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

Chapter 550 From Boy to Man
What Nan Zhuren will do next is to work with the visitor.

This is the fourth and final stage—reconstruction and turning to the future.

At this stage, the visitor has already completed a considerable portion of the process.

He has now redefined his relationship with his parents and has planned a completely new way of getting along with them in the future—all of which are part of his future.

As for the remaining part, Nan Zhuren plans to assign it as homework.

Thinking of this, Nan Zhuren glanced at the clock on the wall.

Today's consultation has indeed come to an end.

Nan Zhuren turned to the visitor and said, "We still have a [mourning ceremony] to hold, but before that, I have some consultation assignments to give you."

Upon hearing Nan Zhuren's words, the visitor sat up straight and adjusted his posture with practiced ease, and even asked Nan Zhuren for an A4 sheet of paper and a pen to take notes.

"Although you have now adjusted your id and superego, you have only changed them in terms of 'degree'; their fundamental 'nature' remains unchanged."

Looking at the visitor, Nan Zhuren said, "Even after you stop craving affection from your parents, you still need positive emotional experiences to fill the void in your heart. You are not the kind of 'absolutely independent' person who can live well without external emotional support."

These words directly address the most private and vulnerable part of the visitor's heart.

Although the visitor looked embarrassed, he still nodded and agreed with Nan Zhuren's judgment.

Nan Zhuren smiled and said, "In fact, I don't want you to become that kind of person either. A good social support system is an important tool for maintaining mental health. Those who seem 'absolutely independent' either secretly obtain emotional satisfaction elsewhere, or they have completely broken away from the conventional social evaluation system, to the point that their mental health doesn't matter."

Hearing Nan Zhuren's lighthearted joke, the visitor smiled.

"So, if you can't get what you want at home, your next task is to build a 'home' of your own."

The visitor paused involuntarily as he was about to pick up his pen and write on the paper.

That sounds a bit strange.

“This ‘home’ is in quotation marks,” Nan Zhuren explained with a smile. “It can be ‘home’ in the traditional sense, where you can seek a stable and intimate relationship; or it can be a true partner or close friend, with whom you can entrust your heart with complete trust; or it can be a group or organization, as long as it can give you a sense of belonging and allow you to integrate into it.”

"You have to try to find it yourself, or even create it, and get a healthy, visible, and responsive relationship experience from it."

Nan Zhuren said this very solemnly.

The visitor took a breath to process the meaning of the sentence, nodded, and wrote it down.

Nan Zhuren then repeated the key words to ensure that the visitor did not misunderstand her meaning and would not go astray in the future, becoming obsessed with relationships like someone with a "dependent personality".

Of course, given the visitor's underlying personality, such a complete transformation is unlikely.

After watching the visitor finish completing the assignment and carefully fold and put away the A4 paper, Nan Zhuren reached out and took out another A4 paper, gently placing it in front of the visitor.

"Alright, let's now wrap things up with a [mourning ceremony]."

……

In theory, this "mourning ceremony" should be placed in the third stage to help visitors experience grief and make reconciliation.

Only by saying goodbye to the past can we look forward to the future.

However, counselors need to adjust the counseling plan according to the client's situation.

The current situation of the visitors is quite different from what is supposedly "theoretically" possible.

When clients come for in-home counseling, they are often confused and unsure of which way to go. That's why a counselor needs to guide them step by step through the healing process.

The visitor in front of me is very proactive. Through self-reflection, he has already vaguely gone through the entire healing process.

But the way they walked was rather unsteady.

In the previous third stage, his emotional experience was incomplete, which is why he experienced a situation where "he made up his mind, but still felt uncomfortable."

But ironically, he already had a vision for the future and was actively communicating with the consultant.

In this situation, inserting a "mourning ritual" midway through, guiding the visitor to rigidly follow the book's order, will disrupt the emotional flow and significantly reduce the therapeutic effect.

Therefore, Nan Zhuren simply took the future outlook part as a preliminary plan and let the visitors work on it at their own pace.

Leaving the mourning ceremony for last, and then returning to complete this step, allows the visitor to have a more complete emotional experience.

The visitor took the A4 paper handed to him by Nan Zhuren and understood that this was the prop needed for the upcoming "mourning ceremony".

He couldn't help but ask curiously, "Teacher, how do we do this... mourn? And who are we mourning?"

“I mourn you,” Nan Zhuren replied.

The visitor was taken aback.

“Or rather, mourning your past self,” Nan Zhuren added.

The visitor blinked.

Only by completely bidding farewell to the past can we turn to the future and embrace growth.

To describe the visitor's subsequent behavior in a more poetic way, it would be—

Bury the boy in my heart.

"Next, I want you to write a eulogy. You can word this part yourself and freely organize the beginning and ending."

"But I hope your eulogy will include these parts—"

Nan Zhuren looked into the visitor's eyes: "You must mourn the 'loving father and mother who never existed,' you must mourn the 'boy who once longed for affection,' and finally, as an adult who inherited that boy's strength, you must close their coffins."

The visitor looked at Nan Zhuren with a somewhat blank expression.

The visitor's breathing unconsciously became heavy and long.

He then turned his gaze back to the paper and pen on the coffee table.

The paper was square and made of wood; it was white, and although it was on the table, it seemed to have permeated the entire tabletop and filled every space around it.

After a while, the visitor picked up a pen, and his wrist moved his palm, waving it around as if he were writing on the paper, or as if he were waving to a figure on the paper.

Tick-tick-tick-

The wall clock ticked away, and time passed second by second.

Nan Zhuren took out his phone and sent a message to Mo Kai outside the door, indicating to his assistant not to knock on the door and come in later, as today's consultation would be delayed.

He then looked at the visitors.

When a visitor is able to reflect on past events, they have experienced anger and resentment, and may even have tossed and turned for several nights, tormented by these emotions and unable to fall asleep.

But at this moment, the visitor seemed to feel a similar yet different emotion.

There was anger, but it was quiet anger; there was resentment, but it was gentle resentment. As he experienced these emotions, his mind settled into a peace he had never felt before.

At first, the visitor had to work hard to come up with a word; but soon, he felt as if another hand was holding his pen from behind, writing words on the paper in his place.

The visitor, who was immersed in his emotions, suddenly snapped out of it and looked behind him as if he had noticed something.

But saw nothing.

“…Teacher, I’ve finished writing.” After a while, the visitor said.

Nan Zhuren nodded, pulled over a single sofa and placed it directly in front of the visitor, then sat down to the side and gestured to the visitor: "Read it aloud, and our consultation for today will officially end."

The visitor nodded, glancing first at the empty sofa.

This time, Nan Zhuren didn't put any paper or cushions on it; there was only air on it.

"..."

The visitor's gaze froze for two seconds before he looked down.

……

"Today, we are here... not to say goodbye to a person, but to say goodbye to something... that never really existed."

"I'm saying goodbye to the mother I imagined, the one who would love me unconditionally; I'm saying goodbye to the father I built in my dreams, the one who would protect me and guide me."

The visitor's words were somewhat hesitant and somewhat stumbling.

Looking at the visitor's expression, Nan Zhuren leaned back into his sofa and felt a sense of relief.

“You only exist in my longing; you have never stepped into reality. I have been waiting for you to open the door, but today I know that there has never been anyone behind that door.”

"I've given up waiting. I'm not waiting for you anymore."

The visitor blinked quickly twice, pursed his lips slightly, and forced a fleeting smile.

"And then, it's time to say goodbye to you—Nan Zhihao, who longed for a sliver of warmth in the corner many years ago."

"I bid farewell to your...loneliness, and to your repeated attempts to muster the courage only to be disappointed time and time again."

"You should have been freed long ago, but I've kept you here, letting you bear everything for me."

“I know you’re in pain, you’re scared, but… it’s not your fault, you’ve done enough.”

The visitor glanced up at the empty sofa, then quickly looked down at the paper in front of him.

He let out a long breath: "Now I'm putting you all here."

"I returned my fantasies about my parents to my childhood, and I put the pain of that boy into my heart now."

"I don't deny your existence, and I'm sure you'll continue to be there for me in the days to come."

"But that longing is over, and the waiting is over."

"Perhaps I will have my own home, perhaps I won't. And I will have to bear all of this myself."

"I will take everything from you and then move on to my own path."

The visitor put down the paper in his hand, folded it in half, and then looked up at the empty sofa in front of him.

May you all find peace.

It's very brief.
-
With a click, the door to the consultation room opened, and the visitor walked out.

Compared to the melancholy mixed with joy he had during previous consultations, his aura today was exceptionally heavy.

His face was expressionless, and his gaze seemed unfocused, yet his steps possessed an inexplicable lightness and freedom.

He let out a long breath, walked out, nodded slightly to Mo Kai and the two receptionists he met on the way, and then disappeared into the elevator.

Nan Zhuren then came out, stretched, and felt a sense of lightness.

"Xiao Kai".

When the consulting assistant heard Nan Zhuren call his name, he quickly came over and said, "Senior brother."

"Is Nan Zhihao's meal plan almost finished?"

Nan Zhuren didn't have many cases on hand, but Mo Kai had already memorized them.

"Yes, there's only one last consultation left."

Nan Zhuren nodded: "After this package ends, don't bring up the renewal issue with him. If he wants to renew, don't recommend any more packages; just let him pay per use."

"There's no need to schedule consultations every week; you can extend the time appropriately. Once every two weeks, or even once a month, is fine."

Nan Zhihao's situation has reached a point where we can begin to try to gradually wean him off counseling, and the company naturally has a special appointment system for clients in this situation.

If we still sell consultations in package deals to these visitors, it might give them the impression that "I still have a few consultations left in my package, so I should finish them all."

Creating lingering connections can actually hinder the visitor's independence.

Mo Kai was taken aback: "Senior, is the client having some financial problems? His consultations are currently reimbursed, so he doesn't need to pay anything..."

Nan Zhuren shook his head: "No, it's that he can start trying to be independent."

Mo Kai was taken aback for a moment, then he understood. A strange sense of accomplishment began to well up in Mo Kai's heart; this was the first complete psychological counseling case he had participated in.

Although he was only an assistant and didn't personally provide consultations, he still felt inexplicably happy.

Nan Zhuren ignored his assistant and went straight back to his workstation. He had also felt down in the consultation room because of his empathy for the client, but his professional competence allowed him to quickly adjust his mindset.

Even the "emotional readjustment" function wasn't used.

Instead, a feeling akin to an old farmer watching the bountiful wheat harvest in autumn began to fill his chest.

The consultation is over, and it's finally time to take stock of what we've gained from this case archive!
After taking a sip of water to moisten his throat, Nan Zhuren prepared to use [Emotional Readjustment] to enter the dream-based psychological counseling room.

Suddenly, the familiar tingling sensation surged into my heart again.

[Wait a minute…]

Nan Zhuren blinked. Had he completed another case filing?
That's not right. Nan Zhihao should have solved the problem before the consultation even started... Could it be that I misjudged him and his problem is only being solved now?
What about the previous one?
Nan Zhuren carefully sensed the changes within her body and discovered the difference—

This time, the "case archive" seems a bit weaker than the previous ones.

He thought of something, took out his phone, and opened the chat window with the contact name 【翁平婷】.

(End of this chapter)