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

Chapter 585: Those of you staying up late to read this chapter, be careful not to fall asleep!

dong dong dong-

"Enter."

The door to the consultation room opened.

Li Lingling's face appeared first. Beyond her figure, Mo Kai could be seen behind her.

After settling down on the sofa with practiced ease, Li Lingling smiled and said, "So it really is just the two of you today, everyone else has a day off..."

She asked, seemingly out of curiosity and politeness, "Is your assistant also working overtime today?"

Sensing the visitor's earnest gaze, Nan Zhuren smiled and said, "He's a local, a university student working part-time as an intern, and he's very enthusiastic about counseling. So whenever there's an opportunity to learn, he'll definitely come."

The visitor nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.

Then she rubbed her thighs together with both hands: "We're going to do hypnosis today, right? Shall we begin?"

The visitor appeared to be very expectant.

Nan Zhuren explained, "Yes, because today's process may take a very long time, so we need to do some preparatory work first."

As she spoke, Nan Zhuren poured a glass of water for the visitor: "You can drink some water first, and if you need to go to the restroom, you can take care of it now."

Today's consultation was particularly long. If the client had the urge to go to the toilet during the consultation, it would not only interrupt the session, but this urge might also manifest as other subconscious ideas during the hypnosis process, becoming a disturbance.

The visitor blinked and smiled, "You're so well prepared... We didn't seem to be this serious last time?"

She was referring to the last time she was "hypnotized" and had to recall a dream she had forgotten.

Nan Zhuren explained, "Last time was rather impromptu. After all, the original theme was 'dream interpretation,' but we had to use a method similar to 'hypnosis' to help you recall the details of your dream because you couldn't remember them."

Today's session was a complete and formal hypnosis session.

Nan Zhuren doesn't even plan to use his "Hypnotherapy - Beginner" skill. Instead, he will use the most formal guidance to let the client undergo a complete hypnosis session from beginning to end.

Seeing that Nan Zhuren was so formal, the visitors naturally had no objections.

After completing all the "hypnotic preparations" outside of the consultation under Nan Zhuren's guidance, the client nodded: "I'm ready."

……

The first step in hypnosis is to establish a safe framework while ensuring the client has full informed consent.

Some professional "hypnotherapists" are asked to undergo a hypnosis experience by their clients during their first appointment.

This step will be very important for them.

However, the hypnotherapy that Nan Zhuren is currently undergoing is part of psychological counseling, and both the safety framework and informed consent have been fully prepared.

Therefore, we proceed directly to the second step—guiding the body to relax and shifting the visitor's focus inward.

"Okay, first let's choose a comfortable position to lie down in."

As he spoke, the visitor pointed to the treatment sofa next to him.

Bai Qinghua has many types of consultation rooms. Today, Nan Zhuren specially chose a consultation room that other counselors use for relaxation therapy. The facilities inside are also different from those in ordinary consultation rooms.

Although the place where the visitor is now lying is called a "sofa", it is about the same size as a "bed". Even a big guy like Chonghui could lie down comfortably, and there would even be some extra space.

After the visitor lay down, Nan Zhuren took a large cushion and handed her a blanket to cover her, then adjusted her position with her.

"Will it be cold? Will it be hot?" they asked simultaneously.

Ensuring the visitor's physical comfort to the highest level and minimizing external stimuli is a crucial prerequisite for guiding them to focus their attention on their inner feelings.

The visitor covered his stomach with the blanket, then pulled it up to cover his collarbone, exposing his shoulders. His hands were outside the blanket, gently grasping the soft fabric.

After confirming that the visitor had made the necessary adjustments, Nan Zhuren extended one hand and held it in front of the visitor's eyes.

"Now, please look at my hand and follow it with your eyes."

"At the same time, follow my verbal guidance to adjust your breathing. Come on, inhale—"

The visitor pursed his lips, but still couldn't suppress his curious and intrigued gaze.

Nan Zhuren moved her hand downwards from directly in front of the visitor's line of sight: "Now, whoosh—"

"Inhale—exhale—inhale—very good."

After taking three deep breaths, Nan Zhuren slowly moved his hand to the top of the visitor's line of sight, even slightly beyond the visitor's line of sight.

So much so that visitors had to tilt their chins slightly back in order to follow Nan Zhuren's hand, causing wrinkles to appear on their foreheads.

"Very good, look at my hands, keep your eyes upward. Inhale—exhale—"

……

Hand movements trigger visual tracking in visitors, while verbal guidance controls their breathing rhythm.

Nan Zhuren's actions at this moment are all based on physiological principles—using multiple sensory channels to simultaneously occupy the mind's attentional resources, making the visitor's attention highly focused and narrow.

Specialized hypnotists have more unique methods for this step. For example, the "constantly swinging pocket watch" that appears in many movies and TV shows is based on this physiological principle.

However, this step is just the initial setup. In film and television works, it is often simplified to directly using this step to put people into a hypnotic state, which is an exaggerated form of dramatic expression.

True hypnosis is much more complex.

Nan Zhuren observed the visitor and saw that as the visitor stared for a long time and adjusted their breathing, the curiosity on the visitor's face gradually faded.

I became so focused that I even felt a little lost.

He said, "Okay, look at my hands, take one last deep breath, and then close your eyes."

"Follow my rhythm. Inhale—exhale—close your eyes."

The visitor did as instructed.

"Yes, we close our eyes completely."

"Imagine your eyes are glued together, locked together, and closed together."

Nan Zhuren patiently explained and described the action of "closing the eyes" again and again, giving the suggestion repeatedly.

His tone became soft and slow, gentle and steady: "You try to open your eyes, but your eyes will not open at all, and we will enter a deep hypnotic state."

"Now, focus your attention on your breathing, and maintain your current breathing rhythm..."

"There's no need to deliberately change it. Just watch it like a curious observer...feel how the air naturally flows into your body...and how naturally it flows out...with each inhale, bring in a touch of calm...with each exhale, take away a touch of tension..."

"Yes, very good, that's it." At the same time, she kept encouraging him, just like a kindergarten teacher.

This step is still repeated tirelessly.

The visitor's shoulders, which were exposed outside the blanket, visibly relaxed.

The fingers resting on the blanket seemed to tremble as they unfolded little by little, until they finally drooped completely onto the fabric.

"Can you hear me?" Nan Zhuren asked softly.

The relaxation effect is so good that it can cause visitors to fall asleep immediately.

"can."

“Okay.” Nan Zhuren nodded and moved on to the next step. “Now, let’s imagine a park, and you’re sitting on a bench. The winter sun is warm, shining down on you.”

Slowly scan your entire body, starting with your scalp, and feel if it relaxes...

"Then slowly move downwards... over the forehead... around the eyes... cheeks... chin... feel the muscles in these areas, softening and relaxing them little by little..."

"Let this light continue downwards... past your neck... your shoulders... so that your heavy shoulders can slowly, slowly relax..."

"It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off your shoulders... then your arms... elbows... wrists... all the way down to your fingertips. Feel a slightly tingling, warm, relaxing sensation..."

This beam of light is actually the visitor's "attention".

By making abstract concepts concrete through imagination, we guide our attention to systematically scan various parts of the body and suggest "softening" and "relaxation," which gradually releases the body's tension and deepens the state of relaxation.

"The light continues its descent, reaching your chest... abdomen... feel your internal organs resting peacefully..."

"Then it's the hips... thighs... knees... calves... and finally down to your ankles and toes..."

"Now, feel your whole body being enveloped by a comfortable, heavy sense of relaxation... You feel safe... very secure..."

At the same time, by describing the feeling of relaxation in different parts of the body and repeating words such as "safe" and "secure," the hypnotic state is further deepened and the sense of security is strengthened.

"Okay, now we feel very warm, let's stand up and walk forward, we will see a step."

Nan Zhuren observes the changes in the visitors' faces.

“We’ll go down one step after another. I’ll count from 10 to 1, and with each number I count, you’ll go down one step.”

"Let's imagine, imagine that you can feel your footsteps, hear your footsteps, see your footsteps."

"We go downstream and enter a deeper and deeper hypnotic state."

"10..."

"Let's go and feel the warm sunshine in the park, the birdsong, the sound of the wind, and the sound of flowing water."

"9..."

"Listen to these sounds and let them take us into a deeper, deeper hypnotic state."

"Next level down, 8..."

Nan Zhuren guided her step by step.

The principle behind this step is to use symbolic imagery that aligns mind and body to structurally deepen the hypnotic state.

The image of descending the steps itself metaphorically represents "gradually delving into the subconscious," and synchronizing each step with a deep breath is equivalent to setting a perceptible rhythm and progress bar for the relaxation process.

This kind of regular, repetitive, and predictable mental task can continuously occupy the conscious mind and prevent distractions.

At the same time, the visitor's body will unconsciously associate the visual image of "downward" with the physiological feeling of "sinking" and "relaxation", thereby guiding the physiological state through psychological suggestion and achieving a gradual deepening of the degree of relaxation.

Of course, this process may not be successful on the first try.

Nan Zhuren observed the changes in the visitor's expression: "Now, let's go down the last step. Let's use our imaginations; can you tell me what you see?"

The visitor's eyelids twitched: "...sunlight, steps..."

not enough.

“Okay,” Nan Zhuren said. “Let’s continue to feel the warmth of this sunlight, keep walking forward, and imagine that ten more steps appear in front of us again.”

“For every number I count, you move down one step. 10…”

"9..."

"1..."

The preparation stage is the most important and also the most time-consuming stage of hypnosis.

"Imagine your surroundings and let them lead you into a deeper, deeper hypnotic state."

Nan Zhuren's voice was soft and steady: "It doesn't matter if you didn't enter a hypnotic state. This is not your problem, but mine."

"Can we try raising our hands?"

The visitor did not move.

"Okay, let's keep going..."

A full ten minutes passed.

Suddenly, it felt like the world was spinning.

It felt as if I had fallen into another world, and the distance between my consciousness and reality was constantly being stretched.

The visitor didn't say anything, and there was no reaction on his face.

But Nan Zhuren knew that some changes had occurred.

“Let’s go down the last step.” Nan Zhuren looked at the visitor’s body. “Let’s try raising our hands, can we?”

The description in this section is actually somewhat vague.

Is it the imagined version of yourself raising your hands while walking up the stairs, or the real version of yourself raising your hands?

The visitor made his own judgment.

There was no sound because the movement was very, very slow.

Like a marionette suspended by strings, two slender arms slowly rose in front of Nan Zhuren.

Nan Zhuren knows that visitors can still feel their own voice, the sofa, and the blanket.

She was able to clearly perceive where she was.

However, at the same time, there is another "her," the subconscious version of her, appearing in another place.

"Can you tell me what you're seeing now?" Nan Zhuren asked.

"……garden……"

……

It is no longer the monotonous "sunshine" and "steps" that Nan Zhuren described.

It is a complete scene.

A park.

Or, to put it another way, a "safe haven".

Creating a "safe island" is a crucial stabilization technique in trauma treatment.

To create an inner sanctuary for visitors that they can return to at any time, so that when their emotions become too intense during the exploration process, they can return here to find solace and avoid being overwhelmed by traumatic memories.

The visitor said haltingly, "...Yes, I saw it...it was a...sunny lawn...with red, yellow, and blue flowers...and butterflies..."

Nan Zhuren took a sip of water and adjusted his voice:
"Very good, a park with sunny lawns, red, yellow, and blue flowers, and butterflies. Please fully enjoy the peace and safety there. Remember this place, you can come back here anytime you need."

(End of this chapter)