To the question of when the professional development of a psychologist begins, many will probably answer that only in real work can one truly begin to master this specialty. But all practicing psychologists were once students. And many of them (like the author) built their own speculative model of professional activity while still at university. Moreover, even within the same faculty, these models can differ greatly from each other. As a rule, these differences are not only conceptual in nature. Of course, some already “moved” on Freud from their student days and became fans of psychoanalysis, some became interested in neuro-linguistic programming, and others became behaviorists or gestaltists, playing “here and now” and talking to an “empty chair.” But that's not all the differences. Often models differ in the percentage (not to mention the qualitative content) of psychodiagnostics, counseling and psychocorrection in them. I'm sure my model left much to be desired. But, as it turned out later, the main thing is that the author of any model does not give up the desire to improve it. The first client tests your model for strength, maturity and efficiency. And if by this moment you do not have any model, you are in a panic, as if you are drowning in the open sea. But if it is there, but has “leaked,” you just start to worry a little. You continue to hold on to it, put on a calm, confident face and “straighten the course” by reading additional literature and communicating with “wise men.” This is definitely useful and will improve your model a bit. But after a few more holes, you already begin to hold on to the furniture, because it does not sink, and you think about how to adapt it in order to patch up the holes in your professional model that has given a fair amount of tilt. And you also begin to frantically scan the surface of the “psychological sea” with your eyes in search of another suitable “floating device.” And if you consider that all the events take place in the “waters” conquered by psychics, psychotherapists and psychiatrists, it is not surprising that you can come across a big white ship called “Psychiatry”. Not yet knowing that there is no place for you on this ship, you may want to sail part of your journey on it, or at least on a small boat tied to it. At the same time as you begin to try on the clinical model, your “professional jargon” changes. . You now call the client a patient (or sick), and you always successfully find nosological names for his problems. You are already less frustrated at work, you are quite happy with “sailing after someone else’s ship.” After all, everything became somehow clearer and more specific. A patient has arrived. After a preliminary conversation and familiarization with his condition, you carry out the necessary diagnostics and give the patient a diagnosis. From this moment on, he is already sick, but you will not “treat” him, but his diagnosis. Thank God, names (diagnoses) have not yet been invented for many possible psychological problems. These names would involuntarily begin to distance the psychologist from his client, making his problems abstract. Unfortunately, there are not yet enough other beautiful and stable “ships” in the “psychological waters” that a young specialist could “stick to.” And therefore, if the medical model turns out to be “out of size” for you, you continue your “solo voyage” in search of a “safe haven”. You master a computer, read the classics, attend various seminars and try to divide your clients into three parts: “external”, “internal” and “middle”; to "Id", "Ego", "Super-Ego"; to "Parent", "Adult" and "Child" or only to "Client", "User" and "Customer". You feel like your psychological horizons have expanded, but you are still missing something, something without which you cannot feel confident in working with clients. And if you have developed reflection, and you notice that your client also feels somehow uncomfortableduring sessions, then this is a sure indication that you both lack so-called rapport. I deliberately do not provide a definition of this phenomenon so as not to make it too theoretical and I want to pay more attention not to what it means, but to what is necessary to establish it. I will only say that rapport is a connection between a psychologist and his client, without which it is impossible to obtain the necessary information about this client and provide him with effective psychological assistance. It is important to emphasize here that psychodiagnostics cannot replace this connection, just as nothing can replace trusting human communication built on mutual acceptance and respect. This is not to say that diagnostics are not needed at all. This would be another extreme. You just need to determine its role, place and time for each individual case. And it will be easier to do this by realizing that it is not psychodiagnosis, consultation or psychocorrection that helps a person. All these are just names of procedures or activities. Only a confident, thoughtful, holistic approach to each individual person, based on experience (your own and others) and knowledge of methodology, can really help. This approach can only be developed by establishing the necessary relationship with the client, which is called rapport. How to establish these relationships and establish rapport? You can learn the techniques of so-called pacing, and this will undoubtedly be useful for your work. But this is again an extensive path. We are already sufficiently armed with techniques and technologies. Now is the time to think about intensive transformations of our professional model (and it is better to think about this even before starting practical activities). The preface to this article shows what is meant by intensive change. Yes, namely work on the psychologist’s own personality, his individual characteristics. It may not be necessary to change anything, but knowing how these features manifest themselves in work and how best to use them to establish rapport will not hurt anyone. Every psychologist who works with people is, first of all, a human being. And like any person, he has character and temperament, ideals and beliefs, his own values ​​and habits, dreams, hopes, family and pets, and therefore, his own problems. He is the same as his clients, only he has a special education. He is not smarter than them (and if he is smarter, it’s better that clients don’t pay attention to it), not more resourceful, not more decisive and not more relaxed. Maybe he looks a little calmer, but the main thing is that he understands people and knows what to do with their problems, and he also looks like that. So, the first condition for successful rapport is an appropriate appearance. The client wants to see in a psychologist a person who is confident in himself and his actions, who is understanding and not stupid. If you are super insightful and erudite, catch everything on the fly and know what to do, that’s great. But the client may not believe you if your appearance tells a different story. This is another aspect of professional reflection. Well, we took a “wise” pose, made the “right” face, what next? And then you need to try not to fall asleep and not miss the most “interesting” part of the client’s story. Sometimes (in order not to fall asleep) we are tempted to interrupt our interlocutor, ask him a “very important” question, or simply change the subject. The ability to listen correctly is the second component of success not only in rapport, but also in any communication. Moreover, it is advisable to listen not only to what the client is saying, but also to how he says it. Also, “listening correctly” means for a psychologist to manage the communication process, ask necessary and timely questions, show that he understands the client and facilitate the process of verbalization of his experiences. In addition, before the psychologist begins to listen, the client must begin to say something. And it will be an illusion to believe that the client always knows what to talk about and where to start. Sometimes he doesn’t even know what his problem is. The third useful quality of a practical psychologist is observation, i.e. ability.