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

Chapter 606 Failure and Remedy

There are two possibilities regarding what Team Leader Li is saying at this moment.

One is a practical issue, which involves many things, and Nan Zhuren is currently unable to do anything about it.

It's not convenient to say more about this.

Another aspect is the psychological level, which is what Nan Zhuren can try to address in this psychological intervention.

Of course, regarding practical issues, Nan Zhuren can try to verify them with the person in charge after the intervention ends; even through conversations with the visitors, some understanding can be gained.

Nan Zhuren first tried to limit her work to the psychological level of the visitors—at least in this psychological intervention.

Nan Zhuren thought for a moment and began by explaining the visitor's statement:
"So, in your view, there exists a 'them,' a group within higher-level or parallel departments who are unaware of the actual situation. This group is slowing down your resource allocation, and their behavior is the core reason for many of the current difficulties. Is my understanding accurate?"

The visitor nodded vigorously: "Yes!"

Nan Zhuren added, "Moreover, according to your account, their problems have already caused a serious consequence, severely disrupting your rescue operations—for example, the supplies that were delayed by three days."

Nan Zhuren looked into the visitor's eyes: "Can I interpret it this way?"

The visitor pulled the zipper of his windbreaker down a little further, picked up the mineral water bottle in front of him, as if trying to extinguish some of his inner anger.

After taking a big gulp, he nodded vigorously: "Yes."

Nan Zhuren nodded.

Based on his previous statement that "hypnosis helped Captain Li get a good night's sleep," Nan Zhuren is now able to bypass some of the client's defenses and allow the other party to sit comfortably opposite him and accept his intervention.

But if you want to use techniques further, it's still not enough.

Nan Zhuren then continued to offer support to the visitor and made some self-disclosures: "It is indeed a headache to encounter such a colleague who drags you down at work. I have also encountered similar situations. To deal with such a complex situation, we need a very clear mind."

As he spoke, Nan Zhuren opened the folder in front of him and pulled out an A4 sheet of paper to cover the file.

"Whether we continue our current conversation or submit evidence as you suggested, we need more details. So—"

Nan Zhuren looked into the visitor's eyes and said, "If you could, could you help me go through our situation again in detail? Perhaps we can find a more effective coping strategy."

This statement seems to be exactly what the visitor wanted to hear.

The visitor nodded and took a deep breath: "How do I sort this out?"

Nan Zhuren said, "Let's start with your most conclusive evidence. You claim that 'they' deliberately withheld your supplies. What is the strongest and most direct evidence you have on this matter?"

The visitor answered quickly.

Without hesitation, as if repeating it countless times in his mind, he said, "What else could it be? The application I submitted a few days ago has been stuck on 'under review' ever since, dragging on and on! When I called to ask, they always evaded the question and never gave me a definite update!"

"And what about those supplies I just mentioned that were only approved three days later? How long was that? With a contingency plan in place, how could normal supply transport possibly take so long?!"

The visitor spoke not only quickly, but also very fluently.

However, what he said was no different from the statement that had already been made once.

Nan Zhuren then asked a crucial question that corroborated the information presented by the visitor and the file.

"So, what corresponding measures do you have to change this situation?"

The visitor responded quickly to the question. He first sighed and said, "This kind of thing... can't be thought about too much. I can't make too much of a fuss at this time. That might actually bring the whole work to a standstill for a while, and the losses would be even more incalculable. Professor Nan, you understand, right?"

"So all I can do is use every spare moment of my workday to report and urge them on. Whenever there's a meeting or anything like that, I bring it up, and I end up arguing with people about it almost every time."

“It may not be very useful, but at least I need to convey my situation and my attitude, otherwise no one will take it seriously.”

At this point, the visitor added, seemingly somewhat reluctantly, "I would repeatedly check every batch of supplies that was approved. I would check the supplies against the list, from quantity and model to shelf life. My subordinates would check it once, and then I would check it again myself."

The visitor suddenly sighed: "I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Although they were late, they didn't cut corners on the materials—that's a good thing, otherwise it would have harmed more people."

"But since they didn't cut corners, I couldn't catch them red-handed, and I had to keep putting up with their delays... Sigh!"

The visitor looked conflicted and let out a heavy sigh.

Nan Zhuren understood.

The issue has been verified.

……

When selecting files, Nan Zhuren was very selective.

He couldn't possibly rush over to provide psychological intervention when he knew almost nothing about the visitor.

This is irresponsible towards the visitors and also irresponsible towards the intervention.

The reason for choosing Team Leader Li as the target of intervention was that Nan Zhuren had already learned about the basic disaster relief work process through various channels as early as when Bei Du knew that he was going on a business trip.

This includes the allocation of supplies.

Meanwhile, the files in hand also contained notes on the allocation of supplies in various areas of the disaster zone as a form of verification.

From this perspective, although the instructors may be laymen in psychological assessment techniques, they are absolutely professional when it comes to factual verification.

Nan Zhuren concluded that the allocation of logistical supplies was normal.

The transportation conditions in the disaster area are difficult, and the pressure and congestion between multiple areas are highly variable. It is impossible for any supplies to arrive on demand as Team Leader Li said.

If a visitor still exhibits this reaction under normal circumstances, then their cognitive understanding is definitely problematic.

The other side clearly had a misunderstanding of the speed of logistical allocation, and even created a "hypothetical enemy" because of it.

After quickly reviewing the visitor's situation in my mind.

Nan Zhuren plans to try using Socratic questioning to make an initial intervention on Team Leader Li.

Socratic questioning is a core and powerful technique in cognitive behavioral therapy.

This is a counseling dialogue technique named after the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. Its core is not to impart answers, but to guide the client to conduct in-depth self-exploration through a series of carefully designed, open-ended, and systematic questions.

By using this questioning method, counselors can help clients examine their ingrained, often negative and rigid, thought patterns. The ultimate goal is to enable clients to discover the biases or illogicalities in their thinking, thereby proactively cultivating new, more realistic, and constructive understandings.

Following a step-by-step approach, the Socratic questioning method involves five main types of questions that will be presented sequentially during the consultation: "clarifying questions," "questions seeking evidence and counter-evidence," "exploratory questions," "questions assessing consequences," and "logical inquiry questions."

In the intervention just now, the dialogue between Nan Zhuren and the client already implicitly contained the first half of "clarifying questions" and "exploring evidence and counter-evidence questions", which were used to present the client's current misconceptions and the basis for the client's misconceptions.

The next step is to try to refute the visitor's misconceptions.

Then, use "exploratory questions," such as "Are there other possibilities for the delay in supplies?" to break the singularity of the visitor's thinking and guide the visitor to extend their understanding to new levels.

Then, use "consequence assessment questions" to present the possible consequences for the visitor to continue maintaining their current cognition, and finally use "logical inquiry questions" to expose the irrationality of the visitor's cognition.

Socratic questioning is not just a technique, but also a way of talking that can be hidden in every corner of consultation.

In theory, this is applicable to the current situation.

……

Having made up his mind, Nan Zhuren repeated what the visitor had just said:
"Well, you said that your application is always 'under review' and when you call to follow up, you are always given the runaround. So you think they are deliberately delaying it."

Nan Zhuren attempted a counter-argument: "I'm not very professional in this area. I'd like to ask if you know what the process is like for coordinators in other areas when they apply for supplies, and whether they receive the same treatment as you?"

Team Leader Li paused for a moment upon hearing this, then looked into Nan Zhuren's eyes and said, "Yes."

[Proof by contradiction] It seems to have succeeded.

But the look in Team Leader Li's eyes made Nan Zhuren's heart skip a beat.

Lean back slightly, squint slightly, and lower and furrow your brows.

[Lips tightly pursed, corners of the mouth slightly downturned, chin slightly raised.]

Is this [estrangement] and... [suspicion]?

Before Nan Zhuren could react, Team Leader Li suddenly said, "When I talked to our instructor before, he asked the same question as you."

As if a switch had been flipped, Team Leader Li responded instinctively, saying in quick succession, "Are you trying to say that the treatment in other areas is the same as mine, so our area isn't being deliberately targeted? Everyone's work is tough, right?"

"Then I would say that the fact that everyone's supplies are being allocated so slowly shows that there is a problem with the people in the rear."

"Then you'll try to persuade me, saying there might be other possibilities, like the pressure on the rear itself causing difficulties in resource allocation, or that inconvenient transportation on the road caused delays, or that something else happened that led to the current situation—"

"In short, the fault doesn't lie with those who allocated the supplies, but with me. My thinking was wrong, wasn't it?"

The visitor looked into Nan Zhuren's eyes: "Then you'll let me rest more, focus on the work at hand, and stop thinking about random things..."

……

Listening to the visitor's barrage of accusations.

Nan Zhuren blinked.

—This is bad.

Strictly speaking, Team Leader Li is right at this moment; that is indeed the procedure Nan Zhuren followed.

Many psychological intervention techniques are not actually that profound; people with some social experience or communication skills can use them in their daily lives.

Therefore, when learning psychological counseling skills, many people have thoughts like, "I think I already know this technique, so what's the point of learning it?"

This idea isn't wrong.

But just like how everyone knows that if you get cut by a knife, you need to disinfect, clean, and stitch the wound, very few people will do this process themselves and will choose to go to the hospital instead.

Because the same procedure can be performed with greater skill by the doctors. They can choose the most suitable sutures, suturing methods, and even the fewest stitches based on the location, size, and nature of the wound.

If an unprofessional, clumsy person were to haphazardly stitch up the wound, the best outcome would be an unsightly scar; at worst, the bleeding might not stop at all, requiring the stitches to be redone; and in the worst case, the wound might puncture something it shouldn't have, causing secondary trauma.

Clearly, Team Leader Li's instructor was a rough-and-tumble guy.

He had tried to persuade Team Leader Li with simple reasoning beforehand, but it was clearly ineffective and even made the situation worse.

This left Nan Zhuren, who was holding the needle and thread, somewhat at a loss, because the same treatment method was clearly no longer applicable.

This is also the situation that most consultants who "take on the blame" will encounter.

Simply using the Socratic questioning method won't work.

Nan Zhuren sighed inwardly—the form of this psychological intervention was not quite right.

In normal psychological counseling, the first two or three sessions are the stage of building a counseling relationship.

Once the counseling relationship is established, even if Nan Zhuren repeatedly uses the "Socratic questioning" as he is doing now, it will not provoke such a strong reaction from the client.

Based on a good counseling relationship, the client may even re-examine themselves.

Nan Zhuren has intervened in the first consultation before, but that was only after the client had a very strong desire to seek help, or after other circumstances that were conducive to advancing the process had occurred.

But right now, it's too hasty.

But there's no other way; in the current environment, we must shorten the data collection time and use rapid intervention methods to alleviate the visitor's condition in the short term.

This is also the difference between "psychological intervention" and long-term "psychological counseling".

Nan Zhuren took a deep breath, preparing to begin making amends.

……

In fact, if we look at the current situation objectively, it has both advantages and disadvantages.

The "disadvantages" have already been explained.

And "profit" is—

Nan Zhuren looked at Team Leader Li, who had taken off his jacket and tossed it aside because of the atmosphere and the heat, and saw that he looked like he was about to have a serious argument with him.

At least now the other party is no longer in the state of wanting to leave at any time when they first came in, but instead sees themselves as an adversary that needs to be confronted and persuaded.

This is actually a good thing.

(End of this chapter)