Our personal life and professional life are different in many ways. Professional life is a relationship established in an environment with clear boundaries and essentially based on ignorance. People in our personal network; It could be our friends, our family, our lovers. Here, there is a relationship that is more unlimited and where different sensitivities are taken into consideration compared to professional life. Our personal relationships and professional relationships progress with their own unique dynamics. The main distinction is; what advances and deepens our personal relationships; To know, to know closely, to witness the development periods directly. However, in our professional life, the progress of the relationship established between the client and the psychologist is basically based on not knowing.
The psychologist does not know the client beforehand. He tries to understand the important points for him, the memories that are striking to him, based on his blockage. For this reason, we can only have a professional relationship with our clients. Our relatives in our personal lives cannot be our clients. During the psychological counseling intervention process, conversations are goal-oriented. There is flexibility in these matters in our personal lives. The point of giving advice is also flexible in personal life. However, in our professional life, even if the client directly asks for advice, the purpose, problem, interest, education, belief system, motivation level, etc. Factors such as these should be taken into account and evaluated considering the possible consequences.
All these are rituals of the professional relationship. Clients must trust the professional relationship if they want to benefit from the psychological counseling process. The client should positively perceive and support the limit set by the professional. This limit also protects the client.
There is no limit to the help we can provide to our loved ones in our personal lives. However, during the professional counseling process, the counselor must provide assistance in accordance with his or her specific training. For example, a psychologist who develops a nutrition program for a client with an eating disorder will violate boundaries if he or she does not have training and competence in this field.
The psychologist is also aware that he is perceived by others as a representative of a branch of science and is aware of this responsibility. If our friends, relatives and family ask us for help with our professional identity and if their search for help has become important, we can and do encourage them to turn to another colleague. Approaching them by using our professional identity and the image created by the profession is likely to harm both them and our personal relationships. This also creates role confusion.
At the same time, establishing personal relationships with our clients can have many negative consequences. However, multiple relationships can be established for some special cases. For example: in the event of a natural disaster, it is acceptable for a psychologist to be both a therapist and to provide support in educational and social activities in which the same person participates, if it will not harm the person being served.
If we evaluate all these, "I am also considered a psychologist, It is obvious that saying "I am like a psychologist" will not provide the same benefit as a professional approach. Of course, humans are beneficial to humans. It is very valuable to have people around you who love you, listen to you and take you into consideration. The important thing is to be able to distinguish the difference between professional life and professional life.
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