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

Chapter 625 Everyone's work is progressing steadily, and the future is promising!

As far as Nan Zhuren's own work is concerned, this is the smoothest transition.

He finished his own file visit just as Chonghui finished collecting data from the rescue team.

Next, I worked with my research group to intervene in the "Dragon King" [mass hysteria] of the elderly.

Before moving on to the next task, Nan Zhuren had one more thing to do—to evaluate Li Lingling.

After all, in the intervention plan for Li Lingling, Nan Zhuren's first stage was to help Li Lingling complete her initial healing by taking care of children. After she had accumulated a certain amount of psychological energy, he invited Li Lingling to participate in the subsequent psychological intervention process.

Li Lingling's current condition is sufficient to pass Nan Zhuren's assessment and complete the first phase.

However, "inviting" Li Lingling actually carries a small risk.

That is, Li Lingling might be immersed in her current interaction with children, and revel in the healing feeling brought about by that similar experience.

Fortunately, what Li Lingling just said provided Nan Zhuren with a good starting point.

Nan Zhuren thought for a moment and said, "It seems that this job adjustment is very suitable for you."

Li Lingling nodded, her face full of gratitude: "I also want to thank Teacher Nan. I really feel much better now."

Li Lingling's job transfer was requested by Nan Zhuren through the camp leader. This was part of the intervention plan for Li Lingling, and Nan Zhuren naturally communicated with Li Lingling herself as well.

“Based on my observation just now, you have completed this stage of the task and can now move on to the next stage of work,” Nan Zhuren added.

Li Lingling's grateful expression indeed paused.

Seeing Li Lingling's hesitant expression as if she wanted to say something, Nan Zhuren knew without a doubt that she had already come up with countless excuses to avoid the situation.

It takes a lot of courage to leave your comfort zone.

The attitude shifted from "I'm not ready yet" to "The children might not be able to adapt if I suddenly leave" to external concerns.

It is essential to get Li Lingling out of her current environment. Although the current environment has provided her with healing, this dependence on it is very dangerous.

At this point, the things that Nan Zhuren had previously kept quiet about came into play.

Before Li Lingling could find an excuse and open her mouth to shirk responsibility, Nan Zhuren preemptively said, "You just said that there's a child named Xiao Juan who always talks about 'dragon ribbons,' right?"

Li Lingling's attention was indeed drawn away: "Yes..."

Nan Zhuren looked worried: "The group I'm going to intervene in next is experiencing the same problem. I don't know if you've ever heard of the concept of 'mass hysteria'..."

Nan Zhuren first gave Li Lingling a brief explanation of the meaning of the term.

"This is a very disturbing phenomenon. When this happens in a disaster area, it can easily spread like a plague. The reason I noticed it is because this kind of local religious belief has already affected the rescue workers..."

Nan Zhuren explained softly.

Although Li Lingling will later join the psychological intervention work, she will still need to conceal key information from her previous clients.

However, when keywords such as "Dragon King" and "Dragon Ribbon" appeared, Li Lingling was quickly drawn to them.

This is an important transitional bridge connecting Li Lingling's current work environment with her next stage of work.

Listening to Nan Zhuren's story, Li Lingling couldn't help but turn around and glance at the little girl named Xiao Juan—the little girl was swinging her newly tied braids, and her face was unusually sunny.

“Teacher Nan,” Li Lingling suddenly said, “you said before that my next phase of work would be doing psychological intervention with you, right? Will I be involved in this [mass hysteria] issue?”

“Yes.” Nan Zhuren nodded.

"So, how far along is the work on this [mass hysteria]?"
-
The sun only peeked out briefly in the sky above the camp before quickly darkening again.

Next to the resettlement site, a tent was set up to serve as a temporary meeting room, and the air was filled with the sweet aroma of instant coffee.

Inside the tent, Professor Ji looked at the other experts and teachers present.

The other experts and teachers were also looking at Professor Ji.

Their eyes met in a subtle exchange, and they basically understood what had happened.

Professor Ji has already established the organizational framework for psychological assistance. Now that he doesn't need to oversee the organizational aspects all the time, he's handed the reins over to his students. And now he wants to get a piece of the pie in the [mass hysteria] project!
The same is true.

After laying a solid foundation over several days, Professor Ji only needed to leave behind a disciple named Yi Jin Jiao to maintain normal operations; he could even use his familiarity with the organization's operations to have Yi Jin Jiao temporarily hold off Weng Pingting—she might be suppressed, but she could hold her off!
In this way, Professor Ji can be freed up to personally engage in the intervention of "mass hysteria" and take the lead over Bai Qinghua and his team in this project!
"First of all, thank you all very much for taking the time to attend this phase summary meeting. I know you are all very busy with your work." Professor Ji looked around.

He knew that his voice had been diminished within the psychological intervention team, so he adopted a very humble attitude.

However, he remained the chairperson of the meeting.

"The issue of 'mass hysteria' is not a trivial matter. If we are to intervene together, appropriate communication is necessary. After all, we need to submit a report to the leaders here at each stage so that they know what we have done."

The reasons are also quite reasonable.

"We've been working on the issue of 'mass hysteria' for a few days now. It's a very difficult problem, but I think that with our professional expertise, all aspects of our work should be progressing steadily and we should have already seen some initial results."

Professor Ji looked around and said, "How about we all share our progress and... um... encouraging observations?"

The expert teachers looked at each other but didn't say much.

Everyone's expressions were strange.

This strangeness caused Professor Ji to slowly furrow her brow.

So he turned his attention to one of the expert teachers present, someone he usually collaborated with, hoping that the other person could help him out of this almost frozen atmosphere.

"Old Sun?" Professor Sun, who was called upon by Professor Ji, pursed his lips, his face seemingly a little stiff: "Alright, then I'll set an example first."

Professor Sun raised his hand, and immediately one of his students handed him a folder.

"Our group's research usually leans towards application, and we are quite good at the cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in psychological counseling, which everyone knows."

Everyone nodded, and the strange expressions on the other professors' faces immediately disappeared, replaced by seriousness.

In such situations, it's important to listen carefully to the reports from the application direction group, as you might need their help later.

Once the article is published, I can publish a sequel.

“Our CBT group’s work focuses on cognitive restructuring,” Professor Sun said. “It involves systematically identifying and challenging the automatic negative thoughts and irrational core beliefs that lead to negative emotions and behaviors, and then establishing more realistic cognitive patterns to alleviate symptoms.”

"In this resettlement site, the villagers' irrational belief is that it is 'Dragon King's punishment.' Therefore, the core goal of our group is to guide the intervention subjects to identify and initially challenge the automatic negative thinking associated with 'disaster attribution,' such as attributing bodily sensations to 'divine punishment.'"

“In the past few days, we have distributed automated negative thought record sheets to individuals who have a ‘dragon scale pattern’ perception, guiding them to conduct self-monitoring of the ‘cognitive triangle’.”

The Cognitive Triangle is a visual model used in psychological education to explain to clients how thoughts, emotions, and behaviors influence each other.

“I hope these villagers can understand that their fear and scratching behavior stem from the irrational idea of ​​‘Dragon King’s punishment’ rather than a real physical phenomenon.”

"As for the effects..." Professor Sun paused slightly, "some individuals showed a transitional period in their understanding of the concept of [cognitive reconstruction]. But we believe that this is a necessary cognitive enlightenment process."

It sounds like they've encountered some difficulties.

"But there is still progress," Professor Ji nodded. He seemed to want to give his old acquaintance a look of approval and encouragement, but Professor Sun's gaze was unfocused, and he didn't meet his eyes at all.

eccentric.

Before Professor Ji could think further about what was wrong with Professor Sun,

Following Professor Sun's lead, another professor began his report.

“Our research group also provides training in psychological counseling, and we usually use the concept of ‘humanism’ quite often.”

The professor giving the report, surnamed Wang, had a kind of... indescribable fatigue on his face.

However, he spoke quite quickly during his report: "The basic principle of humanistic therapy is to create a safe psychological environment by providing a counseling relationship based on sincerity, empathy, and unconditional positive regard, believing that the individual's inherent tendency toward self-actualization will drive them toward growth and recovery..."

Professor Ji frowned slightly. Even though he wasn't good at counseling, he knew what "human-centered" was all about.

Why does this person explain such basic things in such detail, like a master's student making small talk during a group meeting report?
“At this facility, we primarily employ a ‘person-centered’ approach of listening and empathetic support… We have observed that individuals experiencing symptoms generally exhibit high levels of emotional arousal and a sense of unrecognized distress.”

"So first, we don't give guidance or advice, but rather make the villagers feel deeply understood through [reflexive responses]; at the same time, we create a safe space so that their fear, helplessness and other emotions can be fully vented and expressed, reducing the psychological pressure caused by emotional repression."

"It is expected that after venting, villagers will spontaneously begin to think about how to coexist with or overcome the symptoms and reconnect with their inner resources."

"In general, the goal is to alleviate loneliness by establishing a high-quality counseling relationship, providing emotional support to villagers so that they can spontaneously move towards recovery," Professor Wang said. "Through in-depth listening, we have initially established a relatively stable counseling relationship with them, allowing them to describe their feelings in more detail and specific terms."

Professor Ji blinked.

I said a lot, but it was as if I said nothing at all.

This group is just for chatting, and we haven't even talked about anything. At this stage, it's like we haven't done anything at all.

This is essentially a weaker version of Bai Qinghua's group, no wonder... they're making small talk.

Professor Ji disagreed.

After the first two professors set an example, another professor wearing thick glasses looked around and said, "Then I'll go next."

"Oh, it's Old Li." Professor Ji sat up straight, showing interest.

“Our team focused on trying out biofeedback technology at this resettlement site.” Professor Li adjusted his glasses. “The first two people have already explained the principles, so I’ll add my two cents as well—biofeedback is from the field of physiological psychology. The intervention principle is to use instruments to provide real-time feedback on an individual’s physiological state, such as skin conductance, heart rate, and electromyography, through visual or auditory signals, helping the individual learn to consciously regulate the autonomic nervous system’s response, thereby alleviating anxiety and related physical symptoms.”

This is a research group that focuses on physiological psychology.

All research groups that involve physiological and neural mechanisms occupy a leading position in the academic ecosystem of psychology.

Because it's easy for them to publish articles.

"Our group hypothesizes that by allowing individuals to visually see the correlation between their 'dragon's suffocation' sensation and physiological indicators such as breathing patterns and skin conductance, we can enhance their understanding of the controllability of the symptoms and demystify them."

"After completing this step, guide them to practice techniques such as diaphragmatic breathing and progressive muscle relaxation. When they do it correctly, the curve on the screen will flatten out—this provides immediate and objective positive feedback."

"It is expected that through this method, we can demystify all symptoms related to the 'Dragon King' and prove that they are controllable physiological phenomena rather than supernatural 'magic power,' thereby enhancing the individual's sense of self-efficacy and reducing anxiety."

Professor Li's presentation was arguably the most rigorous, organized, and academically sound of all the reports presented.

Professor Ji raised an eyebrow, feeling that a deep collaboration with this research group was possible: "So, Professor Li, how far have you progressed?"

Professor Li's face once again displayed that strange expression that Professor Ji couldn't understand: "Currently... the equipment is operating normally, and data collection is progressing steadily."

Professor Li added, "There is a certain cultural adaptation threshold for local residents to accept the new monitoring equipment, which we are trying to overcome."

Professor Ji nodded thoughtfully.

He glanced into the tent; only one research group remained to present. If he remembered correctly, the advisor for this group was surnamed Wu, and he researched cultural psychology.
Is it because there are no achievements?

Before Professor Ji could ask a question, Professor Wu sighed heavily: "Everyone, can we... stop beating around the bush?"

(End of this chapter)