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

Chapter 382 Healing the Wounds

Teacher Zhao's current attitude best explains why "counselors cannot provide counseling to relatives, friends, or other people with dual identities."

But there is nothing that can be done about it.

Nan Zhuren didn't say much, only hinting at it, hoping that Teacher Zhao would pay more attention in the future.

Let's get back on track: "Let's continue talking about Zhang Zihao's problem."

"First of all, I want to make one point clear—Zhang Zihao's behavior is indeed very likely to arouse people's disgust, but he is also a real victim in this incident. The source of all the harm is Wang Rui."

"Whether it was Wang Rui's coercion that turned him from passive to active, or whether Wang Rui provided an opportunity that brought out his bullying nature."

“We should all intervene in his case wholeheartedly. It’s just that we will use different intervention methods because of the different underlying logic of his problem.”

"Regarding this point, Professor Zhao, when you were doing case studies during your undergraduate studies, you must have encountered situations where you 'rejected it on a personal moral ground, but needed to conform on a professional standpoint,' right?"

Teacher Zhao nodded.

After Nan Zhuren's guidance, her thoughts began to gradually become clearer.

Nan Zhuren suddenly sighed, "There were actually two unexpected things during today's group counseling session."

Teacher Zhao looked over in confusion.

“Although both of these unexpected events had a positive impact on the group counseling,” Nan Zhuren explained, “they did disrupt my plans to some extent, to the point that I had to adjust the group counseling process.”

But I think your group counseling was conducted very smoothly.

Teacher Zhao thought to herself—although there were indeed parts she didn't understand, Nan Zhuren never showed any panic about "an unexpected event" during the group counseling session.

The process was carried out very smoothly.

Teacher Zhao thought this was a "perfect group counseling session".

"The first surprise was that Lin Junkai brought up Wang Rui's criminal consequences."

Nan Zhuren said, "I originally wanted to wait until the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Emotional Spectrum had given the students enough time to grow before using this news as a cognitive shock to reinforce their growth one last time."

"Of course, the impact of hearing it from Lin Junkai's mouth is probably even greater than if I said it—so it's not a bad thing, at most it's just that I temporarily deleted a small part."

In all psychological interventions, including group counseling, minor unexpected events often occur, and mental health practitioners must learn to adapt to the situation on the spot.

Take Nan Zhuren, for example. He often discovers unexpected breakthroughs during psychological counseling. At that point, he decisively abandons the original counseling plan and focuses on that breakthrough.

"Another unexpected thing was that I originally had a role-playing segment."

Nan Zhuren nodded: "It was originally scheduled to be at the end of the group counseling session, after Zhang Zihao and other students who needed cognitive correction had fully immersed themselves in the group atmosphere."

“I plan to have them play the role of prisoners, and then have Lin Junkai, or you, temporarily play the role of prison guards.”

……

Role-playing originated from psychodrama therapy in the 1930s. It was developed by psychiatrist Jacob Moreno after he accidentally observed that children would spontaneously recreate life scenes in free play and gain healing effects from it. He then conducted in-depth research and developed a treatment method of "recreating psychological conflicts through dramatization".

The core cognitive mechanism of this treatment method is to create a decentralized perspective through role-playing—for example, having the bully play the role of the bullied, thereby breaking the ego-serving bias through role reversal.

"But later I didn't expect that the other students would grow up too fast."

Nan Zhuren sighed involuntarily, whether out of helplessness or something else: "They didn't even need to do the role-playing, yet they still made Zhang Zihao feel like he was in a different position, to the point that he almost broke down in the end. So later I also canceled the role-playing part."

Nan Zhuren was very sensitive to the students' gazes. To say that they were "bullying" Zhang Zihao with their eyes would definitely be going too far.

But after they have reflected on themselves and grown, they must have clarified their respective positions.

In this situation, Zhang Zihao and the other two, whose positions were clearly different from theirs, would naturally feel a sense of isolation.

Of course, Zhang Zihao's eventual breakdown was also partly due to his own issues.

After hearing what Nan Zhuren said, Teacher Zhao had another question.

"So Zhang Zihao has also suffered some degree of harm, right? Should we intervene and protect him as soon as possible?"

When she said this, it wasn't that Teacher Zhao suddenly felt sympathy and care for Zhang Zihao.

I was simply seeking advice from the perspective of psychological counseling and intervention.

Nan Zhuren chuckled and shook his head.

"Teacher Zhao, how do you think we should correct Zhang Zihao's current cognitive distortion?"

Teacher Zhao blinked. "I'm asking you for advice right now, and you're asking me questions in return?"

Fortunately, Nan Zhuren immediately answered his own question.

“In normal psychological counseling, we fully respect the client’s wishes. We only tell the client the choices they are facing and the consequences of each choice, and then let the client decide for themselves.”

"But when dealing with underage clients, we need to provide them with correct values ​​guidance—this is also the ethical code for counselors, which you must have memorized."

Teacher Zhao nodded.

"And Zhang Zihao—although he is an objective 'victim,' the harm he caused to his classmates is also very real."

"Therefore, he needs to know the consequences of his actions, and even bear some of the consequences to some extent."

“The visual harm from other students? That’s the least of it. I’m even glad he’s sensitive enough to feel harm just from their gaze.”

"My insistence on fairness in the group counseling process was already a way of protecting him."

Nan Zhuren said calmly.

He looked at Teacher Zhao: "Teacher Zhao, you should know that many counselors have different counseling styles, right?"

Ms. Zhao nodded; she knew. However, being a recent graduate of the behaviorist school, her counseling style was still the standard humanistic style of "complete empathy" and "client-centeredness."

"Many counselors like to use confrontation or even reprimand during counseling. Given Zhang Zihao's counseling background, unless the counselor he's dealing with isn't a pure humanist, he's definitely going to get scolded."

"Given his issues, even if he isn't attacked by the therapist, he will inevitably be attacked and hurt by himself during the subsequent healing process."

"Because 'experiencing the feeling of being hurt' is an essential part of his cognitive correction process."

Often, psychological intervention and therapy do not make people feel comfortable.

At least Zhang Zihao's condition doesn't allow him to be comfortable during the intervention process; perhaps he can be more comfortable after the intervention ends.

This is why Nan Zhuren did not take immediate action after noticing the change in the group's atmosphere.

In group counseling, group members are able to heal each other.

(End of this chapter)