Personal growth training is a series of activities aimed at improving individual qualities that contribute to a person’s success. Thanks to exercises focused on personal growth, a person is able to change undesirable character traits to more positive ones, and can free himself from a variety of negative thoughts and negative complexes.

Personal growth is a purposeful process of human improvement, the desire to become better. Personal growth is considered to be all situations, factors and opportunities that bring an individual closer to achieving an ideal.

Personal growth involves the formation of human potential. Potential is a set of characteristics that express its ability to build on internal stable guidelines and maintain stability of activity under periodically changing environmental influences. This is a series of characteristic properties that help an individual become able to regulate behavior and make decisions according to personal ideas.

It is important for each potential group member to know the dangers of personal growth training, so that instead of being useful, you do not receive more damage, and maintain mental health.

The basic goal of personal growth training is the internal growth of the individual, self-development, etc.

Psychological training for personal growth

The purpose of personal growth training is to modify the worldview, change the stereotypes of activities that prevent an individual from being successful and happier.

A subject who wants to transform individual characteristics into more positive and qualitatively different characteristics must undergo personal growth training. An individual who has completed these classes will become calmer, more confident, happier and spiritually free, regardless of the influence of circumstances and environmental factors. Thanks to special psychological techniques, a person is able to be programmed for success. This happens thanks to classes and special exercises that help a group member to comprehend his deepest attitudes, which subconsciously most influence existence and provoke certain results of activity.

The purpose of personal growth training– to know and realize the possibilities (potential) inherent in the individual, which imply qualitative changes. The goal can change depending on the characteristics of the group. Often exercise goals cover some general aspects:

— formation of self-knowledge by reducing psychological barriers and eliminating the feeling of insincerity of the individual himself;

- development of conditions and factors that will complicate or facilitate the functioning of the group (membership or size of the group);

— studying the relationships of group members;

- mastering the skills of diagnosing organizational, group, individual problems, such as resolving group conflict situations, strengthening group connections, creating training conditions, achieving individual requests.

The goal of personal growth training is achieved when a group member can make an independent decision about how he should live. Participants themselves discover how diverse they can perceive the whole life around them, they can make valuable life discoveries regarding their closest people, close friends and themselves.

A person may experience intense emotional shocks and shocks, which often leads to a loss of self-control, since he needs to follow all the exercises or instructions of the trainer, which sometimes do not make obvious sense.

Anyone who wants to participate in such classes needs to think about whether he is really going to change something or whether his current life suits him quite well. If a person is unprepared for changes or does not need them, then the coach will not allow him into the group.

Future members of the training must have the desire to start a new life, but must still meet certain criteria. Those wishing to participate in personal growth trainings must be mentally healthy, emotionally balanced, calm and without mental disorders.

The group trainer must stimulate the process of making autonomous decisions by the individual, his ranking and structuring of life values, guidelines and goals. This is done through the use of various techniques, techniques and research approaches such as Gestalt, cognitive psychology, existential approach.

Types of personal growth training are divided into psychological and esoteric.

Psychological training is carried out under the guidance of a facilitator who has completed a psychological education and uses psychological categories and definitions. In contrast to esoteric ones, which are led by a person with knowledge of psychology at the everyday level and possessing esoteric and mystical knowledge.

Types of personal growth trainings:

— personality development (used to master general knowledge necessary for orientation in a wide range of potential situations). For example, a person learns to interact effectively, he develops strong and good traits, acquires confident behavior, and learns self-control;

— psychotherapeutic trainings (conducted with the aim of improving the quality of life, they contain special procedures, techniques, methods and exercises through which methods of behavior in life and personal difficulties are learned);

— condition trainings (this is a special type, including methods of overcoming the condition and other internal barriers and various complexes that arise in a person);

— research trainings (help individuals who set goals to understand personal limitations and gain emotional experience, which often helps in realizing something);

— transformational (focused on a person’s basic (deep) beliefs, values ​​and states). The individual experiences very powerful internal spiritual transformations (insight, breakthrough), thanks to which he will be able to identify something new in everyday life or realize something differently.

Personal growth training for women involves dividing into groups that are completely different. The first group consists of women subject to oppression by family members.

The purpose of personal growth training is to gain self-knowledge and cultivate fortitude, which helps to gain confidence and resist people who want to keep a woman’s will from an independent, happy and self-sufficient life.

Training for women comes in group form and individually. Participation in group trainings gives a woman a powerful boost, because being among like-minded people, she feels confident.

The second group of personal growth training consists of women who work in large organizations and companies who hold leadership positions.

Not everyone is a natural leader, but many have to work in an organization and hold a leadership position. The charismatic attractiveness of a person helps a person achieve significant results in career advancement. Those who do not have this characteristic need to work assertively and cultivate discipline in themselves. However, hard work does not help a woman overcome such a problem as internal timidity in relations with the team she leads. More often, such timidity occurs if the team consists of men.

Personal growth training for women is focused on the development and discovery of internal potential; recognizing fears that prevent you from living fully; development of positive traits and qualities; search for resources to help development.

Not all activities in a row can be equally useful. Quite often they contain a covert threat and can only harm the person himself. The group member must know the dangers of personal growth training and recognize this danger.

In destructive classes, participants are encouraged to destroy their personality or part of themselves that they consider unworthy and to do this extremely harshly, as if cutting it off. Such training does not lead to progress in personal growth at all; on the contrary, it only breaks the human psyche. Advice such as “give up your old self” or “kill your weakness” is very destructive, has nothing in common with professional psychotherapy, and does not contribute to increased personal growth.

The danger of these meetings lies in the personality of the group leader himself. After working with a true psychotherapist, a person begins to notice that his emotional state has improved, fundamental changes occur in his life, and he becomes confident and successful.

As a result of communicating with a destructive coach, a group member feels empty and humiliated. Such a “guru” behaves arrogantly and cruelly towards group members. He insults, puts people in an uncomfortable position, accuses them of weakness and ignorance. Such a leader seems to be deliberately trying to inflict emotional suffering, explaining this as motivation and hardening.

Through emotional buildup, the presenter is trying to earn approval; he wants to assert himself, and not teach this to the participants in the personal growth training. He sees the ultimate goal of this training not to help others, but to subordinate their will to himself in order to force them to follow everything that the “trainer” says.

In order to understand the danger of such training in time, you need to listen to your feelings. If you feel empty and humiliated, you need to run away from this coach.

Destructive trainers teach that experiencing negative emotions, aggression and suffering will only benefit the member in personal growth training. Therefore, instructors often insult group members and try to provoke them into aggression. The person is forced to perform illogical actions: calling himself names, expressing joy for no reason, kissing or hugging strangers, declaring that it is “for their good.”

A destructive trainer teaches participants to be rude and arrogant, since these qualities, in their opinion, characterize a person who is self-confident and therefore successful.

First, pressure, then humiliation, then praise - this is a way of emotional swaying, which leads to the participants’ submission to the trainer.

A truly experienced, intelligent and conscientious psychotherapist leading a group or personal counseling will never humiliate a client in personal practice or force him to do something that he categorically does not accept.

An intelligent and friendly psychotherapist will teach individuals how to stand up for themselves without using rudeness and rudeness.

The danger of these activities may lie in the fact that group members are taught to actively and aggressively attack, rather than defend themselves, thus resulting in a substitution of concepts when they are taught that attack is the best defense, or arrogance is the second happiness.

If a person is taught to be aggressive and rude, then he is in destructive training. After attending such a training, a person feels guilty. Even when he absolutely does not want to step over himself in order to show aggression, he is forced to do so.

If a person nevertheless manages to “squeeze out” an impudent outburst out of character, then the leader and the group approve of this with admiration, although the person himself does not like it. Upon returning home, the person experiences a feeling of shame and considers himself guilty for what he did during the training. The condition is aggravated by the fact that an internal gap is formed between what is imposed on him in training sessions and what he considers to be the norm. It is these sensations that are considered signs of danger in personal growth training. If, at the end of the training, a person feels guilt that was not there before, then there is no need to attend this training anymore.

Personal growth and motivation

The question of the advisability of attending business training is of interest not only to those who are just deciding to open their own business, but also to those who strive for great success in an already functioning enterprise, and even to those who consider themselves to be fully established businessmen.

Without new knowledge and skills, development in itself is impossible. An experienced entrepreneur is well aware of the price one has to pay for experience, as well as the difficulties that one has to face almost every day - including monitoring the actions of competitors and changes in one's industry. Most often, only those businessmen who want or can afford to learn from their own mistakes refuse to participate in trainings. However, such an experience can be very disastrous. It is much easier and more profitable to obtain important and useful information for little money through effective business courses. In this case, the only problem is finding really high-quality training.

What do they give? business trainings and seminars?

A business seminar is a specially developed effective methodology for improving the skills of experienced and novice businessmen, managers and executives. The main issues that are discussed at business seminars are: how to develop an effective business plan and invest in a certain budget, how to manage employees and achieve the maximum positive result from their work, etc.

The difference between a business seminar and business training is as follows: the first is designed for the exchange of experience and communication without practical knowledge. As for business trainings, they often require experience and a certain level of knowledge among those present; such courses are created to work through a specific problem with group members.

They help you deepen your erudition and expand your horizons, gain new knowledge and try on a different model of behavior, understand yourself better, but most importantly, they help you believe in yourself.

Most often, the initiative to conduct such training comes from managers who notice a halt in the company’s growth. Business training is also necessary in cases where a company plans to occupy a new market niche, increase profits, conquer new heights, but employees cannot change their minds and continue to work with a focus on achieved results. If the team is not ready to change management's plans, the company usually loses its position, or, at best, remains at the achieved level.

Business trainings are needed to bring the company out of stagnation and transform employees into a single team, with common thoughts, ready to implement bold plans and new strategies. During the trainings, one or several problems are worked on in small groups. This allows you to see your problem through someone else's eyes. Business trainings help company managers make sure the chosen development strategy is correct. As practice shows, managers who have completed such trainings persistently and confidently move towards their goals in tandem with a close-knit team of like-minded employees. The latter discover potential in themselves that helps them conquer new professional and personal heights. Business training is the most effective and fastest way to train staff, develop a business and maintain it at the highest level.

Choosing a business training

Today there is a huge variety of business training. To make it easier to choose one of them, you must immediately clearly define the topic of interest and the purpose of training. It should be understood that business trainings are fundamentally different from lectures; unlike the latter, they involve not just recording the lecturer’s words, but practice, which usually takes up 70% of the training. Practice means working out specific situations, business games, individual work with roles, etc. Naturally, such trainings include a theoretical section, but it is much shorter in time than the practical one.

When choosing business training, you need to get reliable information about the trainer and his experience, as well as read the publications and recommendations of people who have already completed the training. Most often, completed business training helps a person develop existing skills or discover new abilities, which is a serious application for increasing the effectiveness of professional activities.

Training is a word that everyone hears nowadays. Training is fashionable. It's modern. This is already an integral part of life in general, and education in particular. So what is training?

History of the training

The term “training” itself came to us from the English-speaking world. One of its influential supporters and disseminators as a teaching method was Dale Carnegie, who at the beginning of the 20th century created a training center named after himself, where he more than successfully taught public speaking and other socially significant skills.

But training received its real birth in psychology thanks to the work of the well-known Kurt Lewin, who with his supporters created training groups for people complaining of low communication abilities in the 40s of the last century. The format of his classes showed such impressive results that soon an entire training academy was created in the USA. Since then, this method has been an integral part of both the educational process and personal development in various areas of life, for example, in family relationships and in business.

Features of the training

What is training and how does it differ from other training methods? First, you need to understand that training is not just a drill or a lecture, it is something more. But at the same time it includes their elements. The training program is such that it includes both theoretical material and a practical part, designed to instill and develop certain skills and abilities in a person. Moreover, the latter is given the main attention. The training is always practical, its tasks are vital, intended to be implemented in everyday reality. This differs from a lecture, which only tells “how it should be done.” In the training, a situation is simulated, which is immediately played out by the participants, and then discussed. Thanks to this, theoretical information is processed in real time, and as a result, the participant, in addition to knowledge, gains real experience.

An important feature of the training is that it is always conducted in a group. Such categoricalness in the obligatory interaction of people has its basis in a number of psychological laws. A group is not just a few people, it is a single organism with its own collective memory. Therefore, thanks to the methods that training involves, personal development and growth proceeds faster. This is explained by the law of synergy, which makes training many times more effective than individual training.

Classification of trainings

In modern science there is no unified training classification system. Here we will follow the most common concepts and divide the training system into three groups according to the types of their focus. In addition, trainings can be divided according to the goals they set for their participants.

So, the trainings are of the following types:

Business trainings.

Psychological trainings.

Personal trainings.

As for goals, according to this criterion, only two categories can be distinguished:

Instrumental trainings.

Fundamental trainings.

Three types of trainings

The first type of training is related to business. Its task is to train entrepreneurs, directors and managers of commercial enterprises in various techniques and secrets of successful business management, survival in a competitive environment, conflict resolution, staff motivation and the like.

What is psychological training? This is a training whose task is to upgrade a person in the field of communication skills, social adaptation and, in general, to instill in the individual socially useful individual skills. For example, training in communication with employees of the state traffic police or training in sales techniques will be called psychological, since, unlike the first, they work for the individual, and not for the company. However, within their competence are still such qualities that are manifested in social, professional, or some other social activity. Therefore, there are also personal trainings or personal growth trainings. These are also aimed at upgrading an individual person, but they work with a person’s inner world - complexes, psychological blocks, fears and other “good” that we carry around with us every day like an unnecessary burden and cannot throw it off. Such training may also include communication training, for example, with people of the opposite sex - in order to overcome some internal barrier, perhaps fear or embarrassment.

Two training goals

What is training, not in terms of format, but in terms of purpose? It is a teaching method that helps a person solve a specific problem. And he does this in two ways. Firstly, by providing a person with tools that allow them to achieve the desired effect, overcoming all obstacles. In this case, the training will be called instrumental. Secondly, the training can be aimed at instilling the skills of a general vision of the problem and mastering the basic mechanisms of its occurrence and solution for independent adequate selection of specific tools. In other words, a person is not given one specific “pill” for a problem, but an understanding of the concept - knowledge of how, when and what kind of “pill” needs to be made and taken in each particular situation. This is what training is called fundamental.

This is a widespread form of group psychological work throughout the world. Psychological trainings are a variant of highly qualified advisory services along with legal, medical, pedagogical, etc. Training can be called one of the methods for increasing the general cultural level.

In our country, the need to participate in psychological groups has only recently become recognized. Training as a way of psychological work practically did not exist in Soviet times, just as much else did not exist, without which it is almost impossible to imagine a civilized person. Therefore, in modern Russian practice it is just beginning its development. Fortunately, many people in our country are already thinking about working on their own personality as a necessary, “hygienic” moment of modern over-saturated life. Participation in training is necessary not in order to “cure” from some “pathology,” but to remain in good “psychological tone,” just as playing sports allows you to keep your body healthy.

Training as a form of group psychological work is a universal method that is used in their work by various areas and schools of practical psychology. For example, there are psychoanalytic groups, NLP trainings, Gestalt therapy groups, and many others.

Psychological work in the training with a group of participants is carried out by a leading psychologist. He invites group members to engage in exercises and procedures, the purpose of which is to understand and change various aspects of human psychology, for example, his creative potential, emotions and feelings, communication. Training can be aimed at working with various aspects of human psychology. Moreover, the emphasis in such work can be placed both on the specifics of group interaction and on the characteristics of the individual situation of each individual person, considered in the group.

Participants find a way to solve their problems thanks not only to the help of the psychologist himself, but also by receiving support from other members of the group. The group as a whole has a "therapeutic" effect because each participant responds to the other person's problem in his own unique way, and this allows you to understand a complex situation from different points of view.

The concept of "training" goes beyond traditional education, where students are asked to learn the "final" version of material compiled by experts in their field, accept it as the only correct point of view and then, through tests, tests and exams, find out how well "learned" "this material. Training is a joint creativity of students and the leader of the educational process in the field of revealing and mastering the hitherto untapped vital, creative and spiritual potential of a person. The proposed educational model differs from the traditional one in that it provides knowledge through sensations. A clear comparative example is learning to ride a bicycle from a book and the very practice of driving this vehicle. The main focus of the Training is on effective interpersonal communication, i.e. on an individual’s communication with the world around him: human interaction in a team, performance in partnership, with a client. Much attention is paid to working with personal self-esteem, a person’s relationship with himself and his own goals and priorities in life.

The training offers a learning environment in which, through sensory exercises, the participant can discover and become aware of those deep-seated attitudes and interpretations that directly affect the results he creates in life. Human behavior is spontaneous and is born based on what he decides about himself. For example: if I decide that I am shy, I will behave like a shy person. For most people, the question is not do I really want to achieve extraordinary results in life, but what is holding me back from becoming the extraordinary person I think I am? The training pays great attention to the study of what actually influences a person’s behavior, what motivates his actions, what kind of thinking creates the results that exist, and which ones are desired in life?

Very often in life we ​​act in a kind of automatic mode, based on our existing experience, expecting to achieve results that can be called unprecedented. Albert Einstein said this very accurately in his time: “The consciousness that created this reality is not able to perceive another.” In other words, we often hope that, using old knowledge and experience, we can create something new and extraordinary in our lives, what we often call our dream or main goal. At the same time, however, we forget that our perception of the new through the prism of the old will make this new very similar to what we already know. In other words, if we are used to looking at the world through gray glasses, we will have a strong attitude that grass can only be gray.

Trainings are an opportunity to study the deep attitudes and relationships that form the basis of your life experience, based on which you act in your life and create results. This is an opportunity to analyze and explore seemingly undeniable points of view about how you see the world. This training is about change and thus presupposes readiness and desire for change. Many of the attitudes, attitudes, and interpretations we have are sloppy, outdated, and counterproductive. As this becomes increasingly clear to the participants in the Training, they have the opportunity and power to choose and create powerful, inspiring and effective interpretations and attitudes that will allow them to achieve truly extraordinary results, as well as apply already existing productive patterns and strategies for behavior and achievement. goals in those areas of life where they have not been used before.

The strength of the Training lies in the participants’ understanding of the processes they are embarking on. A clear and precise understanding that the Training offers a challenge to the existing subjective vision of the world allows the participant undergoing the Training to prepare for it properly so that the opportunity to create new results during the Training and after its completion would have practical implementation. Most of our attitudes and interpretations that we use in life are ideas and decisions that we have made along the journey through life. Over the past time, we have collected plenty of evidence and evidence to support our point of view on the world. Quite soon, this worldview becomes a reality for us, like a fact (like gravity - something that simply exists and about which we are unable to do anything). Thus, our interpretations begin to control us. We begin to see things, ourselves and life the way we believe in it, believing that this is the only way it is possible.

The uniqueness of the trainings lies in the fact that no one tells you how to live your life. Participants themselves discover how differently it is possible to see themselves and life around them and make valuable discoveries through this. By going through this process of discovery, the participant gains access to new levels of freedom of choice and personal power required to create a future that has nothing to do with the past.

It should be noted that the Trainings are not therapy or education that will do all the work for you; you just need to go to the Training room. Training is a place and an opportunity to take action on what is important in your life, to take on the challenge of creating a future that would not have happened on its own. Thus, the Training is offered to the attention of successful people and a necessary condition for its effective completion is the participant’s readiness to work on his life as if it did not depend on anyone else whether something in it would change or not. This is precisely one of the critical moments of the Training. Training is an opportunity and a privilege to begin to tap hitherto untapped life, creative and spiritual potential, beyond what I know is already possible in my life, so that things and events become real that would not have happened on their own.

Psychological trainings are developed and conducted by professional psychologists based on scientific approaches. The development of the training is based on experimentally proven knowledge about the psychological patterns of personality development and group processes. At the same time, participation in training is always a “live” experience, and not attending lectures or receiving “dry” theoretical knowledge.

Psychological trainings do not use any magical, mystical, extrasensory, etc. techniques. They do not use charlatan methods similar to the approaches of the Chumaks and Kashpirovskys. There are no psychological manipulations or influences at the level of the unconscious, from a series of hypnosis, frame 25, etc. We also cannot talk about any pills or medications.

In his work, the leading psychologist is guided by professional ethical requirements about responsibility for what happens during the training, confidentiality of information, and unconditional respect for the personality of the participant. What happens in the group is always determined by the personal choice of each participant; no one can force him to commit any actions.

The group form of psychological work is indispensable when it comes to issues related to interactions with other people. Such areas are conflict resolution, communication, family problems, relationships with the opposite sex. As a rule, participation in a group makes it possible to solve not just one problem, but a whole set of them. This is understandable, because human psychology is very complex and multifaceted, different spheres of the psyche necessarily interact with each other.

By coming to a group and participating in a training, you have the opportunity to get feedback from other people, find out their point of view and thus see new facets of a topic of interest. In addition, this is a way to jointly solve emerging issues with people who have the same difficulties in life.

Participation in the training provides an opportunity for personal development and expansion of psychological capabilities. Often a group can be exactly the event that pushes a person to “get off the ground” and begin to change his life. In the process of training work, a person also acquires such psychological knowledge and experience, which in the future helps him to independently cope with emerging difficulties.

What causes changes?

First of all, a person is influenced by the very participation in the training as a specially organized process, as well as by the people who are participants in this process. Changes arise through interaction with like-minded people, whose goal is also to work on themselves. In addition, the development of each participant and the development of the group as a whole are mutually supporting and mutually influencing processes; the activation of one necessarily causes the other. Of course, the level of interaction with the group, the scope and level of work are determined by each participant individually. The readiness and desire to participate in a particular procedure is each person’s own choice.

Another condition for change is the special atmosphere in the group. Group psychological work puts forward the principles of psychological comfort and safety as one of the first conditions. To do this, the facilitator, from the very beginning of the training, invites each participant to implement special principles of behavior in the group that promote a feeling of acceptance and trust.

During the training, the facilitator invites participants to engage in various techniques and exercises. The main goal of such procedures is to help you understand your own experiences and acquire skills for effectively coping with difficulties. During the training process, the possibility of change is ensured due to psychological patterns, including receiving feedback from the facilitator and other participants, activation of personal reflection, and awareness of previously unknown characteristics. As a result, basic psychological knowledge and skills are acquired, which can then be actively applied outside the training situation.

The training implements principles of work and techniques that can be attributed to the humanistic direction in psychology. We are talking about such areas as meeting groups, the Gestalt approach, psychodrama, the art approach, etc.

Participation in training always involves gaining new experience. And this is another mechanism that ensures change. When a person discovers something new, his personality cannot remain the same.