PSYCHOSOMATIC COMPETENCE OF FUTURE PSYCHOLOGISTS

Abstract

Relevance of the study. The relevance of studying the psychosomatic competence of future psychologists stems from the growing number of psychological requests in which emotional strain, chronic stress, health anxiety, pain, sleep disturbances and bodily discomfort are closely intertwined. A contemporary psychologist must be prepared to work with the psychological dimension of the client's somatic experience without reducing the client's complaints to the simplistic explanation that "it's all nerves". Professional competence in this domain presupposes an understanding of the biopsychosocial nature of health, a capacity for bodily reflection and for psychological analysis of how symptoms are experienced, and adherence to the limits of one's professional scope of practice. The development of the bodily self is of particular importance, since body acceptance, interoceptive sensitivity, verbalization of inner sensations and self-regulation are key prerequisites for an individual's constructive relationship with their own corporeality. For the future psychologist, these qualities have not only personal but also professional significance: they foster an attentive, empathic and non-judgmental attitude towards the client's bodily experience. Insufficiently developed psychosomatic competence may lead to avoidance of body-related issues or to inaccurate psychological interpretation of somatic symptoms. Therefore, investigating the structure, indicators and conditions for the development of psychosomatic competence is essential for improving the professional training of future psychologists and for ensuring ethical, evidence-based psychological care.

Research methods. The study employed a set of theoretical methods appropriate to its aim and subject. Scientific literature on psychosomatics, the bodily self, interoception, health psychology and the professional training of future psychologists was examined by means of critical analysis, comparison, systematization and generalization. Structural-functional analysis was used to identify the components of psychosomatic competence: cognitive, value-attitudinal, reflective-regulatory and professional-applied. The comparative-typological method made it possible to contrast the constructive and destructive variants of the bodily self and to establish their psychological characteristics. Theoretical modeling was applied to construct a structural model of future psychologists' psychosomatic competence and to define its key features: bodily awareness, body acceptance, interoceptive sensitivity, verbalization of bodily experience, metaphoricity, causal understanding, dialogicity, agency and integrativeness.

Results The theoretical analysis refined the content of future psychologists' psychosomatic competence as an integrative professional and personal construct that ensures a conscious attitude towards one's own corporeality and readiness to work competently with the psychological dimension of the client's bodily experience. It was established that this competence is not limited to knowledge of psychosomatic disorders but combines bodily awareness, body acceptance, interoceptive sensitivity, the ability to verbalize sensations, reflexivity and self-regulation.

Psychosomatic competence was found to have a four-component structure. The cognitive component encompasses knowledge of the body, an understanding of the interrelations between bodily states, emotions, behavior and life situations, and the ability to notice and describe inner sensations. The value-attitudinal component manifests itself in body acceptance, a benevolent attitude towards the body, care for one's health, and recognition of bodily needs and limits. The reflective-regulatory component is characterized by the capacity for inner dialogue with the bodily self, awareness of one's own bodily-emotional reactions and the choice of constructive self-regulation strategies. The professional-applied component reflects the future psychologist's readiness to analyze clients' body-oriented requests, provide psychoeducation, support the verbalization of experiences and appropriately determine the need for medical referral.

It was found that the constructive variant of the bodily self is associated with acceptance of one's own body, attentiveness to its signals, the ability to differentiate bodily sensations and the reflective regulation of behavior in accordance with one's current state. Under these conditions, bodily manifestations can be interpreted as information about fatigue, overload, emotional strain, or the need for rest or professional help. The destructive variant of the bodily self manifests itself in non-acceptance of corporeality, insufficient sensitivity to the body's needs, difficulty describing inner sensations, and the ignoring or catastrophizing of symptoms. Such characteristics may reduce the effectiveness of self-regulation and impede psychological adaptation to somatic discomfort.

It is substantiated that psychosomatic competence should be developed in the course of psychologists' professional training through the integration of knowledge from health psychology, clinical psychology and the psychology of corporeality. Its development requires bodily reflection practices, analysis of clinical-psychological cases, training in psychoeducation skills, communication training and ethical reflection on the limits of psychological intervention. At the same time, well-developed psychosomatic competence entails rejecting the simplistic attribution of somatic symptoms exclusively to psychological causes and adopting a biopsychosocial understanding of health.