Background. The address to facilitating practice means granting to the person of a possibility of constructing individual sense and searching for such instruments of work by the consultant which allow the clients “to go and keep the relations with others”. The issue of searching for psychotechnical means adequate to correspondent ones, and to dialogue relations, turns us to humour and one of its forms, i.e. a joke. 

Objective. Guided by the cultural and historical concept and narrative approach in psychology and also by the ideas of systematic and stage-by-stage action development we are to prove joke as a tool of narrative understanding of the interpersonal relations. 

Design. The concept of ‘interpersonal relationship’ is clarified. The features of the ‘understanding interpersonal relations’ are specified. A review of ‘laughing’ as behaviour leading to an understanding of interpersonal relations, and a joke as a psycho-technical tool mediating the therapeutic relationship between a client and a consultant, is conducted. 

Results. ‘Understanding interpersonal relationships’ is coined as highlighting a method (scheme) that leads to a judgment about the developing relationship. Humor is considered as an attitude and understanding (orientation) in interpersonal communication whose purpose occurs through a sign-symbolic construction, i.e. a joke. Considering joke in the focus of the narrative approach provides an opportunity to see additional features of it as a tool, which can be included in the outline of the indicative basis of a communicative process. 

Conclusions. Using joke in advisory interaction as psychotechnical tool allows us to make certain statements, or to call for certain behaviour from the equality position without limiting individual freedom of the person. Due to joking the consultant’s intensions, interests, valuable and semantic orientations are getting more transparent and, the client’s judgments and behavior can be corrected easily.

Background. Near-death experience is an altered state of consciousness at the time when the person is on the threshold of death. Near-death experience has a specific structure which includes such elements as extra corporal experience, moving in a dark tunnel, seeing bright light, meetings with the deceased persons, panoramic life review and many others. The condition is quite common nowadays particularly due to the success of resuscitation and a high level of emergency care organization). Experience in itself and its some consequences derivate a lot of psychological problems at the person, which he is afraid to tell not only medical staff, but also relatives because of danger of interpretation his (her) near-death experiences as marks of psychic illness.

The Objective of the analytical theoretical research was to study the experience of working with such patients, accumulated in Western medicine, psychology and psychotherapy, the organization of the training process and also the organization of psychotherapeutic support for survivors and members of their families.

Design. This article analyzes the foreign (most publications on this subject is carried out in the United States) works on the problem of treatment with near-death experiencer and psychological support for them, the material contained in these works is structured and summarized on the main problems in this area.

Research results. Based on the review and analysis of the reference literature a preliminary Atwater's adaptation model of the near-death experience is proposed, the integration of this experience is viewed as the main goal to be implemented by the experiencer independently or in collaboration with a psychotherapist, the universal rules of treating near-death experiencers are elaborated. There are rules of treating different groups of experiencers and different categories of people interacting with them are identified and integrated: the rules of treating children with near-death, the experience of organizing psychotherapeutic assistance to their relatives.

Conclusion. The compliance with the rules by physicians, psychotherapists and relatives of near-death patients contributes to the decreased emotional and social problems in the patient, and sometimes even prevents their occurrence.