Sergio García (Introspectia): "The therapeutic relationship is fundamental".

Sergio García, from Introspectia Psicología, talks about the functioning of a therapy center.

Offering psychotherapy services has a micro and a macro dimension; it is not limited only to the here and now of directly treating the patient.

Organizing and setting up a psychology center is a complex process, which often involves coordinating with a larger or smaller group of people. It is not easy, and includes challenges in addition to knowing how to offer therapy.

To learn more about how a psychotherapy center based on the work of a diverse team of mental health professionals works, we interviewed Sergio García, from Introspectia Psicología..

Interview with Sergio García, from Introspectia: how does a psychology clinic work?

Sergio García is a General Health Psychologist and member of Introspectia Psicología, a psychological assistance center with presence both in Madrid and Guadix, which also offers online therapy. Here he explains how the process of creating and consolidating a psychology center has been.

What are the main objectives that a psychology clinic should set itself in order to respond to the needs of the population?

As professionals, we must be very aware of being able to transmit to our patients that we have a deep knowledge of the intervention we are carrying out with them; after all, they are placing their privacy, their trust and their health in us. This deserves great respect.

For this reason, our first objective is continuous training. We intervene in the processes and problems that we master best, and we continue to train ourselves to respond to an increasingly broader spectrum of needs.

On the other hand, professionals cannot pretend to be experts in everything. In the face of this, teamwork is a fundamental key. In Introspectia Psicología we are 8 colleagues. We have tried to create a diverse team, in which we share various aspects of our experience and, at the same time, we have different specializations and seek to focus on very diverse needs of the population, in order to be able to serve more and more people with different situations and circumstances.

When creating a psychotherapy center, why is it important to be clear about the values on which it will be based?

Having clear values in any team, and especially in those of us who work with people, is fundamental.

In the first place, it is a first step to reach a consensus on the path we set with the people with whom we decide to undertake and work. If these values are not clear and are not respected by the whole team, then problems will arise: each member will have a different idea of what the next step to take is, or how to act in the face of a given problem or situation.

The diversity of opinions is a tremendously good and healthy thing in any team, but at the same time, there are some basic principles that it is essential that they are clear to everyone; otherwise, the agreement will be very complicated.

Secondly, it is essential that the person who places his or her privacy in our hands knows what our reason for being there is, and under what framework we are going to be able to help him or her. For this, we are the first ones who have to be clear about this, being able to transmit it.

Thirdly, having clear human and professional values is always a guide in the face of the uncertainty of the future and the difficulties of everyday life. Routine, schedules, daily dynamics... are phenomena that sometimes take us away and prevent us from seeing the direction we are heading in.

It is therefore essential to have a scale of values against which we can stop to check, with some frequency, how we are doing; this allows us to take perspective, detect failures and correct our direction.

And how is the working method used in the interventions established? For example, the type of therapies to be used.

In this regard, we must take several aspects into account and, above all, the person who is put in front of us; not all people or all vital moments fit the same with the different therapeutic approaches.

To address this issue, at Introspectia we prioritize that the person in charge of making the referrals has a good clinical eye and knows well the different working methods to know what may fit better with the need of each person; not only the approach should be taken into account, but also the therapist's own style.

Each person is different, and may fit or connect better with one type of professional or another. It is necessary to make this process as good as possible, since, for us, the therapeutic relationship is fundamental to the success of the process.

On the other hand, we do not leave everything in the hands of our own criteria. At Introspectia, we believe that it is important that the patient can also decide; thus, the only way to be able to carry out this process honestly is to give him/her enough information so that he/she can decide with criteria.

A call is held to collect the demand, and we talk to the patient about the different working models we have, so that he/she can tell us which one he/she thinks may fit him/her better. You are invited to visit our website where we have an exhaustive description of our working methods and where each of our professionals is presented in depth.

Is it complicated to find a balance in the type of specialties that the members of a team of psychologists should have, so that they can complement each other well?

It is logical to think that it would be advisable that, in order for the team to be as varied as possible, each member should focus his or her work on addressing a series of pathologies, individually, differing from the intervention of his or her colleagues.

In this case, it is true that each professional has his or her own specific training, background and psychotherapeutic tools.

However, we all also share a common and general training; this facilitates that, thanks to the communication between us, and the distribution of functions, we can create a balance between our specialties. Thus, for example, we have certain minimum aspects in common, such as the fact that all our interventions are scientifically endorsed.

In your case, how was the process of founding the clinic and starting to operate during the first weeks?

We remember the first few weeks with a great desire to learn, vertigo for taking this big step and a lot of enthusiasm for creating such a beautiful project from scratch with my colleagues.

The first thing we did was to establish what were the personal objectives of each one of us, and what we wanted to achieve as a group, to plan what our goals would be throughout the process. We decided that we wanted to create a web platform where we could carry out psychological outreach and promote the therapeutic work of each professional.

To this end, after receiving the corresponding legal guidance from a lawyer from the College of Psychology and a consultant, we contacted a web designer who, through our preferences, gave shape to what is today our website introspectiapsicologia.com.

In it, we also specify what our working methods are, making a summary of how each of them works (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, EMDR and Humanism); what services we offer (face-to-face and online therapy for adults, children, adolescents and couples) and we expose what our rates are.

Secondly, understanding the importance of transmitting information and the role of word of mouth to increase our reach, we created an Instagram account and a Facebook page, to which we upload content several times a week, explaining through photos and videos different topics of interest.

During the process of setting up our clinic, a high level of communication among the team was necessary to know how we were experiencing what was going on, to divide up different tasks so that our work would be productive, and to integrate new ideas that could help us achieve our goals efficiently, effectively and efficiently.

In what ways do you think psychotherapy centers can take advantage of the potential of the Internet to make their work more accessible and transparent? Many people may not be aware that they need to go to a psychologist.

We believe that adequate disclosure of mental health-related difficulties is essential in order to normalize the process of asking for help. We all face problems of anxiety, sadness, overwhelm, hopelessness, loss.... to a greater or lesser extent, with greater or lesser frequency, especially since last year, with the beginning of the pandemic by COVID-19.

There are times when we do not identify the problems we are having in our lives and other times when, even though we recognize them, we do not know what to do or who to turn to, and yet we all need, at some point, to be reached out to, to be listened to, to be understood and to be supported in order to overcome the obstacles we encounter.

Unfortunately, it is common to find the thought "you have to be able to do it on your own", "if you ask for help it is because you are weak". Therefore, it is important to take advantage of the great platform of the Internet to launch a message of hope and closeness, explaining that, of course, you don't have to be able to do it alone, and that if you ask for help, you are brave: not weak.