How to provide psychological counseling for patients

Psychological counseling for patients can be implemented through listening empathy, cognitive-behavioral interventions, relaxation training, social resource linking, mindfulness therapy, and other methods. Psychological counseling should be adjusted according to individual differences and disease stages of patients, and if necessary, professional psychological therapy should be referred.

1. Listening and Empathy

Establishing a trusting relationship is the foundation of psychological counseling. Adopting a non judgmental attitude to listen attentively to the patient's demands, conveying understanding through retelling and emotional feedback, such as using expressions like 'It sounds like you are anxious about treatment'. Avoid interrupting or rushing to provide solutions, prioritize handling emotions before handling events. For cancer patients, narrative therapy can be used to encourage them to express emotional conflicts during their disease experiences.

II. Cognitive Behavioral Intervention

helps patients identify automated negative thinking, such as catastrophic cognition like "My illness will never be cured". Test the authenticity of ideas through behavioral experiments and gradually establish adaptive cognitive models. For patients with chronic pain, a pain diary can be recorded to analyze the correlation between symptoms and emotions. Use Socratic questioning to guide the discovery of cognitive biases and assign progressive behavioral activation tasks.

III. Relaxation Training

When guiding abdominal breathing, patients are required to place their hands on the abdomen to feel the ups and downs, inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 2 seconds, exhale for 6 seconds. Progressive muscle relaxation starts from the feet and ends on the face, with each muscle group tense for 5 seconds before relaxing for 30 seconds. Combined with guided imagination therapy, postoperative patients can imagine safe scenarios to reduce stress reactions. Audio guidance materials need to adjust their imagery content according to the patient's cultural background.

4. Social Resource Links

Evaluate the functionality of the patient's family support system and provide communication skills training to caregivers. Provide community consultation services for elderly patients living alone and assist disabled patients in applying for welfare policies. Establish a mutual aid alliance for homogeneous patients, such as a support group for breast cancer patients. Provide reliable channels for medical information to prevent patients from being misled by false advertising.

V. Mindfulness Therapy

Cultivate sensory awareness through raisin practice and guide diabetes patients to focus on the process of eating. Body scan training helps chronic disease patients accept discomfort instead of fighting it. Design a 3-minute breathing space exercise for insomnia patients to reduce nighttime anxiety. Attention should be paid to the prohibition of deep meditation during the onset of psychotic symptoms. During the psychological counseling period, it is necessary to regularly assess changes in the patient's emotional state and use the PHQ-9 scale to monitor depressive tendencies. Establish a safety contract to prevent self harm behavior and avoid premature exposure therapy for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder. Maintain environmental privacy and sit at a 90 degree angle with the patient during conversations to reduce pressure. Combining non-verbal methods such as art therapy to promote expression in pediatric patients, and adopting reality oriented training for patients with cognitive impairments. Family members should participate in the development of intervention plans and learn to identify psychological crisis warning signals such as refusal to eat and day night reversal.