Who would study psychology if they didn't have some kind of problem?

Chapter 317 Mental Health Education in High Schools

A male student confessed his feelings to her?

“Ah (fourth tone with a long ending)…” Nan Zhuren responded very cooperatively.

"Yes," Teacher Zhao shook her head.

"That student's situation wasn't actually that complicated—he didn't communicate much with his family, and he focused on studying for a long time without interacting with female classmates, which made it difficult for him to resolve many of his inner thoughts."

As Teacher Zhao recalled the events, she couldn't help but touch her forehead with her hand.

"I noticed something was wrong with him, so I talked to him twice. Unexpectedly, on the third time, he told me I was very considerate and beautiful, and that he liked me..."

Nan Zhuren shared his observation: "It seems that when you think back on it now, you still have a strong reaction."

"Because it was so scary!" Teacher Zhao exclaimed excitedly.

Her whole face scrunched up: "I had only been working there for less than two months when I heard that student confess his feelings. My mind almost exploded—I had worked so hard to get this permanent position!"

Nan Zhuren nodded, sighed, and then clicked his tongue, making an expression of astonishment as if he had just heard something outrageous.

Ms. Zhao was also prompted to sigh: "Ms. Nan, you should still remember what I was wearing when we first met, right? After that boy confessed to me, I went home and dug out my ugliest clothes, and even asked my mom for a few more. From then on, I almost never wore makeup..."

Nan Zhuren recalled that his first meeting with the female teacher was indeed rather hasty.

Nan Zhuren suddenly asked, "Do you think you've properly processed this matter? Is it a traumatic event for you?"

Teacher Zhao was taken aback: "It may not be fully digested yet, but it's probably not a traumatic event."

She spoke very quickly: "A teenage boy, because he had no support for a long time, talked to me for a bit and then transferred his repressed emotions onto me—that's just transference. It's actually quite common in counseling, and it's not like I haven't encountered it before. It's just that I had just started working at the time, and the sensitivity of a teacher's profession can easily make things unclear, so I was quite flustered..."

Teacher Zhao's voice suddenly started to get softer, then softer and softer, until it disappeared completely.

She looked at Nan Zhuren, thought for a moment, and then hesitated, her voice trembling: "I seem to be subconsciously explaining to you, it's a kind of defense..."

"Why would you want to explain?" Nan Zhuren asked.

"...I want to prove that this isn't a 'traumatic event' for me." Ms. Zhao took a deep breath. "I'm a counselor, and I've encountered transference before. A high school boy's confession shouldn't have any impact on me..."

"Did he have any impact on you?" Nan Zhuren asked.

"...Of course there are, for example, my daily outfits."

"Will that affect your counseling? For example, how will it change your initial attitude towards male students at school?"

……

Upon hearing this question, Teacher Zhao opened her mouth as if to say something, but subconsciously took a breath and stopped herself from speaking.

After blinking three times, she finally spoke in a low voice: "I just subconsciously wanted to deny it, and that... is also a kind of [defense]."

Nan Zhuren remained silent, giving the young psychology teacher more time to think.

"In fact... this incident did affect my counseling sessions with students afterward." Ms. Zhao's brows furrowed. "After that, I felt a bit wary of boys. I stopped proactively asking about their situations, and even when boys came to me for counseling, my first reaction was to become defensive..."

Nan Zhuren then offered a more in-depth description of Teacher Zhao's state of mind from a different angle: "Now you realize this, and you feel that this is not good?"

“Yes, that’s not good.” Teacher Zhao affirmed Nan Zhuren’s words, “because it will affect the quality of my consultations with students.”

Nan Zhuren succinctly summarized: "Do you want to provide 'high-quality' consultations to every student, or rather, every student who comes to you for help?"

Teacher Zhao nodded, finding it perfectly reasonable. "So, what do you think 'high-quality' counseling looks like?"

This question stumped Teacher Zhao's thinking.

She frowned, looking as if she was thinking very hard.

After a long pause, seemingly unable to find a suitable adjective, he simply said, "At least... it can't be worse than the internship cases I did during my undergraduate years."

Nan Zhuren reacted quickly, taking a deeper look at the surface meaning of Teacher Zhao's words and paraphrasing them once more.

"You mean the consulting you're doing for students now isn't as good as the cases you handled during your undergraduate internships?"

"..."

Teacher Zhao remained silent for a long time this time.

Then, she suddenly laughed: "I feel like I just went on the defensive again. I was going to say 'more or less,' or 'most of the counseling these days isn't as good as what I did in my undergraduate years.'"

“But…” Teacher Zhao took a deep breath, “In fact, all the consultations I do now are not as good as the ones I did when I was an undergraduate.”

Nan Zhuren asked, "How do you feel about this?"

"...frustration, and shame."

"Do you think we should be doing better now than we were back then?"

"Correct."

"why?"

"Because there are more visitors now, I have accumulated more consultation time."

Nan Zhuren nodded knowingly once again.

He tried a different approach: "What do you think are the factors that prevent you from providing high-quality consulting?"

Teacher Zhao thought for a moment and said, "On the one hand, it's because there are too many other things to do..."

She subconsciously frowned: "I'm a psychology teacher, and my job is to teach mental health classes and provide counseling to students, but now my classes are always booked up, and I can barely get a few students to counsel me each week; on the contrary, I have many other things to do, such as teaching competitions, Arbor Day activities, gala rehearsals, visits to educational bases, and so on..."

Nan Zhuren listened patiently as she listed them one by one.

"Most importantly..." Teacher Zhao pursed her lips, hesitated for a moment, and seemed to realize that what she was about to say was inappropriate.

But she still said it out loud: "I don't know whether I should continue to counsel students or not."

The important things are said last.

Of course, the previous points also need to be briefly repeated appropriately. Nan Zhuren said, "It sounds like you've been assigned a lot of miscellaneous tasks unrelated to your job."

"However, these miscellaneous matters shouldn't make you wonder whether you should continue counseling your students, right?"

"No." Teacher Zhao shook her head as expected, and she slightly curled the corners of her mouth, as if she felt that Nan Zhuren's words were a form of recognition for her.

"What made me no longer want to provide counseling to students was—"

"—They're taking the college entrance exam."

　This is a make-up chapter; there will be two more chapters tonight.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)