Mental health C certificate can guide psychological counseling activity classes

Those who hold the Class C qualification certificate for mental health education in primary and secondary schools are fully qualified to guide psychological counseling activity classes in regular classes, and also meet the basic access requirements for mental health work in the field of basic education in most regions in the country.

Oh, by the way, let me first explain the positioning of this certificate for those who don’t know much about it: It is originally an introductory qualification for psychological education offered by the domestic basic education system to all class teachers and subject teachers. The core training module originally included the design logic, implementation process, and classroom emergency intervention of psychological counseling activity classes. Passing the assessment itself means that the certificate holder has mastered the basic teaching requirements of regular psychology classes. Two years ago, when I was helping to sort out psychological work filing materials in the moral education section of the district education bureau, I came across the statistics of our district: the total number of full-time teachers with A/B psychological qualifications in 41 primary and secondary schools is only 19. It is impossible to cover nearly 80,000 students, so the district clearly issued it in 2017. According to regulations, head teachers with C certificates can assume the teaching tasks of psychological counseling activity classes for their own classes. This model has been running for almost 6 years without a single teaching accident. The positive rate of students' annual psychological screening has dropped by 3.2 percentage points compared with before when there were no regular psychology classes. The effect is tangible and visible.

Of course, this matter has always been controversial in the industry. In particular, many practitioners with a background in clinical psychology are opposed to it. They feel that most C certificate training only has 40-60 class hours, which does not even meet the entry threshold for psychological counseling. How dare you take courses related to student psychology? This view is actually not wrong at all. I have also seen that the C certificate training in some third- and fourth-tier cities is completely formal. You sign in to receive a set of materials, open the book and copy the answers and then issue the certificate. Such certificate holders, let alone taking psychology classes, cannot even understand the boundaries of basic psychological work, and it is easy for problems to arise. But as long as it is a standardized C certificate training, the assessment card is really strict. Last year, I accompanied our school’s Chinese language teacher Zhang to take the C certificate. I had to write three lesson plans for different learning stages. They had to select questions and give a 15-minute segment lesson. The judges would also randomly raise scene questions, such as "During class, a student suddenly cried and said that his parents divorced last week and no one wanted him. How do you deal with it?"

To be honest, the fact that everyone is struggling with this issue is essentially confusing the boundaries between psychological counseling activity classes and case consultations. The scope of application of C certificate is originally only for developmental Universal psychology courses, which cover topics such as emotional management, peer interaction, adaptation to higher education, and life education, are open to all students. The core is to popularize psychological common sense to children and create a safe atmosphere for expression. Professional skills that involve individual case intervention are not required at all. If a student really encounters special circumstances such as self-harm tendencies or severe depressive symptoms, not to mention C-certified teachers, even B-certified psychological teachers are not qualified to provide diagnosis and treatment, and must be referred to a medical institution as soon as possible. If this boundary is clear, there will be no problems.

There are actually two mainstream views in the school psychology circle. One is from the front-line practitioners. They think that many class teachers with C certificates hang out with students every day. They know that many people in the class have been upset because of the grouping. They know that everyone is taking the ranking test recently. The examples given in the psychology class are all real things that happened in the class. The students have a strong sense of substitution, and the teaching effect is much better than that of full-time psychology teachers who use general lesson plans.； The other type is the professional ones, who feel that psychology classes have to touch the inner world of students after all. Without a systematic psychology background, it is easy to get into trouble, such as accidentally labeling students as "introverts are unsociable", or casually telling other parents about students' private matters, which will cause secondary harm. There is actually nothing wrong with either of these views. The compromise plan we have now is also very simple: C-certified teachers give lesson plans to full-time psychology teachers for review before class. If there are special circumstances in class, they can contact the full-time teachers as soon as possible. This can not only fill the teacher gap, but also minimize risks.

Last month I just attended the psychology class of Grade 1 (3) of our school. The class teacher is a physical education teacher with a C certificate. The topic was "How to face failure." He didn't talk about the "three characteristics of setbacks" or "five ways to deal with setbacks." He might never be able to run again. He told me about how he had to lie down and endure rehabilitation for three months before he could get into the normal school. Then he asked everyone to talk about their most frustrating things recently. There was not a single lecture in the whole class. After class, there were still boys chasing him asking if rehabilitation hurt and how he got through it. Do you think the effect of this kind of class is not worse than what is taught from the script?

In fact, there is really no need to engage in "qualification worship". There is still a shortage of 300,000 to 400,000 full-time psychology teachers across the country. We can't wait until all the teachers are available before giving psychology classes to children, right? The C certificate is originally an entry-level qualification prepared for front-line teachers. It is used to guide regular psychological counseling activities classes. It is completely put to good use. As long as the training is good, the boundaries are clear, and someone knows the truth, this little C-certificate can really help many children who hide their worries.