Tip: This article is about 4600 words, it takes about 12 minutes to read, and the table of contents is as follows
First, when the epidemic occurs, psychological people are on the front line and are at ease in fighting the epidemic
Second, after the epidemic, Internet + and social psychological services have welcomed development opportunities
Third, after the epidemic, how to meet new opportunities and new breakthroughs for psychological people
Before analyzing the new opportunities brought to the psychological industry after the epidemic, let us first review the dynamic development of the psychological industry under the epidemic.
At the beginning of the new year of 2020, the outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia in China suddenly occurred.
This highly contagious disease not only threatens the life safety and physical health of our people, but also has a serious impact on everyone's mental health.
Medical staff, patients and their families on the front line are under tremendous physical and mental pressure, and many people among the general public have negative emotions. Emotions such as fear, anxiety, anger, and uneasiness are also like a virus, spreading throughout the country.
For a time, while medical assistance, the need for psychological services after the disaster has become the consensus of many people, which is also a major disaster--- after the 5.12 earthquake, many official and public feedback is different.
At that time, there may also be a popular saying--- "fire prevention and theft prevention psychological counselor".
Now, all walks of life are actively aware that when the epidemic occurs, the masses may have psychological problems and need to find professional psychologists to solve them.
The direct embodiment of the Internet is that on January 22, the day before the lockdown in Wuhan, the search volume of the word "psychological" on the WeChat index has risen sharply, further indicating that more and more people may take the initiative to seek psychological help online.
In response to the pneumonia epidemic of the new coronavirus infection, the State Council also issued a notice: requiring all localities to set up special psychological assistance hotlines to respond to the epidemic.
Major psychological institutions, platforms, and industry associations responded in a timely manner, and also organized and linked various psychological hotlines and popular science services. For example, the psychological hotlines of Beijing Normal University, the Chinese Psychological Association and other organizations.
In the face of this chinese people's examination, psychological people can finally catch it, and also ushered in the recognition of the relevant departments of the state.
For her, who only entered the ranks of the vocational qualification certificate of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in July 2002, it is also a gift of adulthood, and she has really displayed her talents and been recognized.
Second, Internet + and psychosocial services welcome development opportunities
What will the development trend of the psychological industry look like after the epidemic?
Combined with the experience of engaging in psychological service platforms over the years, individuals have made the following predictions.
1. The public pays more attention to themselves, family and spiritual development
The outbreak of the epidemic, on the one hand, may cause some confirmed and suspected patients (relevant personnel) to have relatively serious psychological problems; on the other hand, the epidemic is also equivalent to a life education for the whole society, so that more people understand the meaning of life and the importance of living out their self-worth.
After the epidemic, more people should choose to be good at themselves; long-term isolation may also make some people re-examine their relationship with society, themselves and their families, from another level, that is, may also lead to more family problems and solutions.
From March 2, divorce appointments in Xi'an were full
The occurrence of these situations may increase the demand for psychological services, especially online psychological services.
2. The competition of psychological institutions is intensified, and a number of psychological institutions may be brought down
Affected by the epidemic, the first is the offline business of psychological institutions, and personal predictions may not be gradually recovered until around May this year, and it will also promote more offline institutions to shift their business to online.
However, the transformation of offline to online is not as simple as simply changing online tools, but also involves the overall Internet thinking of the founding team, the accumulation of online users, and the transformation of marketing promotion methods, etc. Uncompetitive small and medium-sized offline institutions may have operational risks, or even collapse.
With the development of more psychological online business, it will increase the competition of online incremental product content, and some large platforms and institutions can launch more high-quality, low-cost, and even free services (such as free psychological courses and consultations) as a drainage in order to get greater traffic.
Therefore, the situation of survival of the fittest in the industry will intensify. High-quality psychological institutions will eventually get better change and value under this round of epidemics.
3. In the short term, revenue declines, and in the long run, professional consultants can make a profit for the brand
Affected by the free psychological counseling and courses launched by major associations and platforms, in the short term, it may lead to a reduction in the number of paid orders for online consultation of some consultants, especially a reduction in offline counseling orders; the short-term survival of psychological counselors may be more difficult, of which, the first is that the professional foundation is weak, there is no user and word-of-mouth accumulation, and only rely on the platform and institutional traffic of the consultant.
And those consultants who have user accumulation and do a good job in their own vertical fields may get more online consultations in the later stage to achieve brand premium. Professional and marketing-minded consultants will be the first psychological brand profiteers.
4. Promote the social psychological service system, and increase government purchases and enterprise EAPs
On November 19, 2018, 10 ministries and commissions of the state issued the "Notice on Printing and Distributing the Pilot Work Plan for the Construction of the National Psychosocial Service System". It marks that 2019 will become the first year of the construction of the social psychological service system.
In 2019, more and more governments and enterprises and institutions will take psychological service procurement as one of the government's livelihood services, and the outbreak of the epidemic will further promote the process of the social psychological service system, and the government finance will also increase the budget of this piece.
Therefore, some traditional psychological institutions, if they have more resource capital or project experience in these aspects, can focus on doing a good job in this regard, and take the social psychological service system project as the entrance to extend the online and offline psychological business of the institution. It can also be well developed.
In summary, after the epidemic, the psychological industry should get more attention and guide relevant social resources to inject vitality into the psychological industry, but at the same time, it may also form a negative for the revenue of some institutions and psychological counselors in the short term, and the psychological + Internet and social psychological service system may usher in more development opportunities in the future, which is conducive to the industry moving in a more standardized direction under the guidance of the market public and policies.
After the above analysis, many novice or young counselors will consult me, after the epidemic, how should psychological counselors respond to these new changes and opportunities, here, I personally suggest the following.
1. Improve professional knowledge ability and practice level
Whether it is before or after the epidemic, the only constant is that psychological counselors should systematically improve their professional knowledge and practical ability.
For some beginners who want to enter the industry, because of the reasons why the state canceled the psychological counselor certificate in 2017, I will generally recommend that you try to take the following three career entrances (which may also be the three entrances that are more common in the industry at present)
Academic education (on-the-job or full-time psychology majors in major comprehensive colleges, teachers' colleges, medical colleges)
National Psychotherapist (This is currently the only certificate recognized by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Health Commission, focusing on two major conditions: 1. Psychology or medical major 2. Outpatient clinics or hospitals with psychological diagnosis and treatment qualifications)
The equivalent training certificate launched by the major Chinese character associations/societies (I will not recommend the name of the specific association/society, if you want to know, you can search for it yourself)
2. Do a good job of personal brand positioning and become the first choice in the field of segmentation
After solving the problem of practicing, in the next aspect of continuing education, I recommend thinking about your professional positioning first, and then choosing the appropriate course to match.
For example, many young counselors, when introducing their resumes, always like to list what they can do in a big and complete way, such as family, teenagers, and emotions; as if they can do anything, the result is to give users (visitors) the feeling that they are not refined.
I generally recommend young counselors to focus on making their own brand in the vertical field, for example, choose one of these areas, take the family as an example, focus on this field first, even in the family field, and then look for a secondary subdivision, such as psychotherapy for divorced families.
When such a positioning is determined, you can read a large number of literature in the field, learn from the best teachers in the field, take his micro-lessons, or read his works, and in the process, you can begin to output your own learning experience and works. Accumulate successful cases, slowly improve your problem-solving skills in this niche field, and establish your own value and reputation.
You should not be able to become an expert like Zeng Qifeng and Zhang Haiyin in 3-5 years, but you are likely to learn in depth in a certain field through 3-5 years, and in this niche field will become the label that many users remember and the first choice when looking for psychological services.
Wu Zhihong's sales of "get" courses have revenues of more than 10 million
3. Improve Internet thinking and let more users take the initiative to find you
In the Internet information age, the amount of information that everyone obtains every day is very large, and the decision-making time for each thing may be relatively small on average, which is one of the reasons why people are getting lazier and lazier now.
Therefore, psychological counselors need to improve their professional knowledge and do a good job in content positioning, but also to further improve their Internet thinking, through the advantages of Internet dissemination, let their psychological knowledge spread to more people who need it, so that more users who need services can take the initiative to find you
I combed through it, at present, counselors spread psychological knowledge through the Internet, and the main directions of reaching psychological services are as follows
1) Psychological self-media
The 2018 industry survey of simple psychology found that when the public encounters emotional distress, the most commonly chosen way to ask for help is: reading psychological popular science articles, reading psychological professional books, looking up relevant information on the Internet and finding professional psychological counselors.
It can be seen that new media may be the entrance for many young people looking for psychological services at present, and after the epidemic, this proportion should be greater.
At the same time, with the advent of the 5G era and the popularization of video technology and networks, more users will obtain psychological service information through video.
Therefore, psychological counselors can try to innovate psychological science popularization methods by writing articles, cartoons, graphics, shooting short videos, etc., and get the favor of more users, when the number of high-quality and in-depth users reaches more than 10,000, if you have the ability to consult and monetize, it should not be a big problem to increase the number of thousands of yuan per month.
I have some consultant friends around me who have received economic value through the way of writing self-media, while improving their influence.
Currently the mainstream self-media platform
2) Online psychology instructor
The 2020 content creation development trend released by today's headlines mentioned that the demand for today's headlines knowledge content has expanded, as of November 2019, the number of paid lecturers exceeded 10,000, the number of paid users exceeded 5 million, and the total annual revenue suddenly exceeded 300 million yuan;
During the epidemic period, 63.1% of knowledge paying users have purchased knowledge payment products, mainly in personal growth, workplace skills and content.
It may be conceivable that more online psychology lecturers will be born after the epidemic, which is one of the most cost-effective ways to acquire users and deliver the value of consultants.
If psychological self-media articles are one-dimensional (graphic and textual) communication, then online psychological lecturers may be two-dimensional (audio) and three-dimensional (video) communication, so the communication effect will be faster.
Therefore, psychological counselors can do a good job of personal psychological lecturer positioning based on their own knowledge system, polish online open courses and series of courses, conduct online teaching through the current mainstream knowledge payment platform, or cooperate with psychological Internet institutions, accumulating over time, will gradually form their own hardcore fans, and it is not a big problem for teachers who do well to achieve part-time monthly income of more than 10,000.
Currently the mainstream knowledge payment platform
3) Network consultant
During the epidemic, many users will choose online counseling as the main psychological counseling method, I believe that in 2020, this way will gradually become the mainstream way, and once the user develops this mainstream way, it may become a habitual way for her/them to receive psychological counseling in the future.
Therefore, it can be inferred that more consultants will join the ranks of network consultants in the future, and even guide professional associations or platforms to introduce relevant guidelines and specifications for network consultants.
Therefore, psychological counselors can embrace change, understand the current mainstream psychological Internet platform, combine their own positioning, selectively enter the matching platform, learn the rules and publicity and promotion mechanism of the platform, compile a resume with user thinking, and attract users on the platform.
I believe that this year, you should find that many psychological counselors around you are receiving treatment through online means to achieve revenue and realize online and offline dual guidance.
Currently the mainstream psychological Internet platform
Warm tips: here to play a small advertisement, One City Psychology is created by me and the team, the Internet-based psychological service platform in the same city, during the launch of the Spring Festival in 2020, has received financial and professional support from the Shenzhen Association for Science and Technology, the Shenzhen Psychological Counselors Association and so on.
At present, there are 300 consultants in more than 30 cities across the country who have been carefully selected to settle in the platform, and we also provide public welfare/low-cost training and supervision for the consultants who have settled in, welcome to settle in. If you want to apply for a settlement, you can reply to the "consultant" in the background of this public account.
One City Psychology guards a city's happiness mini program
Settle in the One City Psychological Mini Program and let users in the same city find you
4) Participate in psychosocial service projects, increase endorsements, link resources
In addition to strengthening the construction of Internet psychological branding, another opportunity for psychological counselors is to join the construction of the social service system and cooperate with relevant government platforms or advantageous enterprises.
For example, the local people's livelihood micro-facts, public legal inspection system psychological services, street women's federation psychological assistance, large-scale enterprise psychological lectures, etc., although these projects may not bring high benefits in a short period of time, but in the case of energy, it is still worth doing.
Through these projects, at present, we can increase personal endorsements, increase user sources, and accumulate user reputation, and in the future, I believe that this piece can be linked to more social needs and resources, and may also become a new way for some psychological institutions to rise, resulting in some head companies focusing on the field.
In short, after the epidemic, the psychological industry will have a new round of development opportunities, as a psychological practitioner, to establish their own vertical field of the brand, in the development of the industry, so that they can become a pioneer in a vertical field, with the public is happy to accept the way, publicize psychology, popularize the application and value of psychology.
It is believed that when more and more such psychological practitioners provide psychological services that the people can accept and are willing to accept, the value and influence of psychology will also enter more ordinary homes of the public.
And psychological people will also get their due value!
Author: Yao Guohui, Psychological Counselor, Founder of Psychological Professional Growth Alliance and One City Psychology,
I will teach online open courses on career development of counselors and share industry observation information,
Welcome to scan the QR code below the QR code plus my WeChat communication.