Would You Make a Good Psychologist?

When I was a little girl, I got it into my head somehow that I would enjoy being a psychologist. I pictured myself in a pretty office somewhere, with a tasteful pair of heels and a pen and paper, people coming to visit me (and even pay me!) to listen to their problems, to suggest solutions. I would sit and nod, and jot down notes, and say "hmm" and tilt my head. At the end of a session they would waltz out feeling much better, and I would look in my appointment book for the next lucky customer.

So much for the TV Psychologist!

Naturally, this woefully naive view didn't last very long. Being a psychologist is one of the least glamorous professions I can think of, and nothing near what you may have seen in the movies. The good news is: often it's better.

Think you might have "what it takes" to be a good psychologist or counsellor? Having had my own illusions about the field, and having studied a fair bit, I would say that the following traits are necessary to do well as a psychologist or counsellor, or any mental health professional.

1. You're value-aware

This is one of the most important traits for a psychologist. And yet, it's difficult to describe exactly. Today, you can't walk two steps without bumping into a mental health professional with an "agenda". Perhaps they suggest you take a natural remedy for your depression, or urge you that your homosexuality needs fixing.

On the one hand, psychologists are people and have the same diversity of beliefs as the rest of us. On the other hand, it can sometimes be very tricky to tell the difference between your opinion, society's opinion, what's in the DSM, etc.

But a good psychologist is not one with no values or opinions, rather they are very keenly aware of what values they have, how they arrived at them and how they will play out in the session. You will most likely get clients who have widely different beliefs from you - can you still suspend your own and be truly present with them?

2. At the same time, you have unshakable principles

If you were completely open minded, unbiased and value neutral, you would make an excellent philosopher. But to be an excellent psychologist you need to be flexible in some ways, and incredibly grounded in other ways. While it's OK to doubt yourself, to feel upset or confused or even demotivated by your work, at the end of the day you're doing difficult emotional labour that will take it's toll unless you are firmly anchored in yourself.

Be it family, your own faith, an unshakable sense of purpose or an insatiable curiosity, you will need to tap into your motivation and draw on it throughout your career. If you have a thick skin and can firmly establish your boundaries, you can really be of help to others. Remember that people will be coming to you in states of anguish, confusion and pain. You will need something firm to hold onto before you reach out to help them.

3. You have a heart

Everybody can agree that a psychologist or counsellor must be kind and non-judgmental. But acting from the heart is a step further. In the caring professions, part of your skill set and part of what makes you competent is how able you are to engage your heart.

True compassion and respect for other human beings is what will ultimately colour your entire career - and not just a set of techniques that only give the appearance of compassion and respect. We all act out of fear or anger at times, and psychologists are no different. Sometimes, they mess up. Sometimes your own issues will impact the help you are able to give another.

But a truly competent professional will constantly try to align themselves with a real, deep regard for their fellow human beings. If you honestly feel that you are a humanist in the truest sense, you will make a good psychologist. If you see people as lesser beings that you are going to teach or help, if you see them as fulfilling your needs, if people are merely curiosities for you or if you enjoy the power dynamic of being in the therapeutic relationship, try to remember to act from your heart as well.

Of course, the joy of psychology is that no one person gets to define it's values. If you feel drawn to psychology, make up your own rules and learn for yourself what works and what doesn't. There is no single personality type or kind of person that is best suited to being a psychologist or other mental health worker.

In the end, every encounter, every client, will change you, and you will change them. If you can handle this prospect, if you are excited by it even, you may well be fulfilled as a mental health worker.

Protecting Your Mental Health And Finding Wisdom

Hypocrisy is defined as a pretense of having a virtuous character based on moral or religious beliefs that one does not really possess. We know that hypocrisy is falsity, but we don't think that falsity always is bad. We believe that falsity is necessary because we cannot be sincere with everyone.

We pretend we like people and things we dislike because we have to be kind - especially with powerful people because we depend on them, and for many other reasons. Falsity is a very convenient method of manipulation used by everyone, in all life situations.

Everyone in our world is an actor. Everyone wears a social mask. The only exceptions to this rule are the rare saints of the human history.

This statement is not based on my personal opinion, but on a deep analysis of the human absurdity thanks to the scientific method of dream interpretation. When you will translate your dreams according to the scientific method you will verify by yourself that the human nature is basically absurd. You will stop believing in illusions.

As I told you many times in my articles, you have inherited a wild conscience, the anti-conscience, which has satanic characteristics. This is your second conscience. It thinks like a prehistoric man, but this is not visible from the beginning. Everyone inherits an anti-conscience, which keeps trying to destroy their human conscience through craziness.

Absurdity begins with ideas based on the acceptance of what is bad. This means that you must learn how to be sincere and follow a specific philosophy of life, without imitating the hypocritical examples of the world. Otherwise, your anti-conscience will destroy your conscience by generating a mental illness within your conscience with its absurd ideas.

Hypocrisy is very dangerous for your mental health. You should follow dream therapy and build a self-confident personality, which will be well-defined and based on wisdom and goodness.

You will be surprised with everything you will learn about the human nature. Your dreams will help you become more intelligent and sensitive because you will have the chance to have a dialogue with God, the dream producer. This is how you will learn how to discern the absurd ideas of your anti-conscience and stop following them. You will also learn how to transform your wild conscience into human content.

God helps you understand what is logical or illogical and why. You stop believing that there is a chaotic situation when you try to discover what is logical or not. You stop following the global absurdity of your historical time. You understand how to organize your research and find the right answers in all circumstances.

What is right or wrong doesn't depend on the situations you analyze a certain fact. This knowledge doesn't depend on your personal opinion. There is a way to always find out what is right or wrong by knowing what is good or bad.

However, you cannot discern what is good or bad. Your judgement is influenced by your absurd and evil anti-conscience, which occupies the biggest part of your brain and psyche. You also are ignorant, and your conscience is under-developed. You indispensably need the divine guidance in your dreams. You have to be realistic and understand this truth.

God's reasoning system is based on sanctity and wisdom. God is able to clearly understand what is good or bad, and He gives you many explanations about this matter in dreams. The fight between good and evil characterizes your life, and the functioning of the world. God helps you understand how to always have a wise attitude, even when everything is very dangerous.

The existence of God and His wisdom is a relief for humanity. The wisdom contained in dream messages surpasses all the information you may have about your temporary existence in our dangerous planet. God teaches you the meaning of life and the meaning of death. You understand how to have a meaningful life and evolve, instead of being a victim of your absurd and evil anti-conscience, and a victim of the cruel world.

The capacity to think without being limited by the absurdity of your historical time will give you a new incentive of life. You will stop following the narrow mindset of the current civilization and learn the meaning of your reality. You will be surprised when you will relate the information you have in dreams to your daily life.

Christina Sponias continued Carl Jung's research into the human psyche, discovering the cure for all mental illnesses, and simplifying the scientific method of dream interpretation that teaches you how to exactly translate the meaning of your dreams, so that you can find health, wisdom and happiness.