We spoke with a referent of psychotherapy in Spain.
In fact, many people who come to therapy for the first time are surprised to realize that they not only improve in the area that was the reason for consultation (anxiety, a breakup, stress…), but also develop certain skills related to self-knowledge that reinforces them in many aspects of their daily lives.
Interview with Fernando Huerta Moreno: psychotherapy and Applied Real Intelligence
To learn more about the psychotherapy process, we have talked extensively with Fernando Huerta Moreno , one of the most renowned psychologists in Madrid. With it, we will also discover Applied Real Intelligence, a cognitive method to help patients regain self-confidence.
Bertrand Regader: With your experience as a psychologist, do you think that when a person stops having psychological problems, they are already happy?
Fernando Huerta: I think not. When a person does not have psychological problems, what he stops is suffering from the pathology he had, that is, he does not have the discomfort that limited and punished him, since we remove the causes that produced these two things. It is true that this produces a great relief and a feeling of well-being, since the suffering disappears, and also his life is extended in all those issues in which his problem did not allow him to develop well and normally, but that does not mean that be happy, because this is a much more complex issue that includes a multiplicity of vital factors in all areas.
When a person has generalized anxiety , for example, they are almost always punished by fear in a wide range of situations, they develop alerts that lead them to have anxiety in order to control everything they think may happen to them, they suffer significantly not only because of anxiety, but because you are visualizing in your brain in advance everything that you think may happen to you, so the rate of discomfort between anxiety and negative content is very high. However, after solving the problem, at first he feels a very powerful and pleasant sensation, but that, after a while, does not lead him directly to a state of personal happiness.
How would you define happiness?
Happiness really depends on the number and intensity of external and internal reinforcements outweighing the number and intensity of internal and external punishments on the day, month, quarter, and so on. It is a matter of accounting, of those of us who manage ourselves abroad and their assessment, as well as of what we think and interpret within ourselves. We could also say that it is that we have illusions, motivations and appreciation of our gratifications on a daily basis, without fear or gratuitous and absurd suffering, in external life and within ourselves.
If we create a balanced life and know how to appreciate it every day, and also have good thoughts about the past, present and future, accounting will work out for us and we will be happy. But if, due to our errors in problem solving and decision making, we generate an unbalanced existence, and we also generate negative thoughts in the three tenses, both of the content that we remember in memory, and of what we interpret in our day to day life, as well as in the expectations of our future, we will almost in all probability be hopelessly unhappy.
Psychology and Coaching are two disciplines that are associated with the emotional well-being of people.
Normally it is not like that for the majority of the population, since there is an external attribution of psychological well-being and personal satisfaction, the general belief in the subjects is usually attributed much more to external than internal factors to feel good. Too often it is thought that discomfort is due to the fact that I do not have the apartment I want, or a partner of this type, or that my son does what I would like, and so on with countless things related to external variables.
However, when what was longed for is achieved, if we have a psychological problem, the discomfort remains, with which we feel even worse because we no longer find explanations, this in relation to clinical psychology. As for coaching, we must carefully calculate the goals we want and the cost associated with paying to achieve and maintain them, since these must always be prioritized by personal profitability in both cases. In addition, we must think of sensible objectives, that these do not serve to promote a psychological problem that I have, of which I am not aware, such as controlling the dangers of the people I love, or irrationally eliminating the probability of having a disease. mortal, because we will be reinforcing an obsessive picture in the first, and hypochondriac in the second.
Well-being depends above all on having our software viruses mastered on the one hand so that they do not cause us discomfort, that is, any type of pathology, and that is done with clinical psychology. We also have to know how to properly manage both our lives and our minds, which is really not an easy task, in a world as complex as the current one with the few internal resources that we originally have.
Our brain is physiologically very old for the 21st century, since it has practically not evolved at all in 100,000 years, very complicated as a system, and on top of that it is full of false psychopathology and profitability calculation data, and worst of all , is that we do not know that we have these viruses, and these erroneous contents; That’s why we need both antivirus and complementary programs to feel good and be happy.
What do you think are the main differences between a coaching process and a psychotherapy process?
The coaching process is rather the search for well-being by achieving the goals we want, whether they are internal personal; how to improve self-esteem, know how to manage social relationships, psychological self-knowledge…, and also external ones; progress at work, obtain a suitable partner, combine personal and work life…, for this correct strategies are applied through progressive and effective training.
Psychotherapy is more precise and concrete, it evaluates what happens to us and why, techniques are taught and applied to the psychological problem, these being chosen and adjusted, depending on the variables of each person and their personality, until the symptoms subside and disappear. symptom. In addition, the structural base and the personality are worked on, not only to achieve changes in the short term, but also in the medium and long term, issues that generally require a little maintenance to avoid unwanted recurrences.
When do you know and detect that it is better to use coaching or therapy?
Pathology is something that is detected with some ease if you are a clinical psychologist and psychopathologist. Both signs and symptoms are immediately appreciated that tell you what is happening to the client, whether they have a problem or what kind of problem it is, and the matter is addressed, but within that process you also have to work on external and internal goals, although evidently more time and effort is dedicated to the first topic than to the second, but then they are almost synchronous as the treatment progresses.
If you see that a client does not have a pathology, what is done directly is to go to assess and order their goals from highest to lowest in order of importance, and from highest to lowest profitability for their life; whether psychological or pragmatic, always observing the strengths and weaknesses of the client and the environment, to remove vulnerabilities, take advantage of the client’s potential, and also the opportunities of the environment, thus maximizing results.
Therefore, do you consider that they are complementary?
Of course, they are clearly complementary, since it is very difficult for a person who comes to coaching not to have any type of problem that is affecting their personal goals, and of course when you treat a person with a psychological problem, you have to achieve goals because You have to balance your life in all aspects, thus obtaining global well-being.
You are a pioneer in the creation and application of Real Applied Intelligence, what exactly does it consist of? What sets it apart from other methods that seek to help people be happy?
Applied Real Intelligence is an explanatory and correction system for thought and action, created after many years of study, observation and work in psychotherapy and coaching, in which many of the biases and blockages, both ideational and behavioral, have been detected. people, which do not let us think and act correctly in our lives, and therefore be happy.
What we do is see what biases that subject has in the processing of information and how they affect him, and the blocks that this individual makes in his behavior and the consequences that they have, which of the programs are being affected; to later explain what is happening and why, and thus modify through learning both one and the other, obtaining a more viable and profitable life in personal terms, externally and internally.
It is distinguished in that it helps us to perceive, what data of each program, both genetic, cultural and pathological, are false, how they are harming us in life, being able to correct wrong concepts and behaviors, and change those false contents for true ones, giving it the possibility to think and act in an alternative and efficient way in your life, both internally and in external responses, and thus achieve greater well-being, satisfaction and happiness.
To the classic question “what do you do?” I always answer “basically I am a psychologist”. In fact, my academic training has revolved around the psychology of development, education and community, a field of study influenced my volunteer activities, as well as my first work experiences in personal services.