Valuable portrait of a Ukrainian who is potentially interested in psychotherapy

Authors

  • Olha Hlushko candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor, associate professor of department of pedagogical and age-old psychology of the Dnipro national university of the name Oles Gonchar, Dnipro. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1543-064X
  • Oksana Bayer candidate of psychological sciences, associate professor, associate professor of department of pedagogical and age-old psychology of the Dnipro national university of the name Olesya Gonchara, Dnipro. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0651-1472

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35774/pis2019.01.052

Keywords:

psychotherapy, client, client involvement, therapeutic alliance, survival values, self-expression values

Abstract

The paper presents the results of theoretical analysis and empirical investigation on the values of the Ukrainians potentially interested in psychotherapy. The review of the latest foreign articles shows that except for demographic characteristics and the place of living, the faith of a client in therapy, her will and readiness to undergo cooperate, her psychological “inclination”, education, a general level of psycho-social functioning, attachment type, level of  denial as well as matching of a client’s and therapist’s values and religious beliefs may be potential predictors of a client involvement into therapy and creating good therapeutic alliance. Within the hypothesis that we offer one more meaningful factor is the dominance of secular-rational values (after R. Inglehart) among subjects potentially interested in psychotherapy. This hypothesis tested on the Ukrainian sample was rejected, yet it was found that subjects with 1-year psychotherapy experience (experimental group) are distinctly different from those who never addressed a psychotherapist in self-expression values in particular. This difference manifests itself in a greater tolerance to another person, ability to trust others, and desire to realize oneself in creative activity or public life. Meanwhile, in the group  of subjects with no psyсhotherapeutic experience the dominance of survival values was found. Mistrust to different manifestations of otherness, the feeling of insecurity, and a desire to follow traditional values typical of family and community are their characteristics. We are unaware by now whether the presence of these values are an antecedent, one of influential factors for acknowledging the necessity to address a psychotherapist or a certain result of the therapy itself. Grounding on other researchers’ data, we find both variants probable: psychotherapy is potentially interesting, first of all, for those oriented on self-expression values and  reinforces these values in the process of lessening a client’s suffering.

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How to Cite

Hlushko, Olha, and Oksana Bayer. “Valuable Portrait of a Ukrainian Who Is Potentially Interested in Psychotherapy”. Psyhology & Society, vol. 75, no. 1, June 2019, pp. 52-59, https://doi.org/10.35774/pis2019.01.052.