Sometimes, in the lives of many people, difficult situations arise from which there is no way out. Then it makes sense to seek the help of a psychologist or psychotherapist. Currently, more than three hundred organizations providing psychological assistance services operate in Novosibirsk. How to choose a specialist so as not to waste your time and money? There are two main ways to choose a psychologist. Choosing by recommendation Of course, it is best to ask for feedback from people who have already used the help of a psychotherapist. However, due to our mentality, not every person will want to share this experience, even with the closest people. If you are lucky and you have found a person who can recommend a good specialist, then it is not a fact that he will also be good for you, since each person is individual and the situations are different. Independent search for a specialist This needs to be taken with particular seriousness. It is best to type in a search engine the phrase: “Psychologist”, “Psychologist in Novosibirsk” or “Psychological help in Novosibirsk” and from the many offers choose the one that suits you best. If you do not want to waste your money, time and even worsen an already difficult situation, then when choosing a specialist, adhere to some rules: - the site does not have a copy of a higher education diploma in the specialty “Psychologist”. At the moment, many offer their services as a psychologist without having a higher specialized education. Nowadays there are a lot of different courses lasting from three months to a year that issue certificates of “psychologists”, but these are not psychologists, even if they have higher education diplomas in various specialties: philologist, technologist, journalist, engineer, etc. I repeat once again that a psychologist must have a higher education diploma in the specialty “Psychology” and nothing else. If a specialist does not work individually in an office, but offers the service “Correspondence” or “Online consultations on Skype”, then it is better to refuse such services. For a good result, the psychologist needs to collect a large amount of information about the client. An important role is played by non-verbal information, which makes up 80% of all general information (a person’s emotional background, eye contact, the intonation with which a person speaks, his gestures and facial expressions during a conversation, and much more), which is impossible without a personal meeting. - presence A lot of laudatory reviews should also be alarming, since in Russia many people use the services of psychologists and psychotherapists, but due to our mentality, most people hide this, much less flaunt it to a multimillion-dollar audience. As a rule, such reviews are written by the “specialist” himself or various servers are used for this. - The cost of the consultation should not be either suspiciously low or too high. The average cost of one hour of individual consultation in each city is different, for example, in Moscow it ranges from 2500 – 3000 rubles. The price of a consultation with a good psychologist in Novosibirsk is from 1200 – 1800 rubles. If the price is initially lower, then this indicates that such a psychologist for some reason has few clients; how much consultation of such a psychologist is needed is, of course, up to you to decide. For specialists who have the scientific degrees of “Candidate of Psychological Sciences” or “Doctor of Psychological Sciences”, the cost of consultation may be significantly higher. - It is advisable that the psychologist be a member of the “European Public Professional Psychotherapeutic League”, since upon joining it, the candidate must confirm your education and relevant knowledge, skills and abilities. Upon joining, all members are issued a certificate and certificate, copies of which must be posted on the specialist’s website. Here are some tips that, from my point of view, need to be taken into account before seeking advice from a psychologist. Be careful not to make a mistake when choosing a specialist. Author of the article Lunyushin S.A. (2012)..