TOP 10 PSYCHOLOGIST ROLES - PSYCHOLOGY - 2025

The main functions of the psychologist are to analyze problems, evaluate behavior, listen, explain, inform, provide resources and strategies, motivate for change, provide guidelines, and accompany during change.

Despite the fact that the image of the psychoanalyst laying you down on a couch and asking you about childhood and sexual desires no longer predominates today, attending a psychological consultation continues to create some confusion.

Sitting in front of a therapist who will begin to ask you about personal aspects and to whom you will have to explain all your problems is a situation that, a priori, can cause feelings of insecurity or discomfort.

However, many of the beliefs about the functions carried out by a psychologist are not entirely true and can lead to wrong associations, such as that only people who are crazy go to the psychologist or that therapists are individuals who are in charge of solving your problems..

It is true that not all psychotherapists work in the same way, interpret the treatments the same or perform the same actions during their therapies. However, it is also true that all therapists have the same goal; to get patients to improve their state of mental health and acquire greater abilities to function properly in their respective lives.

What does a psychologist really do?

The main job of a psychologist is to evaluate and analyze the patient's situations to find interventions and strategies that can be beneficial to improve their psychological functioning.

The treatments and intervention techniques can be very diverse but they all lie in the same idea: understanding a specific problem and finding actions that allow it to be solved.

Psychologists, then, are not magical people capable of reading your thoughts or who can know what you are thinking. Nor do they perform treatments that last many years and speak of the falling in love of children and parents.

In fact, a therapist can work with any type of person, whether they have a mental illness or not, and regardless of the problems they present. Also, it is important to note that psychologists do not solve problems or fix the lives of their patients.

Any change that an individual can make through psychotherapy will be achieved by himself. The therapist will limit himself to guiding you through this change and training you with tools of all kinds that will enable you to face your different problems.

Considering all this, we can define the figure of the psychologist as a professional expert in human behavior who applies different therapeutic methods to help people cope with their problems and acquire a healthy psychological state.

10 main functions of psychologists

To see more clearly, below we will comment on the 10 main functions that any psychologist performs.

1- Analyze the problems

The first thing any psychotherapist does is to analyze the problems that affect the person's life.

Most individuals come for a consultation for a specific reason and to solve a specific problem. The problems are understood from a multidisciplinary point of view, that is, they can attend to both relational, social, personal or work aspects.

A patient can go both for suffering from depressive or anxious symptoms, for presenting a stressful work situation that he cannot handle or for having different relationship problems with his partner, family or friends.

In fact, the most common is that people present different problems together, so that a particularly stressful work situation can be accompanied by symptoms of anxiety and discomfort, and problems in the family environment.

Whatever the main reason for the psychological consultation, the first step that any therapist takes is based on analyzing, evaluating and understanding the problem in question.

A psychologist cannot carry out his work if previously the problems have not been well defined and well understood, in the same way that a person cannot solve his problems without first analyzing and interpreting them.

Thus, the psychologist puts himself in the patient's shoes and begins to work together with him to properly analyze what will be the topics to be discussed during the sessions.

2- Evaluate the behavior

The main aspect that characterizes a psychologist is that he is an expert in human behavior and behavior. Thus, the main key that therapists have in helping their patients lies in assessing and identifying their main patterns of behavior.

By evaluating the individual's behavior, the psychologist gains more information about the "why" of his problems and can begin to clarify what interventions may be helpful.

Psychology is based on studying aspects such as thought, behavior, emotions or attitudes of human beings.

People have a series of characteristics in these components and we accept them automatically without paying much attention to their qualities and the possibility of modifying them.

When you go to the psychologist, he or she makes a comprehensive assessment of these issues, which is why therapists often ask multiple questions or administer questionnaires and tests.

The information collected will allow to define the main points in which to work with the patient and the modifications that may be relevant to achieve improvements in their psychological state.

3- Detect and accept the way of being

Another central aspect of the work of psychologists consists of detecting the personality and the way of being of the patients. This fact can be invasive or uncomfortable seen from the outside, but it is seldom so for individuals who go to the psychologist.

The therapist makes it very clear from the beginning of the sessions that he has to know to help. Knowledge about human behavior and functioning is useless if it is not applied in a particular case.

If the psychologist does not know specifically what the main characteristics of his patient are, he will hardly be able to help him in anything. For this reason, therapists often administer personality tests and ask questions about the patient's past life, relationships, and experiences.

4- Listen empathically

To achieve all of the above, psychologists listen to their patients empathetically.

This means that they show empathy for each story that the patient expresses about their problems or personal experiences.

In other words, the therapist tries to put himself in the place of the patient when he explains his different problems and experiences. And he not only tries to put himself in his place by attending to what he says, but taking into account all the knowledge he already has about the personality and the way of being the patient.

Although a therapist may have ideas or thoughts contrary to those expressed by the individual, he manages to put himself in their place by attending to how the person is who experiences things as they live them.

The psychologist, then, is able to understand and experience the things that the patient lives, their thoughts, ideas, emotions and actions that they perform, so they end up understanding in the most detailed way possible what are the needs that each person presents.

5- Explain the things you see

Faced with the idea that psychologists have magical abilities, they can know what the other person thinks or read their minds, the reality of the functions of therapists is totally opposite.

The psychologist does not evaluate, examine or ask anything out of curiosity or wanting to know more about the patient without any motivation. In fact, it must be borne in mind that during the sessions the therapists are working so that everyone that is evaluated has a specific reason: to help the patient.

In addition, once the therapist has enough information to dare to make speculations and diagnoses about the problems and the psychological functioning of the patient, he exposes and explains it in detail.

This fact makes the ideas of insecurity or mistrust disappear completely, since the patient experiences first-hand how all the actions carried out by the therapist are aimed at finding solutions and providing help.

In addition, the explanations provided by the psychologist can be very useful for the patient to begin to understand the things that are happening to him. It is popularly held that no one can know you better than yourself, and this statement can generally be considered true.

However, in difficult times, people can have trouble understanding the why of many things, why am I so anxious? Why can't I be happy about nothing?

Faced with these situations, psychologists, through an objective view and supported by advances in behavioral science, can provide extra information that allows people to better understand what is happening to them and what can be done to modify the problem situation.

6- Report on psychological aspects

Another important function that psychologists perform is to provide information on psychological aspects and, in some cases, on psychopathologies.

When a person suffers from a mental illness, they often do not have all the necessary knowledge to understand optimally what is happening to them, why it happens and what actions can be taken to intervene.

For these reasons, practically all psychotherapy sessions begin with an educational phase, in which the therapist explains in detail the characteristics of the disorder that is being suffered.

Unlike the previous point, in this case the explanation is carried out in a general way, so that the patient acquires greater awareness of how the psychological components work and develops a more approximate vision about the problem that will help them understand the subsequent interventions.

7- Provide resources and strategies

The objective of the previous six points is to collect information, acquire knowledge, establish a climate of trust and prepare the patient in order to find the resources and strategies that will allow psychological recovery or the improvement of mental well-being.

Thus, once the therapist understands how the patient is working, he begins to inquire what interventions will work for him.

The treatments are many and very diverse, and the therapist is also not sure that a specific intervention will work.

Psychologists are not magicians who know what works in each case, but they do possess knowledge about human behavior that allows them to approach the most beneficial strategies.

8- Motive for change

The psychologist provides strategies and resources that will be useful for the patient, but the change will not be made by the therapist, but by the patient himself.

As the strategies chosen by the psychologist are put into practice, he will constantly motivate the patient to meet the objectives.

The therapist devises a plan for recovery, but requires the patient to follow in order for the patient to recover.

9- Provide guidelines

In parallel, the psychologist provides guidelines to the patient that serve to maintain and continue the process of change.

The guidelines provided by a therapist are not advice. That is to say, the psychologist does not advise since the mere fact of advising constitutes a subjective act.

Psychologists send guidelines backed by science but never decide for the patient. They can guide you towards a path but not through advice, but through techniques that allow the patient to make a good analysis of the situations and decide in the most correct way possible.

10- Accompany during the change

Ultimately, the therapist becomes the figure who has designed a plan for change in which the patient has believed and carried it out.

Along the way, the patient knows that he will not be alone, since the psychologist accompanies him at all times and the guide in the moments he needs him most.

References

1. Buela-Casal, G. and Sierra, JC (2001). Psychological evaluation and treatment manual. Madrid: New Library.
2. Haynes, SN, Godoy, A and Gavino, A (2011). How to choose the best psychological treatment. Madrid: Pyramid.
3. Labrador, FJ (2011). Difficult situations in therapy. Madrid: Pyramid.
4. Meichenbaum D and Turk DC. (1991). How to facilitate follow-up in therapeutic treatments. Bilbao: DDB.
5. Miller, WR. and Rollnick, S (1999). The motivational interview. Prepare for the change of addictive behaviors. Barcelona: Paidós.
6. Pérez Álvarez, M., Fernández Hermida, JR, Fernández Rodríguez, C. and Amigó Vazquez, I. (2003). Guide to effective psychological treatments. Vol I, II and III. Madrid: Pyramid.