In my opinion, there is no stopping in learning to be a psychologist. Having received basic and additional education, you do not stop studying in specializations and special courses, you attend supervisors and supervisory groups. And meetings with colleagues at conferences are especially important. A conference is a special exciting atmosphere. I associate conferences with fairs, about which in the old days they said: “Show yourself and see others!” Conducting your own workshop and attending workshops and lectures by colleagues - these are the tasks of the process. Psychologists from other cities who have studied with various authoritative and experienced representatives of the profession come to the conference. There is more professional slang and different speech patterns, the number of greetings and hugs per square meter increases noticeably. Attending lectures and workshops expands awareness, adds questions, excites and makes you want to learn even more. The conference schedule encourages quick decision-making - “I’m going to this lecture, I’m not going to another,” “I’m choosing this workshop, others are not as interesting as this one.” A quick choice, frankly speaking, needs to be made in just a couple of minutes, during the presentation of the presenters to colleagues and immediately after that. (I’m sorry that I couldn’t see all the workshops; I don’t have Hermione’s “time turner,” eh!) Listening to other psychologists, watching them, you notice their “tricks,” try them on for yourself, take something into your arsenal, something you reject. And you study, study, study... You learn to look, listen, notice, analyze, select a form, express feelings. Collegiality. I first heard the significance of this phenomenon at my first Gestalt conference from teacher Igor Danilov. His lecture was devoted to the formation of the identity of a psychotherapist and touched upon forms of communication with colleagues. Since the psychologist works in a separate office with clients behind a closed door, he may experience a distortion of reality. In order to maintain a sober outlook and the concept of modernity, it is important to see colleagues of different levels of experience, it is important to share your views with like-minded people and compare them with their views, check their reality and viability. And conferences are exactly the kind of action that allows this to happen. One who works separately and does not maintain contact with colleagues is a “farmer psychologist,” as Igor puts it. Somehow I didn’t like this comparison then, I remember it. (That’s the “trick” I noticed from Igor - come up with a metaphor to get me hooked!) The article was written two weeks after the conference. It looks like my “digestion” is over. Photos from the 6th Gestalt Conference of the Moscow State Institute in Pyatigorsk.