much will i get paid?

Offices of other health practitioners
$68,400
Elementary and secondary schools
65,710
State government
63,710
Outpatient care centers
59,130
Individual and family services
57,440

according to bureau of labor statistics

Why Counseling Psychology is so Popular

Counseling psychology focuses on the emotional distress of people. Think about when you are depressed or upset. All you want to do is talk to someone about what's going on inside your head so that they will reassure you and make you feel better about the situation. When there are problems, you come up with excuses and reasons why things happened the way they did and most people tend to blame others or outside resources but never themselves.

Sometimes these outside things effect a persons reaction or attitude toward a certain event. Say for example a persons parents were never around while the child was growing up. They obviously wouldn't have a very good relationship. This could lead to the person having relationship issues. They are so used to being alone and ignored, so they don't know how to connect with a person. Counseling Psychologist are suppose to open the patients eyes to this and help them realize their issue so they can try to work on it and fix it if at all possible. This is why counseling and clinical psychologist are the most sought out for. Everyone has issues that they want help solving so they need these psychologists.

Freud was a very famous psychologist that usually focused on psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis has three main parts:
1. a method of investigation of the mind and the way one thinks;
2. a systematized set of theories about human behavior;
3. a method of treatment of psychological or emotional illness.
Counseling psychologists have to figure out if a person had serious illnesses or the everyday case of confusion and need for help. It is the science of the mind. Counseling psychology is all about how people react to other people and how they react to certain events.

Counseling Psychology VS. Clinical Psychology

I found a pretty nice and short article outlining the differences between a counseling psychologist from a clinical psychologist. Sometimes that line between them can get confusing because they tend to be very similar in some of what they do. Mainly it's the job of both counseling and clinical psychologists to help people, but they do it in a variety of different ways and in different areas.

A main difference or how you can start to identify a Counseling psychologist from a Clinical one is where you'd typically find one. You'll find a counseling psychologist in an elementary or high school environment, in universities, and sometimes maybe even in the work place. They work with all types of people meaning small children to adults and they help with minor distresses and issues, in other words, things that can be resolved in a shorter amount of time and with some guidance and support. Clinical psychologists deal with the more serious disorders of mental health such as schizophrenia or manic depression, things that need more attention and sometimes medical attention in the form of prescription drugs.

Often times you feel a little better about talking to someone when you are in a high stress situation, even if the problem has not been solved after you talk to eachother. At least someonae else knows what you're going trhough now and can maybe even point you in a direction that can help you out! This is mainly why you can find counseling psychologists working in schools, universities or places where there are a lot of high stress situations. As the article indicates, the word 'counsel' is from the Latin 'Counsulere' which means, in short, to consult or advise. That's just what Counseling psychologists do everyday. In a way, they can be your own personal little advisor when times get a little too rough ,and they can often help to put things in perspective and talk you through it.

If you want to learn more about some of the other distinguishing factors between counseling and clinical psychology, the article does a good job hitting some main points and connecting some of it back to history too! Click here to read it!

In response and Trust

Okay, so now the ball is rolling...

I decided to be a psychology major specifically because I had a desire to take part in the Counseling field. I personally decided that I wanted to make my career helping people, so when I think of counseling, this is the first thing I think of: help. This is the reason so many people go to counselors, because they reach the point where they feel that without help they will not overcome their problems. That is the kind of career I want for myself: helping people through times of need and desperation, of all degrees and the general image I have of psychologists.


http://books.google.com/books?id=zC_yCN3vycIC&dq=counseling+psychology+articles&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=TRq6S9jbOsPflgeNu9CVCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=11&ved=0CDcQ6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=counseling%20psychology%20articles&f=false

Specifically read chapter three...

Now, trust is one of the biggest issues for psychologists to help their patients overcome. Many people go to psychologists because they have trust issues. It is hard to start telling a complete stranger all of your personal issues and trust that they will not betray you especially if the reason you're there is because of betrayal (IE spouse cheating on you). However, counselors understand this and because of it they work hard to make the person feel safe with them. The analogy of therapy to surgery, in my opinion, is fantastic. Emotionally opening yourself up to a person can be as dangerous as physically doing so, for people's emotions can be as fragile as their internal organs (as odd as that sounds!).

What do you feel is a large issue for counselors to overcome with their patients?

So how do you feel about counseling psychology?

Here's a fun way to start off! A cartoon!(It's a corny one, I know!)

When I hear the words 'counseling psychology' a few things come to mind. The simplest of them is that it deals with counseling or helping and well...psychology! It also has to do with basic emotional distresses, but not to be confused with clinical psychology which tackles the severe mental disorders with medicines and more intensive treatment. In other words, to me, the people working in counseling psychology are there to do just what the word implies- to be a sort of counselor- by guiding and talking to you to help you work out minor mental or emotional distresses.

With that said the common jobs one would find in couseling psychology would be a psycologist, a school counselor or a social worker. They are all under the subject of counseling psychology.
So what are your thoughts: What's counseling psychology to you? What words come to your mind when you hear 'counseling psychology?'

Oh, the places you can go, when you know where to go!!!

The person receiving counseling can find a professional with whom can feel completely safe, understood and accepted so any experience, any thought or feeling, even the most intimate to oneself, can be received and expressed. Even the most confused expressions and ideas will be interpreted and returned by the professional with more clarity and understanding, without even the slightest offense or conviction, showing that it understands what is happening in the patients most private feelings, even more clearly than the subject could decipher. The counselor creates an environment that focuses on the needs of respect, appreciation, empathy, autonomy and support which can be satisfied to see a true link that allows you to explore new possibilities for life and growth. It can release tension and emotions, also find healing and renewal proceeding with their projections of greater internal strength. Counseling is a place where you can feel truly safe, to run the risk of exploring your innermost emotions.

As we can see in this video about "What happens in a counseling session?", Clare Mann explains what is entailed in a counseling session.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfO5OmwoXVM