How many steps do
ordinary people need to seek professional psychological counseling services?
High-Energy Youth Nurture Notes: 10 Psychological Tools for You
at the Beginning of School Imagine that you feel as if you are “sick.” You come to Zhihu and search a lot of articles to read.
I see a lot of people with the same symptoms as you, and some of the descriptions make you feel like poking your knees.
But you are not getting better, or the problem is still not solved.
“I’ve heard a lot of truth, but I still can’t live a good life.”
I believe many people have this idea.
Then you realize that you may need to find a professional to solve the problem. However, the psychological institutions on the market are mixed, and advertisements are numerous.
It is a pity that we have not been able to provide an article that can solve your problem. I only hope that this article can accompany you for a while. Xu Biao, Master of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, who
has 5000 + hours of experience in psychological counseling, tells you how to choose the right counseling service from the perspective of practitioners.
1. How to judge whether psychological counseling
is needed 2. Where to find psychological counseling
3. How to screen professional psychological counselors
4. What price to choose psychological counseling
1. How to judge whether psychological counseling
is needed? When encountering psychological distress, how to judge whether it is worthwhile to adjust or spend money on psychological counseling? You can refer to the following four dimensions.
(1) Time dimension
Human psychology has the ability of self-digestion and self-healing. It is normal to encounter some unpleasant and negative life events, such as abnormal performance in important examinations, lovelorn, death of relatives, etc., for a period of time. It takes time for psychology to digest these effects.
Generally speaking, after self-adjustment for more than a month, the impact has not been alleviated, or even aggravated, which has a negative impact on many aspects of life, indicating that the psychological self-digestion and healing ability is difficult to effectively deal with the current problems.
Simply put, things are beyond the scope of a person’s tolerance. At this time, psychological counseling can be considered.
(2) Whether the serious dimension
feels that work, study or life has caused serious distress, or whether it is within the acceptable range.
Like a cold, if it is only a runny nose, although it is often uncomfortable to blow your nose, you may feel that you don’t need to take medicine; if you have fatigue all over, fever, loss of appetite, dizziness, which affects your life greatly, you may need to take medicine.
If you feel difficult to work, study, live normally, or are very painful and uncomfortable, and you can’t adjust yourself, you can consider psychological counseling.
(3) The economic dimension
will think of looking for psychological counseling, to a certain extent, it shows that the troubles are on the edge that they can not cope with. Psychological counseling is not cheap. If you can afford it, you can go directly to psychological counseling, just as the saying goes, “If you are sick, you can cure it; if you are not sick, you can strengthen your body.” If you need to seriously consider your financial situation, naturally you should give priority to self-regulation, reading books, music, sports, communication with relatives and friends, and so on.
If you find that this is not very helpful, you may really need to consider psychological counseling.
In addition, psychological counseling has the function of promoting personal growth, including getting out of the long-term heart knot, improving personality, promoting psychological maturity, and expanding the understanding of oneself. When economic conditions permit, even if there is no strong distress at present, it is also an optional way to receive psychological counseling and promote self-growth.
(4) Exclusion dimension
For those who have no reason for sudden psychological distress, there may actually be physical diseases, which need to be excluded first. If the trouble that is not affirmatory oneself is body reason, still be psychological reason, can see a doctor first (psychological division, mental division, psychosomatic division, different hospital name is different, can ask in register window).
For the first visit, all kinds of expenses generally add up to less than 200 yuan (different regions). If the doctor diagnoses that there is no physical problem and the trouble can not be dealt with by himself, psychological counseling can be considered.
2. Where to find psychological counseling
when you decide to seek psychological counseling, you can find it through the following channels.
(1) Hospitals
have psychological departments (or psychosomatic departments, psychiatric departments, etc., with different names) or mental health centers (some are called brain hospitals). Psychological counseling fees in
hospitals are lower than market fees, and they can use medical insurance, but they may have to queue up to make an appointment. Explain a bit:
The first, the psychological consultation of the hospital, from doctor income, open medicine one day to be able to see a few patients, do psychological consultation one day to treat 6-8 patients at most, income is much less. Therefore, many doctors are reluctant to do psychological counseling.
The 2nd, the study of psychological consultation, early expenses is very big, the hospital does not submit an expense account commonly, want to learn at one’s own expenses. For doctors, psychological counseling not only makes less money, but also costs more money. Therefore, there are not many doctors who really learn psychological counseling and understand psychological counseling.
Professionally speaking, doctors in hospitals can not guarantee their professionalism when they do psychological counseling. Of course, there are many professionals.
(2) Schools
are generally equipped with psychological teachers. If they are students or employees in school, they can try free psychological counseling in school first.
(3) Internet (Cautious)
Now people are used to searching on the Internet. Internet search for the top psychological counseling institutions, are to invest money to advertise, get the top ranking, need to choose carefully. Business profit, advertising investment must be earned back from visitors, professionalism may be damaged. Just like the businessmen who want to make money, they may provide inferior goods and infringe on the rights and interests of consumers.
Now there are several psychological counseling platforms, such as simple psychology, one psychology, psyBOND and so on. Psychological counselors on the platform, not all very professional, still need to pay attention to screening (how to screen, will be mentioned later). There are also many psychological counselors
on Zhihu. I think the better aspect than psychological counseling platform is that it has more intuitive feelings.
The psychological counseling platform introduces the educational background, training background and working experience of psychological counselors, which is very abstract and lacks the “feeling” of psychological counselors, and these aspects can not guarantee the professionalism of psychological counselors.
On Zhihu, you can “feel” a counselor through her answers: besides her professionalism, she also has a personal style. Of course, some psychological consultants on Zhihu also deliberately do marketing by answering questions and writing articles, and pay attention to the distinction. I would like
to add that sometimes you will see “psychological counselors registered by the Chinese Psychological Association”. Becoming a registered psychologist in the registration system is relatively professional and reliable. However, it does not absolutely represent professional qualification.
Just like students who are good at examinations, they may not necessarily have strong abilities, but may just have good memory and high level of examinations. The registered psychologist review mechanism of the registration system, which reviews the application materials, lacks the interview process and the learning process under supervision; the application materials may be “flooded”.
It’s not a slander on the registry system. I agree with the work of the registration system, but I just remind you not to blindly trust the counselors of the registration system. I have contacted the psychological counselors and supervisors of the registration system, and some of them are not professional.
(4) Recommend that
if someone around you has done psychological counseling, the improvement is good, and the psychological counselor who has been tested by practice is more reliable, you can let the other party introduce.
There are acquaintances engaged in psychological counseling, although they can not find each other-psychological counseling has the principle of avoiding dual relationships, relatives and friends do not do counseling-but they can recommend reliable counselors.
I would also recommend. If you need psychological counseling, you can send a private message to tell which city you are in, and if you know a local reliable psychological counselor, you can recommend it. If I advertise indiscriminately and the recommended counselor is unreliable, you can complain and report me to Zhihu.
3. How to screen professional counselors
? When you find a counselor through various channels, the channel can not guarantee the professionalism of the counselor, so you must screen the professional background of the counselor, identify whether it is reliable or not, and avoid wasting money. The professional background of
psychological counselors usually shows the following six parts: educational background, professional title, professional experience, training experience, supervision experience, and personal experience (or personal analysis).
Understanding the professional background of the psychological consultant is the visitor’s right to know, and he can ask the psychological consultant justifiably; the psychological consultant has the obligation not to charge before the formal consultation, and not to postpone the notification until after the paid consultation.
(1) Education background
Education background selection of professional psychological counselors, including psychology, psychiatry, etc., and psychological counselors with strong related majors are preferred to non-professional psychological counselors; psychological counselors with relevant professional background abroad are preferred to domestic psychological counselors.
Reminder: This priority is relative.
Some time ago, I saw in Zhihu that a psychological consultant faked his resume as a doctor of psychology from a well-known foreign university. If you come into contact with a psychological consultant with a background of studying abroad, you should also be more careful and not blindly believe. Even psychological counselors with formal background of studying abroad are not professional, so we should pay attention to distinguish them.
Non-professional psychological counselors are not all unprofessional. I have also come into contact with non-professional psychological counselors who have studied systematically and have solid professional abilities. If you are a non-professional psychological consultant, you can ask the other party how to learn this part of psychological knowledge and how long you have learned it. General psychology, developmental psychology, abnormal psychology, physiological psychology and other basic psychological knowledge need to be systematically studied to have a more comprehensive understanding of human psychology, which is conducive to the development of psychological counseling.
Nowadays, some postgraduate courses in psychology are only course training, which is not equivalent to obtaining a master’s degree. Some bad psychological counselors label the experience of attending such courses as “graduate students in psychology,” which confuses the public, and everyone should pay attention to distinguishing them.
As a visitor, he has the right to ask the counselor to provide the diploma and degree certificate of the educational background. If the other party is unwilling to provide, it can only show a guilty conscience. Counselors who can’t treat visitors sincerely at the beginning are too likely to be unreliable and can pass.
(2) Professional titles
The domestic psychological counseling industry lacks credibility. Many psychological counselors, in order to flaunt their profession to attract visitors and seize everyone’s trust in authority, like to crown themselves with various titles: professor, dean, director, president, chief, registered supervisor & # x2F; psychologist.. Grand
pa Teng once said, “No matter whether a cat is black or white, it is a good cat that catches mice.” No matter how many titles you have, it only depends on whether the consultation is helpful and whether the consultation fee is worth it. Do you have time to do psychological counseling when you have more
administrative positions? Many titles, consulting ability must be strong? Not necessarily.
Even the Chinese Mental Health Association and the Chinese Psychological Association, which are relatively authoritative associations closely related to psychological counseling, are “demeaning themselves.”. The rest of the relevant “professional” associations in Taiwan lack even more credibility in their professionalism. You can find some information
on the Internet. The registration system established by the two associations, whether registered supervisors or registered psychologists, can not guarantee their professional competence. Visitors trust the psychological counselors approved by the registration system based on their trust in the “national name” associations. However, the two major “national name” associations have failed to take a responsible attitude toward the visitors and strictly control the examination and verification barriers, resulting in unreliable “registered” psychological counselors infringing on the interests of the visitors. The titles of various associations
in China, like the second-level national psychological counselors, can not prove their professional competence. Some bad psychological counselors take advantage of people’s trust in foreign standards, through information asymmetry, it is difficult to falsify foreign associations, and flaunt the titles of some foreign associations. Similarly, regardless of whether your title is true or false, visitors only look for advice and help. As for the chief and senior, there is a lack of credibility endorsement. It is half the effort to distinguish the professional ability of psychological counselors
through professional titles. Here’s a simple tip: ignore your professional title. Do not use professional titles as a reference standard to distinguish the professional competence of psychological counselors, so that those unreliable psychological counselors can make a lot of efforts to get a lot of titles and enjoy themselves.
(3) Working
experience Working experience is generally marked with the number of years of practice or the total number of consulting hours.
Some psychological counselors claim that they have been working for more than ten years, maybe only in medicine for more than ten years, or in education for more than ten years, but they count these work experiences as psychological counseling experience; Some psychological counselors multiply the number of hours of group counseling by the number of people to falsely increase the number of hours of counseling. For example, group counseling for 8 people, 1.5 hours & # x2F; times, originally can only be counted as 1.5 hours, but counted as: 1.5 × 8 & # x3D; 12 hours.
To identify the “moisture” in the experience of psychological counselors, visitors can ask:
full-time or part-time counseling; where to consult, institutions, schools, hospitals or individuals; how long to consult in different places; individual counseling, partner counseling, family counseling or group counseling. As far as the place of consultation is concerned, the number of consultation is sorted as follows: hospital > school > institution (individual practice is quite different).
Full-time counseling is generally estimated to be 4-6 hours & # x2F; days and 20-30 hours & # x2F; weeks. Most counselors are saturated with 20 hours & # x2F; weeks, or the maximum amount of counseling. Based on 50 weeks of work a year (usually less), 1000 hours & # x2F; of consulting per year is the upper limit. (Partner counseling and family counseling are generally 1.5-2 hours & # x2F; times, and may be 6 hours & # x2F; days).
Unless you work in a hospital, the consultation volume is easy to be saturated. In the first five years of their career, it is difficult for most psychological counselors to reach the saturation of 1000 hours of counseling; if they are not working in hospitals or schools, the maximum number of counseling hours in the first five years of their career is about 200-300 hours of counseling.
The visitor can ask about the counseling experience of the psychological counselor and where he/she has accumulated the experience, and roughly estimate whether the counseling experience of the other party is “water injection” based on the standard of less than 1000 hours & # x2F; years (300 hours & # x2F; years in the first five years of his/her career);
Some unreliable psychological counselors may quibble and say, “Why do you say that 1000 hours & # x2F; year is the upper limit of counseling? Who are you? My workload can exceed 1000 hours a year.”.
I’m sorry, that’s not what I said. Whether they are industry leaders, supervisors or peers, most of them feedback that 20 hours & # x2F; week is the saturation workload. Generally, 700-800 hours & # x2F; per year, the consulting volume is saturated. Visitors can be justified and use my estimated data as a reference.
(4) Training experience
The common “water injection” method of training experience for psychological counselors is to mark how many years they have participated in a certain training, which shows that the training time is long.
In-country training is often not continuous on a weekly basis. For example, three years of training may only be two times a year, one training for three days, and the total training for three years is only 18 days. Others have accumulated a lot of short workshops of 2 or 3 days. Short-term workshops are helpful to improve professional competence, but they are like snacks, not staple food, which is systematic training. There is no strict definition of
what kind of training is systematic training. According to my personal experience, according to 6 hours & # x2F; days, not less than 10 days, that is, 60 hours of training, I can have a basic grasp of a therapy and technology, and then use it skillfully through continuous supervision. Qualified professional psychological counselors have accumulated no less than 200 hours of systematic training.
Visitors can ask about the training experience of psychological counselors, the total number of days of training; if it is online training (for example, affected by the epidemic, the training is mostly conducted online), the total number of hours. Based on this calculation, the total number of hours of systematic training for psychological counselors over 60 hours.
60 hours are counted as systematic training, which is my subjective experience; the accumulated 200 hours of systematic training is not proposed by me, but by some industry experts and institutional standards. Referring to industry training, the length of systematic training is generally high but not low.
(5) Supervising experience
How many hours is the supervised experience of psychological counselors usually written in general. Supervisory experience includes individual supervision, group supervision and peer supervision. Individual and group supervision refers to the acceptance of more experienced counselors, usually those who have worked for more than 10 years, to provide guidance for the difficulties encountered in counseling; peer supervision refers to peers with similar experience who provide guidance to each other.
Supervision hours generally refer to individual and group supervision, not including peer supervision; group supervision generally does not exceed 10 people, if a large number of group supervision training experience is more than 10 people, the effect of supervision is greatly reduced.
For the supervision experience of psychological counselors, visitors can specifically ask:
whether it is individual supervision or group supervision, about how many hours; how many people are supervised by the group; whether they continue to accept supervision now, whether it is individual or group supervision; If you are a counselor for more than 5 years, how often do you receive supervision now.
If a counselor says that he does not need supervision, such a counselor should not be considered. I have come into contact with many of my predecessors who have been working for decades, but they still accept supervision. Those psychological counselors who are boastful and do not need supervision are ignorant or fearless.
(6) Personal experience & # x2F; analysis
Personal analysis & # x2F; experience refers to the psychological counseling provided by a senior psychological counselor as a visitor. This is not a requirement for all counselors, but a training requirement for individual schools. Psychoanalytic & # x2F; dynamic-oriented psychological counselors, personal analysis & # x2F; experience is a must, if lacking, carefully choose psychoanalytic & # x2F; dynamic-oriented psychological counselors; humanistic oriented psychological counselors, also need to accept personal analysis & # x2F; experience.
Even if the training system of foreign counselors is mature, there will be unreliable counselors. The above screening methods can not guarantee that the qualified counselors will be reliable, but they can help visitors avoid detours and spend less money.
4. Choose what price of psychological counseling
, domestic psychological counseling fees, hundreds of thousands of yuan a time, some even tens of thousands. This charge is higher than average charge of the psychological counseling industry in the United States, which belongs to the abnormal development. Taking advantage of the public’s lack of understanding of psychological counseling and their belief that “the more expensive, the better,” many unscrupulous counselors charge high fees.
Psychological counseling industry is not the higher the fees, the more professional. Professional qualified psychological consultants, fees are basically in the range of 300-800 yuan, higher or lower than this fee of psychological consultants, should be carefully chosen. Fees within
this qualified range are not low, which include: learning costs such as training and supervision of psychological counselors; site costs of psychological counselors; and percentage of institutions or platforms. For a number of reasons, it is difficult for the consultation fee to be less than 200 yuan, otherwise it is difficult to maintain the survival of a professional psychological consultant.
I personally think that the cost of face-to-face consultation in first-tier cities is 500 yuan & # x2F; times, and that in non-first-tier cities is 200-500 yuan & # x2F; times; the cost of online consultation is low, which can be lower than that of face-to-face consultation. Such fees can keep counselors alive while making them affordable for most visitors. For senior psychological consultants, the fees can be raised appropriately. When
seeking psychological counseling, within the range of 300-800 yuan & # x2F; times, you can choose the fees you can afford and choose professional psychological counselors. There is no need to reluctantly find psychological counselors with high fees. Psychological counselors with high fees and fame sometimes treat visitors with less care than novice psychological counselors.
What suits you is the best.
If it is still difficult to bear the psychological counseling charge of 300-800 yuan & # x2F; times, you can first find the psychological counseling of the hospital, which is generally lower than market charge; if you are a student, you can first try the school psychological counseling, which is free of charge; if the group counseling charge is lower than individual counseling, you can ask the hospital or psychological institution whether there is group counseling; Novice consultants who are receiving training and have not yet reached the level of qualified consultants, charging about 100 yuan & # x2F; times, can also be considered, but to find a novice consultant who receives individual supervision every week, professionalism is guaranteed.
Warm tips:
1, less than 300 yuan & # x2F; times, or more than 800 yuan & # x2F; times, there are also professional psychological consultants, but the overall proportion is less, the choice should be more careful. For example, a novice psychological consultant under supervision, or a professional psychological consultant in a city below the fifth tier, where the overall income of residents is lower, may also charge 200 yuan & # x2F; times; a senior psychological consultant with more than 10 years may charge more than 800 yuan & # x2F; times.
2. Psychological consultants who charge 300-800 yuan & # x2F; times are also unprofessional, and the charge can not be used as a standard to judge whether they are professional or not.
3. Professional psychological consultants with a charge range of 300-800 yuan & # x2F; will determine the charge price according to different cities and their own considerations. It does not mean that the higher the charge, the stronger the professional ability of the psychological consultant. I have been in contact with senior psychological consultants for more than 10 years, and the charge is still 500 yuan & # x2F; there are also psychological consultants for 4 or 5 years, and the charge is 700 or 800 yuan & # x2F; Times.
Record No.: YX01zPLQYeGYkdW2
V High-energy Youth Development: 10 Psychological Tools for You
at the Beginning of School, Xiong Qixi Festival, etc.
