Peer consulting, originated in the United States in the 1960s. In response to the growing demand for campus counseling, this form of emphasis on "talking" and "dealing with emotions" came into being.
When it comes to peer counseling, many college students' first instinct is distrust. "Lack of professionalism and empathy ability", "will divulge their secrets", "embarrassment because of classmate status", etc., these are real doubts.
How long does it take to train non-professional students to become peer counselors who can counsel strangers and can cope with suicide crises? How are they different from counselling teachers?
Students consult with students
In high school, teachers like to say, "When you go to college, you'll be liberated."
But Shang Peng's college life was not satisfactory. He always seemed to be haunted by all kinds of troubles, and each day was more tired and harder than the day before.
He wanted to talk to his friends, but he was afraid of being told that he was being pretentious. I also thought about whether to go to school for psychological counseling, but the appointment was already scheduled for a few weeks later.
Until one day, emotions pile up to an unbearable threshold. He came to the "Peer Counseling Room" on campus, a room he had passed by several times but had not entered because of various concerns, and was now within easy reach.
He pushed the door in and there was a couch inside. Behind the table facing him sat a young counselor, as old as he was, a student at the school.
Shang Qian talked for a long time, and a brain poured out all the recent troubles. When he finally stopped, the counselor looked him in the eye and said seriously, "After listening to you say so much, I think you are really hard."
In an instant, he actually had a sour nose and cried out.
On this day, the unfamiliar concept of "peer counseling" entered the life of Shangpeng for the first time.
Peer counseling is an import of the Western education system, translated from the English word "Peer Counselling". Between the mid-1960s and 1988, suicide rates among U.S. teens ages 15 to 19 tripled. In response to the growing demand for psychological counseling on campus, this form of "allowing students to counsel students" came into being.
If a person has emotional problems, but does not want or can not meet the formal psychological counseling, hope to first in a safe and confidential space, talk to their peers, you can choose peer counseling. Some schools have specific rooms where visitors can communicate face-to-face, while others do so by phone, voice or text.
Although students from the same school, the counselor will make sure that they do not know each other. You can't know who he is, but what you can trust is that he does have the ability to consult for you.
Usually, to become a regular peer counselor, you must first go through the interview screening, and then receive tens to hundreds of hours of training, focusing on the ability to listen, empathize, and refer.
From emotional problems in everyday life, to sexual anxiety, depression, eating disorders, bereavements, to crisis interventions such as self-harm and suicide, peer counselors are prepared.
Che Ran, 21, who just graduated from a university in Guangdong last year, assisted her psychology teacher in more than 20 peer psychological counseling sessions, four or five of which were crisis situations that required immediate intervention or even hospital treatment.
Some students were committing suicide and took pictures and passed them on to her; others got excited and picked up scissors and pointed them at Che Ran. "At this time, the average student is already panicked. But I've been through crisis times myself, and I want to reach out and grab them and see if they're willing to give it to me."
Experienced, she repeatedly confirmed two questions to me: Who are the "peers" we are talking about? What is the specific form of "peer counseling"?
Her doubts reflect the current development of peer counseling in Chinese mainland. This vague new concept, which has not yet been clearly defined, is often confused with "peer mentoring" and "peer mutual assistance."
Some scholars have summarized the characteristics of peer counseling: focusing on cultivating personal adaptability, not interfering with value, and passively waiting for the arrival of clients. These three points are very characteristic of Western culture, and they are destined to go through a long process of digestion in our country.
Peer counseling entered the Chinese mainland, almost at the beginning of this century. Judging from the results of CNKI's paper search, since 2003, only sporadically explored its localization possibilities.
Rather than peer counselling, mainland students are more familiar with the term "psychological committee", and one person from each class is selected to take up this position. The original intention of the setting was to hope that the tentacles of the campus mental health system would penetrate deep into the class, early detection, early reporting, but this position is in many cases useless.
A college student from Hunan said: "The psychological committee of our school is only responsible for uploading and distributing questionnaires, and has no practical effect."
In his 2008 paper, one researcher proposed: "In the idea of setting up psychological committees, we should change management into service and learn from the concept of peer counseling." But more than a decade later, most colleges and universities are still exploring peer counseling.
A college psychology teacher believes that it is this translated name that discourages some school leaders. "The word 'peer' sounds particularly unprofessional. It's not, it's a quasi-professional thing."
Although other schools are willing to try, they lack the whole process of screening, training, motivation, and tracking, and cross the river by feeling the stones, and there is no climate.
In July 2021, the Ministry of Education document required colleges and universities to have full-time teachers of mental health education according to a teacher-student ratio of not less than 1:4000, but this ratio is still low, about 1/3 of the United States.
Will peer counseling be a possible way out to deal with psychological problems in colleges and universities?
Reasons to reject it
Why are some students reluctant to come to peer counseling?
Chen Yun is a master's student at a university in Nanjing. In the spring of 2021, her close friend jumped to her death. When she got off the school bus with red eyes, a classmate who also got off the bus at this stop came to talk to her.
"The classmate asked me in a very lively and cheerful tone, 'Little sister, why are you crying?' I heard that a guy jumped down today, do you know that?" 」
During those days, such conversations happened so often that they almost drained her energy. Even her junior high school classmates came to interrogate her: "Did your classmate jump off the building and was squeezed by the teacher?" Did you choose the wrong major?"
In this environment, Chen Yun has a hard time believing that he can get support from the so-called "peers".
Not without thirst. She wants a "container-like" peer to listen to her pain, a person who "has to be sincere and kind and not try to project himself into it."
"But there are too few people who can do this definition," Chen Yun did not hope for this, "and I don't want others to become unhappy, and they don't owe me."
According to a questionnaire conducted at a university in southwest China, only 47% of students were aware of the existence of peer counseling, and more than 50% of students said they were not sure whether its effect was good or bad.
Among the reasons for rejecting it, 34% of students chose "lack of knowledge and ability of peers", which was the most common one. This was followed by "fear of secrets being leaked by peers" and "peers are too familiar and embarrassed", accounting for 27% and 24.4%, respectively.
Even in schools with separate, confidential peer counseling rooms, students can stumble upon a sense of sickness and shame.
A classmate of the National People's Congress said that every time she passed the peer counseling room, she would hesitate to go in this time, so she walked back and forth several times.
"If I enter this hut and am seen by a classmate I know, will others think that there is something wrong with me?" How am I going to explain it to them?"
In Che Ran's observation, most of her peers around her know nothing about mental illness, and even basic empathy and secrecy cannot be done, "even some students will joke about mental illness after accepting popular science."
At the same time, she also found another limitation of peer counseling: "Children with real emotional disorders may be reluctant to communicate too much with their peers." They're just going to say something irrelevant and bury what they really want to talk about."
In the 2021 graduation season, Che Ran went to the dormitory next door to find friends to play. The friend's bed was surrounded by a thick blackout curtain, and there was no breath of life in sight, only a trace of the light of the lamp.
With the experience of peer counseling, Che Ran immediately caught the abnormal signal, and she asked the person next to her, "How long has she not been out of bed?"
The other person said, "It's been a few days."
Che Ran quickly pulled open the tent and dragged her friend out, only to learn that she had not been out of the dormitory for a month, nor had she attended classes, but was just lying in bed in a daze.
A friend told Che Ran that he was actually aware of depression, but he didn't know who to go to for help.
Che Ran said, "You can find roommates and teachers."
The friend replied indifferently, "I don't want to."
Some kind of overlap of fate seemed to hit Che Ran, and she suddenly remembered her own hair small.
At that time, it had been several months since Fa Xiao committed suicide.
"The two cases are so similar, everyone has known each other for so long and are so familiar", but they never took the initiative to confide in Che Ran.
"Sick children don't want to talk to someone", this is Che Ran's view from practice, not necessarily a universal fact. But if we trace the precursors of this view, we may have to return to the group impression of college students of their peers.
"Lack of empathy", "unprofessionalism", "secret leaks", "joking about mental illness" are the factors that make it difficult for some students to ask their peers for help.
After this, Che Ran had a question: From such soil, can we really give birth to "peer counselors" who can help classmates?
The beginning of a project
If you ask Zhou Li, a professor at the Mental Health Education and Counseling Center at Chinese Min University, she will tell you with certainty: Yes.
Big Man's Peer Cottage.
Source: "RUC Peer Cottage" public number
This is the counseling hut under the Npc Peer Psychology Center, and 2021 is its tenth year. Zhou Li is the teacher in charge of this project and the instructor of the "Peer Counseling Skills" class in the school.
In the spring of 2010, Zhou Li's student office held a meet-and-greet in which a Stanford university alumnus was invited to promote peer counseling. "She Chinese and whispered in English, we didn't understand it halfway, and we didn't expect it to be followed."
A few months later, at a working meeting, the then deputy director of student affairs brought up Stanford's peer counseling program and asked for their opinions. When it was Zhou Li's turn, she said, "I don't understand it too much, but it should be good, after all, it's Stanford's."
Because of this sentence, she was appointed as the head of the first workshop, and since then she has begun a decade of dating with her peers.
In the first workshop, when practicing the "Emotion Processing" module, Zhou Li participated in the interaction and played the role of a visitor.
The person who played the counselor asked her, "Last time you were anxious, what did you do to adjust your emotions?"
She replied, "I've had something delicious."
The other person asked, "So, how does eating make you feel better?"
Zhou Li couldn't help but think of those fragrant and steaming food pictures, "suddenly found that her attention was diverted from anxiety."
She began to feel that this new model from the United States was really effective.
In the Stanford model, the "ICAD" four-step method of dealing with emotions.
Source: RUC Peer Cottage Public Number
Before the workshop was over, a student came up to her and said, "Teacher Zhou, I think this is really good, if the NPC also has one."
Zhou Li thought, "There are students who have proposals again, and there are ready-made materials, so it is better to report this course."
From the initial exposure to the Stanford model in 2010, to the workshop held in the fall of the same year, and the opening of elective courses in the spring of 2011, peer counseling has progressed very smoothly in the NPC, thanks to the power of top-down.
At that time, the project was promoted by Zhang Xiaojing, the director of the student office who had just been in office for two years.
In Zhou Li's mouth, she is a teacher who is willing to learn from overseas experience and try to localize, "She is very willing to let students participate in education." At that time, peer counseling had always been the favored one in the student programs she was in charge of."
Zhou Li believes that strong administrative leadership can provide resources and guarantees for the operation of the project. "Professor Stanford can come to our school four times and give students summer lessons, which is inseparable from Mr. Xiaojing. She went to push the school level and won funding and opportunities."
At that time, the psychological counseling center had no room, "Teacher Xiaojing went to communicate with the student dormitory", and two rooms were vacated to be used as consultation rooms, which was later the peer cottage.
The leaders above can see the value of the project and are willing to exert efforts on the mental health of students, and the teachers and students below must also have the ability and enthusiasm to implement and be able to catch it.
At that time, the National People's Congress was working hard to evaluate the "double first-class", and carried out many overseas research projects for cadres and teachers, and the whole school was in an open and international atmosphere.
Zhou Li also executed with a 23-year-old colleague, an undergraduate student in international relations at Renmin University, who has just returned from a master's degree in psychology in the United States, with both professional ability and international vision, and especially able to mingle with students.
The enthusiasm of the students was also high, "they also helped translate the teaching materials at the beginning, and even went to the principal to promote this matter."
Top-down opportunities and resources, bottom-up needs and feedback, this up-and-down pipeline has helped Peer Consulting gain a foothold in the NPC.
How to become a peer counselor
Zhou Li's peer counseling skills class is taught in small classes, with about 30 people in a class. Most of the students in the first phase came from within the Psychology Department and the Psychology Center, and their praise spread out, attracting students from many other departments to study.
By the time the project was running in its third year, it was already famous on campus.
When new students were recruited in the spring of 2012, nearly 150 students enrolled. Zhong Xuan was in the third year of the Chinese Department at that time, and had already passed the normal registration grade. In order to join the project, she came to the classroom to observe every step of the day, "soft and hard bubbles for the teacher". Zhou Li was impressed by her enthusiasm and passed her interview to join the project.
Every week, Zhong Xuan takes a 3-hour core course and does 2 hours of simulated counseling exercises. In addition, there are 3 hours to participate in the "sec" - a practice period without a teacher, where students need to carry out their own activities, review the knowledge in the classroom, or discuss the problems encountered.
In class, the first thing you learn is the eight "precepts" of ethics: don't judge, don't give personal advice, don't ask questions that begin with "why", don't take responsibility for another person's problem, don't explain; empathize, focus on the here and now, and deal with emotions first.
How to discuss emotions is the first puzzle for students. Because many people grow up in a lack of such education.
When he first started learning, Zhong Xuan was blunt in everything he said, and there was always a "translation cavity".
So she ran to the peer hut and chatted with the different counselors, observing their questioning.
"Some counselors ask more naturally, such as 'Can you share your current mood with me', but some are very stylized." 」
Zhou Li also found the problem, she said: "After the students have learned the eight precepts, they suddenly become unable to speak, they cannot open their mouths at all, and one mouth violates a precept."
"For example, if you hear a person say that studying is very anxious and very volume, you may say, 'Don't roll, you relax,' or 'I'm also anxious,' to compare yourself with others. But after studying the eight precepts, none of this can be said."
In class, students often ask questions, looking puzzled: "Teacher, I already know what the other party is saying, and I don't know what else to ask."
Zhou Li smiled bitterly: "This is a typical question for novice counselors, indicating that the students' attention is still on themselves, always paying attention to 'i am asking enough questions' and 'can I not make mistakes', and forgetting to create enough space for the other party to talk." 」
Change is subtle. After practicing for a few months, Zhong Xuan found that her thinking patterns had changed and her daily social interactions had also been affected. "After bringing this non-judgmental approach to everyday conversations, I heard more of my friends share it."
In the case of "a friend breaking up," she showed me the embodiment of the change: "I may have had my own position before, saying things like ' it's right to break up, you are not suitable for a long time together'. But after learning peer counseling, you will pay more attention to the emotional state of the other party, asking questions such as "you come and talk to me about the breakup", "What does it affect you", "What is your feeling now?".
After 128 hours of study and practice, Zhong Xuan finally passed the exam and officially became a peer counselor, which meant that a harder and more fulfilling job was coming. Every week, she goes to the Peer Lodge for 6 to 8 hours a week, "very tired, but I do get feedback that I feel it can help visitors."
Huang Ying, who was an undergraduate at the National People's Congress, knew about the existence of the peer hut for a long time, and the idea of going to consult flashed several times, but it was a long time later.
"What bothered me at that time was emotional problems, I always felt that this matter was very delicate, it would be a little awkward to tell my friends, or I wanted to find a counselor to talk about it." 」
As she sat on the couch and the counselor hung the "Do Not Disturb" wooden sign outside the door, closed the door, and the surrounding quiet, the sense of security gradually enveloped Huang Ying.
Huang Ying noticed that the counselor's expression changed with her narration, and she could even pay attention to details that she herself did not care about, constantly guiding her to dig into her emotions.
"Usually talking to friends, people may look at their phones from time to time. But in peer counseling, the other person is completely focused on myself."
It was like a river channel in which her emotions flowed and stretched freely.
"Before I came, I felt guilty and felt as if I had done something wrong in this matter. But the counselor didn't judge me from beginning to end, she just kept showing understanding, and my guilt was actually dissolved in the end."
Huang Ying still remembers that summer night, when he walked out of the peers' hut, "the evening wind was particularly comfortable on his body."
She walked briskly to the store to buy a piece of fruit, which was delicious.
Dilemma: Has a solution? No solution?
When the client's emotions are released, to whom should the peer counselor as a "container" pour into?
In October 2021, han Zhou, a sophomore, came to the peer cottage for the first time and received a crisis case. The other party was brought by the counselor and already had suicidal tendencies.
"He's a bit closed off on himself, he's been running away from my questions, and I feel like I'm standing still the whole time."
This low pressure did not stop with the end of the consultation. After the other party left, Han Zhou felt extremely heavy, and she was overwhelmed by a sense of frustration that she had not been able to help the other party.
Han Zhou's situation is not unique.
In reality, students who provide psychological assistance are likely to be entangled in feelings of powerlessness, frustration, or the substitutionary trauma of excessive empathy, which are negative emotions that need to be relieved and adjusted.
A peer counselor with 3 years of experience said that when she first started receiving visits, her own emotional state was not good, and she inevitably over-empathized with the client and was affected by the negative emotions of the other party. Tired and tired, "I even wanted to close the door and pretend that there was already someone inside."
In this regard, Zhou Li said: "I encourage students to come to the psychological center for consultation when they have emotions, and I also encourage them to supervise and talk about personal cases."
Weekly mentoring sessions, students can voluntarily sign up to share their own cases or observe others.
Han Zhou also brought the impact of this incident on her to the supervision meeting, and the teacher said to her, "I don't believe that you have any effect at all, as long as you sit there and listen to the visitors finish telling their stories, then you will be helpful."
This made Han Zhou feel a lot relieved, "Instantly, I feel that I don't have that much responsibility to bear, because I really tried my best."
In the training system of peer counselors in the National People's Congress, there are also preventive exercises on negative emotions. For example, the training content includes a "self care" module that teaches students to identify emotional exhaustion and alternative trauma. Weekly drill consultations before taking up their jobs can also prepare students for future stress.
In addition to negative emotions, counseling students may also be exposed to other harms, such as harassment.
The first large-scale peer huts were opened along with the telephone hotline, but according to one student who worked on the project, "sometimes people call in, with a sense of harassment, ask to find a female counselor, and then we cancel the phone channel."