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

Chapter 371 [Group Counseling]

The consultation room that Nan Zhuren chose today is a little different.

Instead of seeking counseling directly at the school's counseling center, he asked Teacher Zhao to find him another place.

Unlike small, comfortable consultation rooms that offer privacy and a sense of enclosure.

Before me is an empty activity room, about 200 square meters in size, equivalent to half a basketball court.

The ceilings here are very high, and the window sills are at least 1.8 meters off the ground. Sunlight streams in through the windows, filling the empty classroom with warm tones.

In the northeast corner of the activity room, there are hundreds of folding stools stacked up, not arranged neatly.

Twelve folding stools were taken out and placed in the center of the activity room.

This is where Nan Zhuren will be giving consultations to the students.

This is the first consultation since the major event occurred.

Nan Zhuren did not intend to do it for each student individually, but rather in a special way.

"Click——"

Teacher Zhao was sitting on one of the twelve unfolded folding stools when she saw Nan Zhuren and immediately stood up.

"Teacher Nan, is it right that we're doing group counseling today?"

“Yes, we’ll do group counseling.” Nan Zhuren nodded, then added cautiously, “Let’s try group counseling first. If things don’t go well, we might have to switch to group therapy.”

Group counseling, also known as group consultation or small group guidance, is a psychological intervention process that targets a group and uses appropriate counseling strategies and methods to facilitate healing through interaction among group members.

Because the intervention targets a "group," a counselor usually needs to deal with multiple clients in a single counseling session, typically 6-8 people.

In practice, group counseling is often used to intervene in clients with "similar situations"—such as employees in the same company who have similar complaints, students in the same school who have similar pressures, or viewers who have witnessed the same accident and suffered similar trauma.

In many European and American movies or TV series, there are often a group of people sitting around, usually veterans with PTSD, or people with alcoholism or star addiction, and they take turns talking about what they have done recently, how they feel, and then they express their opinions to each other.

This is a variation of group counseling, a simplified version.

Since the act of "bringing together a group of similar people to talk" has a therapeutic effect in itself, group counseling is highly effective.

In disaster areas affected by natural or man-made disasters such as earthquakes or rampant epidemics, mental health experts often provide psychological assistance in the form of group counseling. The beneficiaries are not only the disaster victims but also the volunteers who went to provide support.

However, because "bringing a group of similar people together to have a heart-to-heart talk" has a therapeutic effect, the requirements for group counseling facilitators are very low.

Some counselors simply let the clients chat among themselves during group counseling, acting as mere observers and only responsible for calling "start" and "end"; others simply design some embarrassing little games that are both laughable and absurd, making it look like a third-rate company's team building activity.

In fact, a well-prepared group counseling session consists of multiple parts, each with its own theme, all centered around the purpose of the counseling session.

The group counseling session that Nan Zhuren is going to conduct today is much more complex, because she will be dealing with multiple clients at the same time.

He needs to be 200% focused today.

"Are the things I asked you to prepare ready?" Nan Zhuren turned to look at Teacher Zhao.

“Of course.” Teacher Zhao gestured to Nan Zhuren.

The young female teacher blinked her big eyes; she had been excited ever since she learned that Nan Zhuren was going to provide group counseling for the students.

She also wants to learn formal and professional group counseling techniques from Nan Zhuren's intervention today!
Nan Zhuren took a deep breath: "Today, as my assistant, I'll go over the process with you again. Then, before the students arrive, we'll do some final preparations."

Teacher Zhao nodded repeatedly.

...The sunlight streaming in through the window was briefly blocked by the drifting clouds in the sky, plunging the activity room into a brief period of dullness.

But today looks like a sunny day, and the sunlight that had been blocked soon pierced through again and shone into the activity room.

"Boom boom boom——"

knocking.

"Go in," Nan Zhuren said.

The door to the activity room opened, and a lean, middle-aged man in sportswear carrying a thermos entered with a smile.

Behind him was a line of students, their figures barely visible.

"Oh, Teacher Zhao, this must be Teacher Nan."

Teacher Zhao quickly stood up: "Yes, Teacher Liu, thank you for your trouble, and I've also delayed your training."

The teacher with the thermos cup waved her hand: "Hey, these kids are under my care now, so it's only right that I bring them here. I can also take this opportunity to rest for a bit."

Observing the interaction between the psychology teacher and the physical education teacher, Nan Zhuren guessed that the middle-aged teacher was Lin Junkai and his classmates' new coach.

I remember Teacher Zhao saying that this teacher is very good.

After observing for a moment, Nan Zhuren nodded in agreement—judging from the conversation just now, the coach did not seem to be opposed to "missing training due to psychological counseling".

"Teacher Zhao, Teacher Nan, I'll be entrusting my students to you for the time being. Please take good care of them."

The teacher, who had been using a thermos, maintained her smile.

[Reduced blinking frequency, fixed gaze.]

[Extremely high level of attention.]

“Of course.” Nan Zhuren nodded solemnly.

Perhaps seeing the serious atmosphere, the teacher with the thermos cup waved his hand dismissively.

"Hey, I was overthinking it." He said, turning around to direct the students inside while apologizing to Nan Zhuren, "After all, you're Professor Nan, Professor Nan from Jiang University..."

Led by Lin Junkai, the students behind the teacher, who had a thermos cup, strolled in one by one like ducklings following their mother.

"Then I'll be going now." The PE teacher with the thermos cup, who had only been there for a short while, quickly waved and disappeared.

Nan Zhuren turned his gaze back to the students.

Wang Rui's sports team has a total of eleven members, excluding Xu Pengcheng, there are ten others.

The group activity room has twelve chairs, with ten seats available in addition to Nan Zhuren, the group facilitator, and his assistant, Teacher Zhao.

Nan Zhuren and Teacher Zhao did not sit side by side, but rather at opposite ends of the clock, with their eyes meeting at a right angle, so that they could take in as much of the visitors’ reactions as possible.

Meanwhile, other students also began to pay attention to their seating arrangements, given the seating arrangements for Nan Zhuren and Teacher Zhao.

Group counseling, before the students are seated.

And so it began quietly.

(End of this chapter)