This work reports some experiences occurred in a department of psychological duty and some considerations about this specific modality of attention, taking into consideration the education of future psychologists in the university, and the difference between this type of care and psychotherapy. The institutional context of "Serviço de Aconselhamento Psicológico da USP" is presented; this context includes the experiences aforementioned, as well as a fictional construction of an attention history and some comments that articulate clinical background and theoretical aspects of client-centered therapy and existential phenomenology. Some aspects perceived as fundamental in the therapists' activities are emphasized, such as reception posture and the research related to client complaint; the careful observation of the way clients show up, since their arrival all the way to the final step of psychological duty; and the will to build a truthful relationship between therapist and client. Finally, the text addresses the notion of demand that is behind the proposal of psychological duty, and explores, based on the experiences of the characters involved - client, therapist and supervisor, one of the existing non-directive paradoxes, according to Max Pagés (1976), in the relation to psychological support, that is, the paradox of identification-differentiation between therapists and clients.
Psychological duty; Psychologist education; Client centered therapy; Existential phenomenology