Ethical problems of psychological assistance and professional training provided for psychologists

Introduction. Future professionals need the ability to identify and correct unprofessional tendencies and choose solutions to the problems that establish them as professionals. The core is the “courage to think about everything you know,” including the “ethical vigilance” of the professional psychologist with regard to his own actions and choices and the actions of other professional colleagues, clients (patients), etc. Psychotherapy and psychological counseling are considered as practices of helping, dialogic interaction between a psychotherapist or a consultant, which have similar value-semantic and technological features. The objective is to analyze ethical problems of psychological assistance in the context of psychologists’ professional training. The novelty of the study is the integrative analysis of ethical problems of helping relationships in the context of modern trends in the development of psychotherapy and psychological counseling. Materials and Methods. A theoretical analysis of ethical and related problems of psychological assistance in the context of professional training of specialists of helping professions was used. Results and Discussion. The central problems of modern training of qualified, professional specialists are connected with building and strengthening of the professional identity and related choices regarding the protection of the interests of clients (patients) in everyday and other situations, options for solving the “double agent” dilemma, maintaining professional boundaries, as well as the willingness and the ability of specialists to change, to work in conditions of microsocial and macrosocial crises. Conclusions. Attempts to “modernize” the ethical principles of counseling and psychotherapy are often associated with professional deformations of individual specialists and the destruction of helping practices. Replacing “old” ethical principles with “new” ones means the destruction of (departure from) helping practices, including non-psychological, anti-professional practices of political manipulation. One of the central tasks of training specialists at a university is the formation and development of a specialist’s “ethical vigilance,” his desire and ability to understand himself, clients (patients) and the world around him.