What does psychological counseling include?

If we want to draw a rough boundary for the scope of psychological counseling, it is actually far more than the "treatment of mental illness" in everyone's impression. It can range from daily emotional relief and entangled decision-making to trauma repair, personality adjustment, and even psychological support for specific groups and specific scenes, all of which fall within the scope of psychological counseling.

Many people are very nervous when entering the consultation room for the first time. They wave their hands and say "I'm not sick, I'm just a little annoyed lately" when they enter the door. In fact, there is no need to bear this burden at all. I often tell my clients that psychological counseling is like a comprehensive service station at the psychological level. If you have shoulder and neck pain, you can go to massage to relax. If you want to practice core training, you can find a personal trainer. If you really fall, you can do rehabilitation training. The same is true for psychological counseling. There is no so-called "entry threshold."

Last month, I met a young couple who were about to get married. They had been dating for three years and their relationship had been going well. However, they had been arguing about the bride price for almost two months. Even after talking to each other, they were still arguing. They both felt that the other party was inconsiderate of them, so they almost broke up. When we came for couple counseling, we did not persuade them to make peace or break up, but we just helped them dig out the concerns behind the "bride price" reason little by little - girls are afraid that the other person's family will not take them seriously and they will be wronged after getting married. ； Boys are afraid that after paying a large amount of betrothal gifts, the start-up capital of the small family will not be enough, and it will be difficult to have children and raise children in the future. After the two started talking, they realized that the other person was not the snobbish and cold-hearted person they thought they were. This type of relationship consultation is one of the types that account for the highest proportion of cases I receive on a daily basis.

Of course, there are also consultations that are more familiar to everyone and related to clinical intervention, that is, people who have been diagnosed with mild depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive problems in a psychiatric department, and cooperate with psychological counseling in accordance with the doctor's instructions. There was a client who worked in Internet sales before. After being complained by a customer with a bad attitude, he did not dare to make phone calls. His palms became sweaty and his heart beat faster when he pressed the dial button. The hospital checked and found no organic problems, and he was diagnosed with social anxiety. We used cognitive behavioral therapy for more than three months to slowly help him return to normal working conditions. This part of the consultation will focus more on the relief of symptoms and the recovery of social functions.

Interestingly, there is still a lot of debate in the industry about the boundaries of psychological counseling. For example, services that combine psychological counseling with mind-body and soul courses, tarot divination and even numerology analysis have become very popular in recent years. Some practitioners believe that as long as the client finds it useful and is not harmed, it can be combined flexibly and there is no need to stick to an evidence-based framework. ； However, some counselors who adhere to the evidence-based principle believe that such methods without academic research support should not be included in the scope of formal psychological counseling. It can easily mislead clients and even cause secondary harm. Currently, there is no unified consensus between the two parties.

What many people don’t know is that psychological counseling is not just about sitting one-on-one in a consulting room and chatting. A while ago, I followed a team to provide group psychological counseling to elderly people in the community who lost their only child, helping them slowly get over the pain of the death of their loved ones. ； There are also EAP services purchased by enterprises to provide group stress relief for employees who are stressed by working overtime. ； Even psychological rescue for disaster-stricken people and psychological correction for prisoners are actually branches of psychological counseling, but the scenarios and objects of service are different.

Occasionally, I will encounter visitors who ask me, "I just want to know whether to confess or whether psychological counseling is a waste of money." In fact, there are no fixed service standards. What you want is a place where you can safely express all your concerns, no one will judge you, and can help you figure out your true thoughts. This in itself is the core value of psychological counseling.