Brother S lives and works in an economically developed part of East China. He has been engaged in psychological counseling for many years. Over the years, Brother S has seen many people suffer from mental illnesses, mainly depression, and has also shared the joy of the recovery of many patients.
"We decided to start this ministry because we saw so many cases of depression and we wanted to help them." Brother S said. He suggested at first that the church should come out, but the church had some difficulties in doing this due to policies and other reasons. It’s better to be done on an individual basis.
Their counseling service is completely free of charge. In recent years, about 1,000 people a year have contacted them for counseling. A very common problem among them is depression, and the number of depressed teenagers is increasing.
"When we face visitors, we mainly conduct professional psychological counseling. If the visitor is a Christian, we would talk about faith with them. But for the vast majority of our visitors, we only provide psychological counseling."
When they started the ministry, they almost only accepted patients with mild mental illnesses. For severe cases, they referred them to special psychiatric hospitals. However, with their professional psychological skills constantly improving through learning and the accumulation of experience, and the unsatisfactory treatment in many psychiatric hospitals, they also gradually began to receive severe cases and tried to treat them and accompany them with professional techniques and a meticulous attitude.
Traditional churches generally do not accept psychology, but Brother S believes that psychology is not in conflict with the Christian faith.
He explained, "God's human being is made up of these three parts: spirit, soul, and body. People could have problems in spirit, soul, and body. For bodily problems, we go to see a doctor; for soul-related problems, we need to see a psychiatrist, and for spiritual problems, we need to find God, go to church to learn about God and build a relationship with Him."
Brother S claimed that many mental illnesses are soul-related problems. "There are some people with purely spiritual problems, such as workplace stress, as the work is so stressful that they end up with mental illness. It is not necessarily because of committing sin. The student could experience great academic pressure, which also causes mental illnesses. For such situations, professional psychological counseling can be the solution, and indeed has achieved very good results," he added.
But he also admits that psychology has its own limitations. "Mental illness may not just have soul-related causes, but also spiritual causes such as sin. If only psychological counseling is employed, but the spiritual problem has not been solved, this is curing the symptoms instead of the disease. Even if the illness seems to have been cured, it is likely to recur in the future." Brother S said frankly, "For such situations, we do not have a good solution, and we can only provide psychological help for them."
Among the Christian patients that he comes into contact with, a large proportion suffers from depression for a number of reasons. Some are because of their parent-child relationships, as the parents and children do not get along, or cannot communicate properly. Both parents and children are at risk of becoming depressed. But as for Christian patients, it is easier to solve their problems. "Because we agree with each other in spirit, and we can bring them to God." Therefore, Brother S believes that Christian faith and psychology are not in conflict, but can become a good complement to each other.
"We are now in the third year of the global coronavirus pandemic. More people are suffering from various mental illnesses. Before, most cases were mild, and there are few patients with severe mental illness. But now there are fewer mild cases, but more severe cases. Many seriously ill patients experienced suicidal thoughts, some of whom were Christians."
Brother S mentioned, in the future, psychological problems and mental illness will become more serious. There were about 83 million depressed people in China a few years ago, but now there are more than 100 million. Heavy work pressure and life pressure have put many people under a great deal of anxiety and panic. It happened not just in some industries. People from all walks of life are facing great pressure and very cruel competition.
- Translated by Oliver Zuo
S弟兄的家和工作均在经济发达的华东某地，他从事心理咨询事工已有许多年的时间。在多年的时间当中，S弟兄看见了许多人们患上了以抑郁症为主的众多心理疾病以及发病之后的痛苦，也曾经与许多治愈的人同享疾病得以痊愈的喜乐。
“当初，我们之所以决定建立这个事工，就是因为我们看到怎么抑郁症变得这么多？我们就很想要能够帮助到他们。”（==当summary）S弟兄说，最开始的时候，他建议教会能够出来做这个事情，但是教会没有同意，因为教会做这个事情有一些难处。这样的事情以个人的名义来做比较好。
S弟兄说，他们这个事工提供的心理咨询是完全免费的，不收取咨询者的任何费用。最近几年平均每年有1000人次左右联系他们进行心理咨询。在这些进行心理咨询的人员里面，非常普遍的问题就是抑郁症。在抑郁症患者当中，青少年群体正在变得越来越多。
“我们面对来访者的时候，是以专业的心理咨询技术为主。如果对方有信仰的话，那么我们也会在信仰上跟他们有一些连接。但是其实对绝大多数来访者来说，我们都是以心理技术为主导。”
S弟兄说，他们事工成立以后，刚开始的时候基本上只接受轻型心理疾病患者。对于重度心理疾病患者他们会推荐对方去专门的精神病医院。但是一方面他们的专业心理技术因着学习和经验的积累而不断提高，一方面他们也发现很多精神病医院对重度心理疾病患者的治疗情况并不能令人满意。因此，慢慢的他们也开始接收重度心理疾病患者，以专业的诊疗技术和细致的态度努力的治疗他们、陪伴他们。
传统教会普遍不太接受心理学，但是S弟兄坚信：其实心理学跟基督教信仰并不是冲突的。
上帝所创造的人类是由灵魂体这三个部分组成的。人的问题有可能是出在身体上，也有可能是出在灵上，同样，魂也有可能出现问题。身体出问题的话我们需要去医院看医生，魂出了问题的话我们同样需要看心理医生，而灵出了问题的话那就需要寻找上帝，去教会学习如何认识上帝并且与上帝建立关系。
S弟兄认为，很多的心理疾病是“魂”的层次的问题。
有一些人的问题纯粹是魂上面的，比如职场上的很多人他们的工作压力很大，最终导致了心理疾病，并不是因为这个人犯了什么罪。或者学生的学业压力很大，因而引起一些心理疾病等等。对于这样的情况，只是从专业的心理咨询的领域入手解决就可以，而且确实可以取得很好的效果。
但是同时S弟兄也承认，心理学有其自身有限的地方。假如一个人的心理疾病不仅有魂上面的原因，也有灵里面的原因比如犯罪等等。这样的情况如果只是通过心理学的角度来解决他的问题，而灵里面的问题却一直都没有解决，那么这就是很典型的“治标不治本”。就算这个人的心理疾病看起来好像已经治好了，但是这并不是真正的治愈，以后很可能还会复发。S弟兄坦诚：“对于这样的情况，我们这边也没有太好的办法，我们只能够从心理学的角度来辅导他们。”
在S弟兄所接触的基督徒群体的心理疾病患者当中，其中很大一部分是抑郁症患者，原因有很多。有一些是因为亲子关系，比如父母跟孩子处不好关系，或者孩子跟父母无法正常沟通。无论是父母还是孩子，都有可能成为抑郁症患者。但是对于基督徒心理疾病患者而言，他们的问题相对来说要容易解决一些。“因为我们能够在灵里面达成一致，能够把他们带到上帝面前。”因此，S弟兄认为基督教信仰跟心理学并不是冲突的，反而能够成为很好的互补，弥补另一方的不足。
到现在为止，已经是新冠病毒全球大流行的第三年了。S弟兄说，有各样心理疾病的人数正在变得越来越多。之前的时候，他偶尔能够看到一些重度心理疾病患者，绝大多数都还是轻度的；但是现在轻度的状况不多，重度的数量却很多。很多重度患者都有轻生自杀的念头，当中也有一些人是基督徒。
S弟兄提到，在以后的很长一段时间当中，心理问题和心理疾病会变得越来越严重。几年以前，全国当时一共有大概8300万名抑郁症患者，但是现在已经超过1亿了。繁重的工作压力、生活压力等，都让很多人们处在很大的焦虑和恐慌当中。而且不仅仅是某一个或者某一些行业，现实是各行各业的人们都面对着很大的压力，竞争非常残酷。
https://christiantimes.cn/news/38045/%E8%AE%BF%E8%B0%88%7C%20%E4%B8%80%E4%BD%8D%E5%9F%BA%E7%9D%A3%E5%BE%92%E5%BF%83%E7%90%86%E5%92%A8%E8%AF%A2%E5%B8%88%E8%B0%88%EF%BC%9A%E5%9C%A8%E6%8A%91%E9%83%81%E7%97%87%E7%AD%89%E5%BF%83%E7%90%86%E7%96%BE%E7%97%85%E8%82%86%E8%99%90%E7%9A%84%E5%BD%93%E4%B8%8B%EF%BC%8C%E6%88%91%E4%BB%AC%E8%83%BD%E5%A4%9F%E4%B8%BA%E4%BA%BA%E4%BB%AC%E4%BD%9C%E4%BA%9B%E4%BB%80%E4%B9%88%EF%BC%9F
访谈| 一位基督徒心理咨询师谈：在抑郁症等心理疾病肆虐的当下，我们能够为人们作些什么？
Brother S lives and works in an economically developed part of East China. He has been engaged in psychological counseling for many years. Over the years, Brother S has seen many people suffer from mental illnesses, mainly depression, and has also shared the joy of the recovery of many patients.
"We decided to start this ministry because we saw so many cases of depression and we wanted to help them." Brother S said. He suggested at first that the church should come out, but the church had some difficulties in doing this due to policies and other reasons. It’s better to be done on an individual basis.
Their counseling service is completely free of charge. In recent years, about 1,000 people a year have contacted them for counseling. A very common problem among them is depression, and the number of depressed teenagers is increasing.
"When we face visitors, we mainly conduct professional psychological counseling. If the visitor is a Christian, we would talk about faith with them. But for the vast majority of our visitors, we only provide psychological counseling."
When they started the ministry, they almost only accepted patients with mild mental illnesses. For severe cases, they referred them to special psychiatric hospitals. However, with their professional psychological skills constantly improving through learning and the accumulation of experience, and the unsatisfactory treatment in many psychiatric hospitals, they also gradually began to receive severe cases and tried to treat them and accompany them with professional techniques and a meticulous attitude.
Traditional churches generally do not accept psychology, but Brother S believes that psychology is not in conflict with the Christian faith.
He explained, "God's human being is made up of these three parts: spirit, soul, and body. People could have problems in spirit, soul, and body. For bodily problems, we go to see a doctor; for soul-related problems, we need to see a psychiatrist, and for spiritual problems, we need to find God, go to church to learn about God and build a relationship with Him."
Brother S claimed that many mental illnesses are soul-related problems. "There are some people with purely spiritual problems, such as workplace stress, as the work is so stressful that they end up with mental illness. It is not necessarily because of committing sin. The student could experience great academic pressure, which also causes mental illnesses. For such situations, professional psychological counseling can be the solution, and indeed has achieved very good results," he added.
But he also admits that psychology has its own limitations. "Mental illness may not just have soul-related causes, but also spiritual causes such as sin. If only psychological counseling is employed, but the spiritual problem has not been solved, this is curing the symptoms instead of the disease. Even if the illness seems to have been cured, it is likely to recur in the future." Brother S said frankly, "For such situations, we do not have a good solution, and we can only provide psychological help for them."
Among the Christian patients that he comes into contact with, a large proportion suffers from depression for a number of reasons. Some are because of their parent-child relationships, as the parents and children do not get along, or cannot communicate properly. Both parents and children are at risk of becoming depressed. But as for Christian patients, it is easier to solve their problems. "Because we agree with each other in spirit, and we can bring them to God." Therefore, Brother S believes that Christian faith and psychology are not in conflict, but can become a good complement to each other.
"We are now in the third year of the global coronavirus pandemic. More people are suffering from various mental illnesses. Before, most cases were mild, and there are few patients with severe mental illness. But now there are fewer mild cases, but more severe cases. Many seriously ill patients experienced suicidal thoughts, some of whom were Christians."
Brother S mentioned, in the future, psychological problems and mental illness will become more serious. There were about 83 million depressed people in China a few years ago, but now there are more than 100 million. Heavy work pressure and life pressure have put many people under a great deal of anxiety and panic. It happened not just in some industries. People from all walks of life are facing great pressure and very cruel competition.
- Translated by Oliver Zuo
Interview With Christian Psychological Counselor: 'We Need to Do Something for People With Depression'
