🌿 Natural Psychotherapy Lecture 2: Inner Awakening is the Key to Healing — Origins and Core of the Therapy

Speaker: Professor Zhang Xiangyang (Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, Tsinghua University) Lecture Topic: Mental Health Popular Science Lecture (Session 2) Date: May 28, 2026 Duration: Approximately 2 hours 7 minutes

🔥 Team Slogan: Inner Awakening is the Key to Healing

“Inner awakening is the key to healing” — This is the slogan of the Natural Therapy team.

Why is “Inner Awakening” So Important?

Professor Zhang uses a classic video to explain 🐴:

A horse falls into a mud pit. The herdsman tries to pull it out, but it’s stuck too deep. So the herdsman rounds up hundreds of horses to gallop around the pit. The horse in the mud, seeing its companions running, is awakened from within — it leaps up and jumps out of the mud pit on its own!

The Message: - People with mental illness are essentially “thoroughbred horses” 🐎 - They’ve fallen into a “mud pit of mental illness” - They can’t even perform like ordinary horses (their abilities are blocked) - What’s needed is “using life to awaken life” — igniting inner motivation - If the inner self isn’t awakened, no amount of good methods will help

Who Needs “Inner Awakening”?

1. Gifted but struggling youth — Top students in class who collapse after failing one exam
2. “Empty-heart syndrome” college students — A concept proposed by teacher Xu Kaiwen; students lose confidence in their future and truly give up
3. Children who have dropped out and stay at home — Day-night reversal, internet addiction, long-term isolation
4. Columbia University doctoral student — Excellent enough to pursue a PhD in the US, yet says they’re “worse than a security guard”

💡 Current situation: Over 10,000 children in Haidian District alone have dropped out and stay at home; over 20,000 in all of Hangzhou. The number nationwide is staggering.

🧬 Two Major Factors in Mental Illness

Internal Factor: Personality Foundation — The “Three-Heart Plate” Theory

Core Question: Why do only some students in the same class develop mental illness?

Mental illness = Interaction between internal factors (personality foundation) + external factors (life setbacks)

🔺 Three-Heart Plate (Three Major Personality Traits)

People with the Three-Heart Plate also have these traits: - 🎯 Sensitive to external stimuli - 📏 High standards and strict demands on themselves and others - 🧠 Meticulous thinking, strong logic, intelligent

The Double-Edged Sword of Personality ⚔️

“No personality is inherently good or bad — every personality is a double-edged sword.”

The Good Side 👉 Projecting mental energy into work/study → Often achieves results (top of the class) The Bad Side 👉 When setbacks occur → Confidence plummets from the peak straight to rock bottom

Polarity of Personality 🔄

These people’s emotional states have two extremes: - In favorable circumstances: Confident, proud, outperforming others - In adversity: Confidence drops to freezing point, with no buffer zone in between

“They can go from the highest peak straight to the bottom” — This is why top students suddenly collapse and refuse to go to school.

External Factor: Life Setbacks

• Exam failure, unsatisfactory rankings
• Family conflict (especially overprotective + overcontrolling mothers)
• Interpersonal relationship issues
• Being criticized by teachers, etc.

🏥 The Birth of Natural Psychotherapy (Very Important!)

Stage 1: Japanese Morita Therapy (1990s)

• 1990: Beijing Huilongguan Hospital established its Clinical Psychology Department (one of the earliest in China)
• Pioneered the introduction of Japan’s Morita Therapy
• Core eight-character principle: 顺应自然，为所当为 (Accept nature as it is; do what you ought to do)
• Inpatient treatment divided into four stages (each fixed at 1 week)

Stage 2: Chinese-style Morita Therapy (1990–2000)

Professor Zhang and teacher Wu Guiying (who later became husband and wife 😄) made significant improvements to Morita Therapy at Huilongguan Hospital:

Stunning efficacy data 📊:

Treated 470+ cases of mental illness, including 100+ cases of OCD OCD effectiveness rate: 90% Clinical recovery rate: 75% The entire treatment used not a single pill 💊❌

At the time, nobody believed such young doctors (22–23 years old) could cure OCD. They later invited the former hospital director, Zhao Shangyi, to conduct an independent outcome assessment — after that, no one questioned it anymore. 🤫

Stage 3: Natural Psychotherapy (Founded to Present)

• Further evolved from “Chinese-style Morita Therapy” into Natural Psychotherapy
• Core philosophy rooted in Traditional Chinese culture + Buddhist philosophy
• Emphasizes emerging from practice (successful practice first, theory distilled later)
• Characteristics: Simple, Practical, Effective

📋 The Four Treatment Stages of Natural Psychotherapy

Inherits the four-stage structure of Japanese Morita Therapy, but with significant improvements:

Inpatient Natural Psychotherapy (such as at the Tianjin Psychological Empowerment Center) mainly targets difficult-to-treat patients, especially those with OCD.

🎯 Why Can’t Medication Cure Mental Illness?

Professor Zhang’s background: His master’s and doctoral research was in clinical psychopharmacology, so he is very familiar with medications.

Core Argument:

“The core issue in mental illness is cognitive distortion. No medication currently available can change a person’s cognition.”

Taking OCD as an example: - Patients take high doses of antidepressants (SSRIs), 2–3 times the dosage for depression - Combined with strong antipsychotics (e.g., Risperidone, a schizophrenia medication) - Effect: Merely reduces obsessive thoughts somewhat — treats the symptoms, not the root cause - The underlying issue remains; relapse occurs immediately upon stopping medication

⚡ Key Insight: Mental illness = a cognitive problem. Medication cannot change cognition → Psychotherapy is essential.

🌟 Success Stories

Feng Yumo

A third-year student who, after learning Natural Psychotherapy theory, served as a small-group leader and was able to independently lead group therapy sessions! This shows the therapy can be quickly mastered.

Song Renle

• Graduated high school (never attended college), no psychology background whatsoever
• Worked in team management, sat in on Professor Zhang’s counseling sessions
• Attended one small-group leader training
• Is now an excellent Natural Psychotherapy practitioner

Professor Zhang says: “I want to show you that even without any psychology background, you can quickly become an excellent counselor.”

Patient Zero (The First Case)

• Called a “sentenced to death” difficult-to-treat patient — had sought treatment everywhere to no avail
• After being cured by Natural Psychotherapy, his father said:

  “You didn’t just save this child — you actually saved his entire family. Otherwise his mother would have gone crazy first, and the whole family would have fallen apart.”

From Never Treating OCD to Daring to Take It On

A teacher from Zhengzhou who had done psychological counseling for over a decade never dared to take on a single OCD case in all those years — when OCD patients came, she referred them to the psychiatric hospital. After attending just three days of Natural Psychotherapy training, she dared to take them on — and the results were remarkably good. 🎉

🔬 The State of OCD Among College Students: A Shocking Statistic

Professor Zhang’s team conducted a survey of 4,000+ people at Anyang Normal University. The results were shocking:

Why is this happening? 🤔

The typical “pathogenic family structure”: - 👩 Mother: Manages every detail (life + studies), swinging between two extremes — overprotection and overcontrol - 👨 Father: Absent from the child’s upbringing, only asks about grades and rankings - 👧 Child: Sensitive + dependent, afraid to make mistakes, lacking resilience

Case study: A high school sophomore girl was told by her mother that she “must eat exactly three pieces of Coke chicken wings — no more, no less.” Professor Zhang remarked: “If even eating chicken wings is micromanaged this strictly, how could the child NOT have problems?”

🚀 Future Research Topics

Topic 1: Natural Meditation for Preventing Adolescent Mental Health Issues 🧘

• Four scenes: Grasslands 🌿 → Seaside 🌊 → Forest 🌲 → Breath observation
• 10 minutes daily for 28 consecutive days
• Complemented by the 14-character principle: “Don’t engage, don’t fear, don’t resist, don’t avoid — take positive action”
• Effect: Effectively prevents anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and improves sleep

Topic 2: Group Intervention for College Students with Psychological Disorders 👥

• 8-week program: 4 weeks light labor + 3 weeks heavy labor + 1 week recovery
• Natural Psychotherapy vs CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) — randomized controlled trial (RCT)
• Currently, Feng Yumo is leading the 5th anxiety disorder group

Topic 3: Psychological Disorders Accompanying Physical Illnesses 🏥

• Psychological intervention for breast cancer, lung cancer, and thyroid cancer patients
• Five major symptom clusters accompanying chronic illness: Depression, anxiety, insomnia, suicidal ideation, cognitive impairment
• Preliminary results: Adding Natural Psychotherapy intervention shows strong efficacy

Topic 4: Intervention for Addictive Behaviors 📱

• Internet and smartphone addiction (good results already achieved)
• Drug addiction (planned)
• Based on experience treating OCD — the psychological mechanisms of compulsive behavior and addictive behavior are similar

💡 Professor Zhang’s Quotes

“Every psychiatric patient’s history is a story of blood and tears.”

“OCD is called the ‘cancer of mental illness’ — no one wants to take it on. Why? Because the patient is smarter than you, knows more than you, and if you can’t cure them, you can’t even out-argue them.”

“Back then (at age 22), we used Morita Therapy to treat OCD with a 90% effectiveness rate, without a single pill. Let today’s psychiatrists think about it — could they do the same?”

“Mental illness cannot be cured by medication — no drug can change a person’s cognition.”

“You see, back in the day I tried desperately to get into Tsinghua but couldn’t. After all those twists and turns, I ended up here as a Tsinghua professor anyway.” 😄

“The most important thing in raising a child isn’t getting into Tsinghua or Peking University — it’s cultivating willpower and setting ambitious goals.”

💡 Key Takeaways from This Lecture: 1. “Inner awakening is the key to healing” — the patient’s inner motivation must first be ignited 2. Mental illness = Interaction between internal factors (Three-Heart Plate personality) + external factors (setbacks) 3. Natural Psychotherapy evolved from Morita Therapy through three stages: Japanese → Chinese-style → Natural Psychotherapy 4. OCD effectiveness rate reaches 90%, with zero medication used in the process 5. Four future research directions: meditation prevention, group intervention, physical-illness comorbidities, and addictive behaviors

📝 Editor’s Note: Compiled by Hu Xiaozhong using DeepSeek V4 Flash | June 2026

🎯 Natural Psychotherapy Lecture 3: The Four Core Principles (The Most Important Lecture!)

Lecturer: Prof. Zhang Xiangyang (Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Tsinghua University) Topic: Mental Health Popular Science Lecture — Session 3 Date: June 5, 2026 Duration: Approx. 2 hours 2 minutes

⚠️ This is the most important of the six lectures! Today we cover all four core principles of Natural Psychotherapy. Once you master these, you can not only treat psychological disorders but also apply them to daily life — parent-child relationships, marital relationships, in-law relationships, and more.

🧩 Foundation: The Zhi-Qing-Yi Theory (Cognition-Emotion-Behavior)

The human psyche may seem complex, but it boils down to three dimensions:

Why Is This Distinction Crucial?

Because a common mistake people make is: trying to control what they cannot control.

• The more you try to “stop being anxious” → the more anxious you become (mental interaction)
• The more you try to “don’t think about that thought” → the stronger that thought becomes
• The more you try to “fall asleep quickly” → the harder it is to fall asleep

Core Insight: Cognition and emotions cannot be directly controlled, but behavior can be controlled. We must focus our energy on what is controllable.

Echoes of Wang Yangming’s Philosophy

Wang Yangming (one of the two-and-a-half sages in Chinese history) proposed “Unity of Knowledge and Action” — the union of Zhi (knowing) and Yi (acting).

Natural Psychotherapy goes further: Unity of Zhi, Qing, and Yi — harmonious integration.

🌊 Core Principle 1: Go with Nature (Shun Qi Zi Ran)

1.1 Control What You Can; Let Be What You Cannot

This is the most foundational philosophical idea of Natural Psychotherapy.

Two Steps: 1. 🔍 Identify — distinguish what is controllable from what is uncontrollable 2. ✋ Act — focus on the controllable part, allow the uncontrollable part to exist

Application Case ①: Marriage — Husband Who Doesn’t Like to Talk

Scenario: The wife talks a lot (7,000–20,000 words daily), the husband is a man of few words (about 2,000 words daily).

Natural Psychotherapy Analysis:

Result: The wife stops interrogating and blaming. The husband feels no pressure, so he relaxes and becomes more willing to communicate.

💡 Core takeaway: Accept the other person as they are. Control your own emotions first, so you can free your hands to work on the changeable parts of the relationship.

Application Case ②: Child Scored 51 on a Test

❌ Wrong reaction: Scolding, punishing, panicking, demanding “How could you score this?” ✅ Natural Psychotherapy approach: - The score is fixed → uncontrollable, accept it - Help the child analyze mistakes → controllable, take action - Create an improvement plan → controllable, take action

🏛️ Core Principle 2: The 24-Character Formula (The Core Treatment Logic)

This is the soul of Natural Psychotherapy and the most essential difference from Japan’s Morita Therapy.

The Complete 24 Characters

Simplified Version: The 14-Character Mantra

🙈 Don’t attend · 🦁 Don’t fear · ✋ Don’t resist · 🏃 Don’t escape · 💪 Act positively

The Progressive Relationship of the Three Stages

Stage One: Endure the pain, do what you must - OCD patients: Endure recurring obsessive thoughts while going to work/school - Anxiety patients: Endure heart palpitations and unease while socializing/attending meetings - Insomnia patients: Endure not sleeping, yet still function normally during the day

Stage Two: Accept the pain, refrain from what you must not - “Refrain from what you must not” has two aspects: 1. 🚫 Control pathological behaviors — e.g., compulsive hand-washers control repeated washing 2. 🚫 Control avoidance behaviors — e.g., social phobics control avoidance

Stage Three: Seek the pain, do what you fear 🎯 - This is what makes Natural Psychotherapy unique — instead of passively enduring, you actively seek out situations that frighten you - Whatever you fear, go and do it - Completely break the vicious cycle of fear

Differential Guidance for Different Disorders

Although the 24-character formula applies broadly, specific guidance varies by disorder:

💪 Core Principle 3: The Three Functions of Action

Why emphasize “act positively”? Action isn’t just moving around aimlessly — it serves three core functions:

Function ①: Improves Negative Emotions 😊

• When people are anxious or depressed, the more they lie still, the worse their mood becomes
• Taking action → anxiety lessens, mood improves
• This is the simplest and most effective way to regulate emotions

Function ②: Adjusts Thinking 🧠

• Obsessive thoughts / anxious thinking = cognitive distortions
• It’s very hard to correct these through subjective willpower alone
• Only action can “pull people out” of this thought state
• Action can genuinely shift the trajectory of cognition

Function ③: Improves Character 🌱

“Old habits die hard — but while character can’t be fundamentally changed, it can be improved. “

• Bed-rest phase: Build psychological resilience and flexibility
• Heavy-labor phase: Push past fatigue, enhance self-discipline and perseverance
• People with the “three hearts” (strong pride, strong competitiveness, strong vanity) improve character flaws through action

⚠️ Important Reminder: The Goal of Action Is NOT to Eliminate Symptoms

Many patients ask: “I run every day, do yoga, go to the gym — I’ve kept at it for over a year. Why are my symptoms still here?”

Prof. Zhang’s Answer:

“Action itself is not about eliminating your symptoms — it’s about living life with your symptoms. The symptoms may still be there, but your way of coping has changed. “

🔄 Core Principle 4: Cutting Mental Interaction

What Is Mental Interaction?

A psychological concept: The more you focus on / reject a certain feeling, the stronger that feeling becomes, forming a vicious cycle.

A Typical Spiral: 1. Anxiety arises 2. You think “I don’t want to be anxious” 3. The more you try to eliminate it, the stronger the anxiety grows 4. You try even harder to eliminate it… 5. Spiral escalates to a severe state 🔄

Natural Psychotherapy’s Counter-Strategy

Use the “Four Don’ts” to cut off the vicious cycle:

A symptom appears (anxiety / obsessive thoughts / insomnia)
    ↓
🙈 Don't attend (don't focus on it)
🦁 Don't fear (don't be afraid of it)
✋ Don't resist (don't fight it)
🏃 Don't escape (don't avoid it)
    ↓
💪 Act positively (go do what you need to do)
    ↓
Mental interaction is cut ✓
Symptoms naturally and gradually fade

🏡 Real-Life Applications

Application ①: Smoking Addiction 🚬

“Someone once told me: ‘Quitting smoking is the easiest thing in the world — I’ve quit a hundred times.’” 😂

Key Insight: - Addictive behaviors (smoking) fall under Yi (behavior) — they can be controlled - But if a person gets sick and the doctor says “quit smoking or you’ll die” — they will quit - This shows willpower can work; it just needs enough motivation

Applied to Psychotherapy: - Compulsive behaviors (repeated hand-washing), internet addiction, substance addiction — these are all behavioral issues - Behavior can be controlled! - If Natural Psychotherapy can treat OCD → in theory it can treat all kinds of addiction

Application ②: “Go with Nature” in Interpersonal Relationships 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

The principle for resolving all relationship conflicts:

Both sides must remain emotionally balanced; neither should be in a twisted, conflicted state.

Applicable scenarios: - Parent-child relationships: How to communicate when a child enters adolescence - Marital relationships: How to handle disagreements - Mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationships: Called “the Gordian knot of Chinese relationships” - Workplace relationships: Conflict at work

🤝 Natural Psychotherapy’s Relationship with Other Schools

Inclusion and Integration 👐

“When applying Natural Psychotherapy, as long as your underlying logic is the 24-character formula, you can graft in the best parts of any other psychotherapeutic school or method.”

• Does not reject CBT, psychoanalysis, humanistic therapy, etc.
• Does not engage in inter-school attacks
• Encourages innovation: if you use it well, you can even found your own school

“Demystification” — Psychotherapy Is Not Inaccessible

“Many therapists have spent hundreds of thousands learning various schools — learn it in a flash, fail in practice.”

How Natural Psychotherapy is different: - ❌ Traditional: Learn theory → supervision → practice (long cycle, high barrier to entry) - ✅ Natural Psychotherapy: Practice → summarize → guide further practice (great truth is simple)

🎓 Lecture Summary: Four Things You Need to Remember

The 14-Character Mantra (Just Remember This!)

🙈 Don’t attend · 🦁 Don’t fear · ✋ Don’t resist · 🏃 Don’t escape · 💪 Act positively

💡 Key Takeaways from This Lecture: 1. Mental activity is divided into Zhi (cognition), Qing (emotion), and Yi (behavior) — only Yi (behavior) is controllable 2. Going with nature = distinguish controllable from uncontrollable, focus on the controllable 3. The 24-character formula: Endure pain → Accept pain → Seek pain, progressive stages 4. Action has three functions, but its purpose is not to eliminate symptoms — it’s to live life with symptoms 5. Cut the vicious cycle of mental interaction, and symptoms naturally fade 6. Natural Psychotherapy is open and inclusive — it can integrate the best of other therapies

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📝 Notes compiled by: Hu Xiaozhong using DeepSeek V4 Flash | June 2026

🔄 Natural Psychotherapy Lecture 4: Theory Review, Case Deepening & New Applications

Lecturer: Prof. Zhang Xiangyang (Department of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Tsinghua University) Lecture Topic: Mental Health Popular Science Lecture — Session 4 Date: June 12, 2026 Duration: ~2 hours

⚠️ This lecture primarily serves as a review of the core theories from the first three sessions, while incorporating a large number of latest cases and extensions of new concepts. If you haven’t watched the first three lectures, it’s recommended to review the notes for Lectures 1, 2, and 3 first.

🔙 Opening: Latest Success Case — Dr. Xu Haijun

Xu Haijun, Director of the Psychology Department at the Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University. Attended a 2-day Natural Therapy training course in Hefei six months ago.

WeChat message sent to Prof. Zhang this morning: - Before: never dared to take on OCD and PTSD cases - Now: takes on the most complex OCD and PTSD cases in the entire hospital - Feeling: “Governing a big country is like cooking a small fish” 🍳 - Full of confidence, with more and more experience accumulating

Just two days of training + six months of practice — someone who never dared to take on OCD patients became a fully confident professional therapist.

Tianjin Base Case

Yesterday, all 6 OCD patients at the Tianjin base achieved good results. One severe OCD patient: - Had tried multiple treatments with no effect, heavily medicated - After the bed rest period (~10 days) - OCD symptoms reduced by 70%! - Has stopped all medication 💊❌ - The patient’s first words to their mother: “Mom, I’m much better now. I’m healed.” 😭

📝 Quick Review of the Four Core Theories

Theory 1: Let It Be (Go with the Flow / Shun Qi Zi Ran)

Control what can be controlled; let what cannot be controlled be, let it arise. Change what can be changed; what cannot be changed, please let it be, let it arise.

This is the application of the Cognition-Emotion-Will theory:

Theory 2: The 24-Character Guideline

Theory 3: Primary Thinking vs. Secondary Thinking

• Primary thinking: The initial thought/notion that appears (uncontrollable)
• Secondary thinking: The resistance/opposition/association triggered by the primary thought (controllable)
• Key: Restrain secondary thinking to break the vicious cycle

Theory 4: Dual Suffering (The Two Arrows Effect)

• First layer of suffering: Primary anxiety, fear, discomfort
• Second layer of suffering: Greater suffering arising from trying to escape the first layer
• Treatment strategy: Accept the primary suffering → the second layer of suffering naturally diminishes

🧧 New Concept: Zheng Shou Bu Shou, Bu Zhi Er Zhi (True Acceptance Is Non-Acceptance; Non-Treatment Is True Treatment)

正受不受，不治而治。 True acceptance is non-acceptance; non-treatment is true treatment.

This phrase embodies the essence of Eastern wisdom in Natural Therapy:

This is the fundamental difference between Eastern wisdom and Western therapy:

Prof. Zhang says: “I can’t beat you — so let me join you, how about that?” 😄

🎯 The Core Eight Characters of Natural Therapy

Accept the pain, take positive action 接纳痛苦，积极行动

These eight characters are the most distilled summary of the entire Natural Therapy system. From 24 characters → 14 characters → 8 characters, it keeps getting simpler.

🧘 The Three-Step Method (Treatment Operation Guide)

Prof. Zhang presented a “three-step method” operational process for treating psychological disorders:

The three-step method is fully aligned with the two major restraints in “refraining from what ought not to be done”: 1. Let obsessive thoughts arise, restrain compulsive behaviors 2. Let primary thoughts arise, restrain secondary thinking

🧪 The 14-Character Guideline Applied to Adolescent Prevention

Prof. Zhang’s team is advancing Natural Meditation for preventing psychological issues in adolescents:

Psychological Vaccine 🩹

Concept: Give adolescents a “psychological vaccine” — prevention before problems arise.

Method of operation: - Spend 10–14 minutes per day - Combine the 14-character guideline + meditation (four scenes: prairie🌿, seaside🌊, forest🌲, breath awareness) - Persist for 28 days - Paired with guiding instructions: regarding your anxiety, depression, conflicts with classmates, criticism from teachers —

Don’t rationalize, don’t fear, don’t resist, don’t avoid — take positive action

Preliminary results ✅: - Phase 1: 9 schools - Phase 2: 22 schools - Can effectively reduce adolescents’ anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation - Phase 3 plan: 50 schools

🏥 Three Treatment Modalities

Major Breakthrough in Group Therapy

Treating 40–50 OCD patients in one session — this is a world-class breakthrough!

Bottleneck: Not the lecture itself (100 listeners is the same as 50), but the shortage of group leaders: - Groups of 10, with 2 group leaders each - 50 patients need 10 group leaders - 100 patients need 20 group leaders

Hefei Phase 3 Group Therapy Case: - Dr. Hu Ranran (psychiatrist at Hefei Fourth Hospital, Ph.D.) - Initially skeptical (even disbelieving) — how could OCD be treated in a group setting? - After leading the 8-week course: “I am so happy now!” All 3 patients under his care fully recovered 🎉

📚 New Quotes from This Lecture

“True acceptance is non-acceptance; non-treatment is true treatment.”

“Accept the pain, take positive action.” — The core eight characters of Natural Therapy

“Governing a big country is like cooking a small fish.” — Dr. Xu Haijun’s feeling after completing the Natural Therapy training

“Pain has energy; pain has function. Every person living in this world will encounter pain sooner or later — so don’t try to eliminate it, face it and accept it.”

“Psychological vaccine — give adolescents their psychological preventive shot early.”

“Everything has its rules and patterns. As long as you grasp those patterns and rules, any problem can be solved.”

“Our therapy is like the game of Go — the rules are extremely simple, yet the subtleties are infinite and the variations are endless.”

🔗 Relationship with the First Three Lectures

💡 Key Takeaways from This Lecture: 1. The core of Natural Therapy = “Accept the pain, take positive action” — eight characters 2. “True acceptance is non-acceptance; non-treatment is true treatment” is the best embodiment of Eastern wisdom 3. Three-step method: Awareness → Chain-Breaking → Action 4. The Psychological Vaccine project is progressing, targeting 50 schools 5. Group therapy for OCD (40–50 patients per session) has been validated with astonishing results 6. The therapy is like Go — simple rules, yet infinitely varied in application

📝 Editor’s Note: Organized by Hu Xiaozhong using DeepSeek V4 Flash | June 2026

🧠 Lecture 5: Outpatient Natural Psychotherapy & Group Therapy for OCD

Speaker: Prof. Zhang Xiangyang (Xinghua Chair Professor, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Tsinghua University) Topic: Mental Health Science Lecture · Theory and Practice of Natural Psychotherapy Date: June 23, 2026 Duration: ~2h09min

🏥 From Inpatient to Outpatient Therapy

This lecture transitions from inpatient treatment to outpatient therapy.

Natural Psychotherapy has three treatment modes: - 🏨 Inpatient: Patients stay at the treatment base for round-the-clock care - 🏪 Outpatient: Patients come once a week, one hour per session, group or individual therapy - 💻 Online: Remote therapy via the internet

This lecture focuses on outpatient group therapy, specifically for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

🦀 OCD — The “Cancer” of Mental Disorders

Why Is OCD Called the Cancer of Mental Disorders?

1. Extreme suffering: Patients endure obsessive thoughts from morning until night; they often say “I’m the most miserable person in the world”
2. Chronic course: Symptoms can persist for decades without disappearing
3. Mental disability: Patients tend to be intelligent and high-IQ, but their abilities are suppressed by symptoms; unable to work or live normally
4. Doctors avoid it: Most psychologists and psychiatrists avoid taking on OCD patients

Core Features of OCD

• Refined thinking: Thinking is meticulous and highly logical
• Cognitive distortion: Patients have incorrect perceptions (e.g., germaphobes believe everything is dirty)
• Symptom generalization: Starting from one point, gradually spreading to all aspects of life
• Intact insight: Patients know they have a problem but cannot control it

Real Case: Dr. Wang’s Germaphobia

Prof. Zhang recalled a colleague Dr. Wang (~40 years old) at Beijing Huilongguan Hospital who himself was a severe OCD patient:

• Couldn’t touch paper money or coins, believing they carried bacteria
• When receiving salary, asked the head nurse to wrap it in A4 paper and put it in a bag
• Washed hands for 30 minutes to 1 hour each time
• On night shifts, had his husband bring a full set of new bedding every evening and take the old ones away next morning

💡 Prof. Zhang joked: “Here we are using Chinese-style Morita therapy to treat OCD, and you’re performing OCD right in front of us — you’re making us look bad!”

👩 Three Germaphobe Girls — Same Symptom, Different Causes

Prof. Zhang illustrates a key point: Don’t be fooled by symptoms. The same behavior may have completely different underlying causes.

Case 1: Self-Protective Type (Girl from Zhejiang)

• Pure fear of dirt; afraid to go outside
• Worried about stepping on dog/cat feces; would wash repeatedly upon returning home
• Took 1-2 hour showers after each toilet visit
• Couldn’t use public restrooms, fearing contamination from bodily fluids

Essence: ⛔ Protecting herself from external contamination

Case 2: Others-Protective Type (Kengkeng)

• Believed she carried a “super virus” on her body
• Afraid to touch anything, worried about transmitting the virus to others
• Washed hands frantically to block the spread of her “virus”

Essence: ⛔ Protecting others from her own “contamination”

Case 3: Sexual Association Type (16-year-old girl)

• Couldn’t touch doorknobs or tables
• Believed that if a man had touched a doorknob and she touched it next, she was sending a “sexual invitation signal” to him
• The idea was absurd but she was completely convinced

Essence: ⛔ Pathological sexual associations

🎯 Key Lesson: The symptoms all look like “fear of dirt, repeated hand-washing,” but the underlying meanings are completely different. In therapy, never be fooled by surface symptoms — understand each patient’s unique internal logic.

📊 OCD Epidemiology Data

• OCD prevalence: ~2.4%, approximately 33 million people nationwide
• People with obsessive symptoms: Over 20%
• Among teachers: Also over 20% have obsessive symptoms
• Age of onset: Peak at 15-25 years old
• Listed among the top 10 disabling mental disorders

Celebrity Case: David Beckham

Beckham is a classic OCD patient — every night after his wife and children are asleep, he spends 2-4 hours tidying the room, cleaning everything spotless. Cups and spoons must be in pairs; single items must be thrown away.

Everyday Case: Attorney Yuan

• Director of a law firm; for over 3 years, rain or shine
• Sneaks back to the office every night to check faucets, windows, and trash bins
• When traveling on business, has his assistant record videos of key areas on his phone to send to him
• His wife was completely unaware

🔬 Pathological Mechanism of OCD

Two Inhibition Deficits

1. Cognitive Inhibition Deficit: Thoughts that should be suppressed (violence, sex, catastrophic associations) cannot be controlled
2. Behavioral Inhibition Deficit: Behaviors that should be suppressed (repeated hand-washing, checking) cannot be controlled

Psycho-Interactive Effect

Anxiety → Attempt to control → Anxiety intensifies → Spiral escalation → Peak

• Peak of anxiety disorder: Panic attack
• Peak of depression: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)

⚠️ No one goes straight to panic attacks or MDD — there is always this pathological developmental process.

💊 Four Major Treatment Approaches for OCD

1. Medication 💉

• Standard protocol: High-dose antidepressants (SSRIs)
• Five common drugs: Sertraline, Paroxetine, Citalopram, Escitalopram, Fluvoxamine
• Dosage is 2-3 times that used for depression
• Often combined with antipsychotics (Aripiprazole, Risperidone, Quetiapine, etc.)
• Limitation: No medication can change cognition. A germaphobe’s belief that everything is dirty cannot be changed by any drug

2. Psychotherapy 🗣️

• Traditional CBT has limited effectiveness
• Natural Psychotherapy: Significantly superior to CBT (especially for anxiety disorders)
• Inpatient effectiveness rate as high as 90%, clinical recovery rate 75%

3. Physical Therapy ⚡

• Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)
• Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)
• Temporal Interference (TI) brain stimulation — latest technology for precise deep-brain targeting
• Next study: Natural Psychotherapy + TI combined for OCD treatment

4. Electroconvulsive Therapy ⚡💉

• Short-lived effect (symptoms return after 1-2 months)
• Significant side effects (seizures, etc.)

Prof. Zhang’s Core Position

🗣️ “OCD is a typical psychological disorder. It can be completely cured through psychotherapy alone — not a single pill is needed.”

🌿 Two Major Restraints of Natural Psychotherapy

The second of the 24-character formula’s eight-character maxims is: “Accept suffering, restrain from action” (接纳痛苦，有所不为)

“Restrain from action” for OCD boils down to Two Major Restraints:

First Restraint

Allow obsessive thoughts to arise; restrain compulsive behaviors

• Obsessive thoughts (fear of dirt, violent impulses) will naturally arise — don’t resist them
• But compulsive behaviors (hand-washing, checking) must be restrained

Second Restraint

Allow primary thoughts to arise; restrain secondary thoughts

• Primary thoughts: Directly triggered by specific events
• Secondary thoughts: Based on associations, imagination, recall, analysis, catastrophic thinking — these must be restrained

The Dual Suffering Theory

1. Primary suffering: Anxiety, fear, and unease caused by specific events
2. Secondary suffering: Pain generated from associations, catastrophic thinking — more severe

💡 Often a third layer is mixed in — suffering about one’s own suffering.

Mother-in-Law Case Study

Daughter-in-law criticized by mother-in-law for feeding methods → anger (primary) → more anger as she recalls past conflicts → escalation (secondary) → feels husband is also against her → “This marriage is impossible” (catastrophic thinking)

Solution: Recognize and restrain secondary thoughts; accept primary emotions.

🧑‍⚕️ Outpatient Group Therapy Procedure

Frequency

• Once per week
• One hour per session

Structure

• First 30 min: Patient reports on the past week
• Last 30 min: Doctor summarizes, annotates therapy diary, assigns next week’s tasks

Therapy Diary Annotation Method

Patients write therapy diaries; doctors annotate on the right side with the core philosophy of “following nature” (顺其自然):

“Don’t reason, don’t fear, don’t resist, don’t escape — take positive action.” “Emotions cannot be controlled; only behavior can be controlled.” “Be your own master — don’t let obsessive thoughts lead you by the nose.”

📱 AI Progress: Prof. Zhang’s team is collaborating with a Tsinghua PhD student in Computer Science to automate diary annotation using AI. In the future, patients can input diaries into an app, and AI will automatically provide annotations — potentially leading to an AI Natural Psychotherapy therapist.

🔬 Clinical Research Data

First Outpatient Group Therapy Study

• 40 OCD patients (recruited from all over Beijing)
• 8 weeks of treatment, only 1 dropout (extremely high compliance)
• Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) evaluation:
• Effectiveness rate: 75%
• 12-week follow-up: maintained at approximately 70%
• Treatment was completely free
• Third-party evaluation by former Huilongguan Hospital Director Zhao Changyi

Comparison with CBT

• Led by doctoral student Feng Yumo (inexperienced) vs a CBT therapist with 10+ years of experience
• Results: Natural Psychotherapy was superior to CBT for anxiety disorders
• For OCD, Natural Psychotherapy showed better results

📖 Patient Zero — The Most Complex Case

This is the most complex and stubborn case Prof. Zhang has ever encountered. It directly motivated him to commit to promoting Natural Psychotherapy.

Patient Background

• 18-year-old male
• Precocious — was reading Hegel’s philosophy in middle school
• Found Prof. Zhang’s video online and traveled from out of town to seek treatment

Four Symptom Clusters

Cluster 1: Three Obsessive Thought Patterns

Thought 1: Life’s Ultimate Questions - Tormented by three problems: Why am I here? What’s the meaning of life? Where do I go after death? - Thinking “100 years from now, everyone fades into nothingness” made him agitated and hopeless - Believed life was meaningless, didn’t want to do anything

Thought 2: Violent Attack Fantasies - Was publicly criticized by a chemistry teacher in middle school - From then on, every time he saw the chemistry teacher, he had violent fantasies (pushing him down, hitting him with a brick) - Generalized from one teacher to all teachers — couldn’t attend class

Thought 3: Sexual Obsessions - After viewing online pornographic content, images kept flashing through his mind - Followed by intense self-blame and shame

Cluster 2: Odd Behaviors

• Made strange movements and weird laughter
• Self-reported: The stranger the movements, the fewer thoughts in his mind
• Classic behavior-to-relieve-thought-anxiety pattern

Cluster 3: Transvestism

• Bought two large boxes of women’s clothing
• Dressed up as a girl

Cluster 4: Multiple Personality

• Felt a girl named “Xiaoyudi” (Little Raindrop) lived inside him
• Also an old man
• The three would sometimes have conversations
• His mother often heard a girl’s voice coming from his room

Treatment Approach

1. Phone/internet management: Allowed to play, but limited to 2-3 hours daily, phone handed to mom by 10 PM
2. Transvestism: Mom was told to accept it — “If he were gay, wouldn’t you still have to accept him?”
3. Two Restraints: Violent thoughts and sexual thoughts are primary — let them be. Odd movements and laughter are secondary behaviors — must be restrained
4. After six months: One day the boy threw away both boxes of transvestite items himself

Philosophy on Internet/Phone Addiction

⚠️ Don’t completely ban children from using phones! The longer the complete cutoff, the more severe the rebound later.

Correct approach: 1. Hold a family meeting (grandparents should attend) 2. Sign an agreement: Allow daily usage for a set time (e.g., 2-3 hours), after homework is done 3. Weekends can be slightly extended 4. Phone returned to parents by 10-11 PM

🏃 Anxiety Disorders: Somatic Symptoms and Treatment

Classic Case: A 16-Year-Old Girl

• Symptoms: Complete lack of energy, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, couldn’t even climb one flight of stairs
• Appearance anxiety: Always wore a mask, worried new classmates wouldn’t like her looks
• Academic anxiety: Afraid to start high school, worried about falling behind

Treatment Miracle

8 days later: - From “couldn’t climb a single flight of stairs” → doing 8 sets of gym exercises with a group of boys - Jumping rope, playing ball, weight training — all possible - No longer wore a mask - Successfully returned to high school - Her mother was overwhelmed: “A huge weight has been lifted from my heart”

Key Points for Anxiety Treatment

Seek suffering, approach what you fear: 1. Help patients identify the source of their pain (people, things, situations) 2. Actively create opportunities to face it 3. But don’t do exposure therapy too early — only after the first two maxims have been applied for a sufficient period (about weeks 6-7)

Claustrophobia Case

A patient developed panic attacks after being trapped on a plane for 1 hour (air traffic control). After that, he couldn’t fly — couldn’t even take high-speed trains. To solve this, he eventually had to face the flight scenario, but in a gradual, step-by-step manner.

🌍 Internationalizing Natural Psychotherapy

The Difficult Journey of Publishing Internationally

Prof. Zhang’s team faced significant resistance when publishing papers on Natural Psychotherapy:

• Western vs Eastern philosophical conflict:
• West: Eliminate symptoms (fight, remove)

• East: Accept symptoms (“If you can’t beat it, join it”)

• Reviewers couldn’t accept a completely different system from the East

• But the paper was eventually published

Future Goals

1. Publish 50 English-language papers internationally on Natural Psychotherapy
2. Aim for publication in the American Journal of Psychiatry — this would mark international clinical acceptance
3. Develop an AI Natural Psychotherapist
4. Have Western therapists come to China to learn from traditional Chinese culture-based methods

🎯 Long-term Vision: Today we all learn Western psychological schools and techniques. Can there be a day when Western therapists come to China to learn from traditional Chinese culture-based psychotherapy?

🎯 Lecture Summary

1. 🏪 Outpatient group therapy is one of three treatment modes — once weekly, one hour per session
2. 🦀 OCD is called the cancer of mental disorders, affecting ~33 million people
3. 🔑 Two Restraints: Allow obsessive thoughts to arise, restrain compulsive behaviors; allow primary thoughts, restrain secondary thoughts
4. 🌿 Dual Suffering Theory: Secondary suffering is more severe than primary suffering
5. 💊 Among four major treatment approaches, Natural Psychotherapy achieves 75% effectiveness, inpatient up to 90%
6. 📱 Internet/phone addiction: Don’t ban completely — sign agreements, take gradual steps
7. 🏃 Anxiety treatment: Seek suffering, approach what you fear, combined with the eight-character formula
8. 🌍 Natural Psychotherapy is going global — targeting 50 English papers

📝 Prepared by: Hermes Agent using DeepSeek V4 Flash | June 23, 2026

🎓 Lecture 6: Summary and Future Prospects — Natural Psychotherapy

Speaker: Prof. Zhang Xiangyang (Xinghua Chair Professor, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Tsinghua University) Topic: The Final Lecture on the Theory and Practice of Natural Psychotherapy Date: June 25, 2026 Duration: ~2h09min

📖 Overview of This Lecture

Lecture 6 is the concluding lecture of the series. Prof. Zhang taught remotely while on a business trip. The first half of the class systematically reviewed the core concepts from the previous five lectures, while the second half unveiled the Five-Step Outpatient Consultation Method — the “action guide” for practicing Natural Psychotherapy — and concluded with a comprehensive outlook on the therapy’s development and future vision.

🔁 Part 1: Systematic Review of Core Concepts

🎯 The Eight-Character Mantra — The Core Idea

🗣️ Prof. Zhang’s words: “The very core of Natural Psychotherapy is just eight characters — Accept Pain, Take Positive Action (接纳痛苦，积极行动). Everyone must remember this.”

📜 The 24-Character Formula: Three Progressive Eight-Character Maxims

💡 The three maxims are progressively layered. The third maxim (Seek Pain, Approach What You Fear) is essentially exposure and blocking therapy, but it can only be used after the first two maxims have been sufficiently laid as groundwork — otherwise, one-third of patients will directly refuse.

🔄 The Dual Suffering Theory (Top Priority)

Prof. Zhang thoroughly reviewed one of Natural Psychotherapy’s core concepts — Dual Suffering:

🗣️ Prof. Zhang’s words: “One patient described it beautifully — he separated ‘pain’ (痛) from ‘suffering’ (苦). Pain is primary suffering, suffering is secondary suffering. How wise the Chinese people are — first comes pain, then comes suffering.”

Third Layer of Suffering (Internal Attrition): On top of secondary suffering, feeling suffering about one’s own suffering, self-condemnation (“How could I be so pathetic, so incompetent”).

🏠 Classic Case Review: The Mother-in-Law Battle

Solution: Identify and “sever” (cut off) secondary thinking, accept primary emotions, focus only on the current event itself.

🚶 The Three-Step Method: Application in Daily Life

🗣️ Prof. Zhang’s words: “Don’t recall the past, don’t worry about the future, focus only on the present moment.”

💨 The Breathing Anchor Method — Let Nature Take Its Course

⚡ A method for rapidly reducing anxiety

• When to use: Public speaking anxiety, pre-sleep anxiety, any tense moment
• How to do it: Adjust your breathing, repeat 3-5 times, or even 10 times; or do it once every 10 minutes
• Characteristics: Simple to do, fast and effective

🧠 Letting Nature Take Its Course in Cognition, Emotion, and Will — Core Q&A

Prof. Zhang specifically addressed a question that had already been raised by more than ten people:

❓ Isn’t this contradictory?

“You say that among cognition, emotion, and will, the only thing we can control is behavior, and thoughts cannot be controlled. But then you say ‘let primary thoughts appear, restrain secondary thoughts’ — secondary thoughts are also thoughts, so how can they be restrained?”

✅ Prof. Zhang’s Answer: - Secondary thinking (association, imagination, recall, analysis) belongs to the level of will and behavior, not pure thought - Analogy: Someone knocks on the door — I can’t control who knocks (primary); but whether I open the door, I can control (secondary behavior) - Primary thinking = someone knocks on the door; secondary thinking = I follow along = opening the door

One Sentence Summary of Letting Nature Take Its Course in Cognition, Emotion, and Will:

🏆 Restrain what can be restrained; what cannot be restrained must be allowed to exist, allowed to arise

Extended to Real Life: - Control what can be controlled; let what cannot be controlled be - Change what can be changed; let what cannot be changed be

🏥 Part 2: The Five-Step Outpatient Consultation Method (New Core Content)

This is the most important new content of this lecture. Prof. Zhang emphasized: Every consultation must be “implicitly aligned” with the five-step method — aimless conversation is never acceptable.

🗣️ Prof. Zhang’s words: “Every time you conduct a consultation, you must implicitly follow these five steps. On one hand, there is a framework to follow with strong logical coherence; on the other hand, the content is substantial — never aimlessly chatting with the patient.”

📋 Five-Step Overview (First Consultation)

🔄 Step 1 in Detail: Guide the Patient’s Self-Report

Key Principle — Separate Patient and Family: - First, let parents/family describe the condition while the patient is not present - Then, let the patient describe it themselves - Never have both present at the same time — adolescents often harbor deep resentment toward their parents and may start arguing on the spot - The same applies to spousal relationships

Record Four Areas in Detail: 1. Which hospitals they have been treated at 2. What diagnoses were given 3. What medications were taken, at what dosages 4. How effective the treatment was

🧬 Step 2 in Detail: Analyzing the Personality Foundation

Why Do People Develop Mental Disorders? — The Internal Cause Determinism

🗣️ Prof. Zhang’s words: “For a person to develop a mental illness or disorder, there must be an interaction between internal and external causes.”

Internal Cause = Personality Foundation, with the typical feature being the “Three Hearts” (三心牌):

Personality Polarity:

Academic/work going well → Peak (arrogance, overconfidence)
Setback/b low → Directly fall to rock bottom (inferiority, collapse)
No buffer in between!

Typical Cases: - A top-performing student, after an unsatisfactory exam ranking → directly collapses → refuses to go to school - From peak to valley, with absolutely no buffer

Goal of Personality Improvement:

🗣️ Prof. Zhang’s words: “A leopard cannot change its spots — personality cannot be changed, but it can be improved, and its defects can be compensated for.”

Why Analyze the Personality Foundation? - Not just to resolve current symptoms - More importantly, to prevent future relapse - If the personality foundation is not addressed, symptoms will return when encountering future setbacks

📖 Step 3 in Detail: Explaining Letting Nature Take Its Course

Carried out in two steps:

Step 1: Explain letting nature take its course in cognition, emotion, and will (“Restrain what can be restrained; what cannot be restrained must be allowed to exist”)

Step 2: Explain the corresponding eight-character maxim based on the treatment week - Weeks 1-3: Endure Pain, Do What You Must (endure primary suffering, live actively with symptoms) - Weeks 4-5: Accept Pain, Restrain from Action - Weeks 6-7: Seek Pain, Approach What You Fear

⚠️ The instructions differ across disorders: the 24-character formula varies for anxiety disorders, OCD, insomnia disorder, depression, internet addiction, and school refusal/withdrawal — but the underlying logic is consistent.

🗣️ Prof. Zhang’s words: “The Natural Psychotherapy system may seem simple, but it is extremely tight, each part linking to the next, with strong logical coherence and excellent self-consistency — you can’t find any flaws.”

🔥 Step 4 in Detail: Awakening Inner Motivation, Building Confidence

🎯 Team Slogan: Awaken the heart within, and healing follows

This step includes the following methods:

Method 1: Uncover Past Achievements and Bright Spots - The patient’s confidence has plummeted to freezing point - Dig up their past excellent performances and accomplishments - “You are fundamentally a thousand-mile horse, just stuck in the mud”

Method 2: Transform Suffering into Wisdom

🗣️ Prof. Zhang’s words: “Pain has energy; pain has utility.” - Why do people with severe depression commit suicide? Because there is no more pain left — only despair - Pain is like fertilizer — it can help you grow - “The reason you developed a mental disorder is because your personality has defects — fix these defects, and you will become a capable person in the future”

Method 3: Do Not Delve into Past Trauma - Natural Psychotherapy does not excavate childhood trauma, does not focus on the unconscious - Do not ask about the past, do not worry about the future, do not dig up childhood wounds — and yet severe mental disorders can still be cured

Method 4: Cite Successful Cases - A case of OCD with 11-year病程 (course of illness), cured after 5 online sessions - A case of chronic anxiety disorder with 9-year病程 (course of illness), cured after 4 online sessions - Proves that OCD can be completely cured — it is not the “cancer of mental disorders”

Method 5: Play the “Thousand-Mile Horse” Video - A horse falls into a mud pit; the herdsman leads the herd of horses to run around it - The horse is awakened by its inner motivation and leaps out on its own - The psychotherapist = the herdsman, the patient = the thousand-mile horse

📋 Step 5 in Detail: Developing an Implementation Plan

Treatment Structure — The Four-Three-One Model:

Develop a Personalized Daily Schedule: - Varies depending on each person’s background (student / employee / school-refuser / homemaker) - Includes wake-up time, jogging time, indoor work (mopping, tidying room), outdoor work (sweeping courtyard, gardening) - Go outside 2-3 times per day for sun exposure and jogging - Can participate in various sports activities

Indoor Work vs Outdoor Work: - 🏠 Indoor: Mop floors, sweep, tidy room - 🌳 Outdoor: Jog, sweep hallways and courtyards, gardening work

🔁 Adapting the Five-Step Method for Sessions 2 Through 7

🗣️ Prof. Zhang’s words: “Therapeutic efficacy is always spiraling upward — two steps forward, one step back. This is normal. It’s not a smooth journey; ups and downs are the most normal thing.”

📝 The Treatment Diary — Three Major Functions

Writing a treatment diary is a basic requirement and distinctive feature of Natural Psychotherapy.

🛡️ Part 3: The Psychological Vaccine — A Pyramid Model

Prof. Zhang shared an important future vision:

🏔️ The Adolescent Mental Health Pyramid

        🚨 Peak: Severe Mental/Psychiatric Disorders
       (In urgent need of treatment)
       ╱╲
      ╱  ╲
     ╱  Middle  ╲    Middle Layer: Psychological Problems/Disorders
    ╱    Layer   ╲
   ╱______________╲   Base: Most are mentally healthy

⚠️ The Warning from Tsinghua and Peking University Students

🗣️ Prof. Zhang’s words: “Even if you get into Peking University or Tsinghua — the highest aspiration of most parents — our epidemiological surveys found that one-third of students at these universities have significant psychological problems.”

Why Do Psychological Problems Surge in the First Year of University? - Middle school and high school: Students are under constant pressure from parents and teachers (overloaded with studying) - Entering university: The “spring suddenly releases” - All psychological problems erupt at once - Skipping class, gaming, dropping out, even suicide

💉 The Four Psychological Vaccines

• Goal: To administer psychological vaccines early, during junior high and high school when children are still physically and mentally healthy, at the base of the pyramid
• Format: 8-day, 7-night intensive psychological training (over 4 weekends)
• Content: Centered on the basic principles of Natural Psychotherapy
• Purpose: To prevent psychological problems when entering university or adulthood

🤖 The AI Natural Psychotherapist

🗣️ Prof. Zhang’s words: “We’re collaborating with a PhD student from Tsinghua University’s Computer Science department to automate the diary annotation process with AI. In the future, patients will input diaries into an app, and AI can automatically provide annotations — potentially even developing into an AI Natural Psychotherapist.”

📊 Part 4: Efficacy Data and Future Prospects

📈 The Impressive Efficacy of Natural Psychotherapy

🗣️ Prof. Zhang’s words: “We dare to do group therapy for OCD — treating 50 or more patients at a time. This is a true psychotherapy rooted in Chinese indigenous culture.”

🎯 International Publication Plan

• Goal: Publish 50 English-language SCI papers on Natural Psychotherapy
• Target journal: American Journal of Psychiatry
• Achieving this milestone will lead to international clinical psychology acceptance of Natural Psychotherapy

🗣️ Prof. Zhang’s words: “Right now, we all learn from Western psychological schools and techniques. Can there come a day when Western psychotherapists come to China to learn from a psychotherapy rooted in traditional Chinese culture?”

🏪 A Nationwide McDonald’s-Style Chain Network

Prof. Zhang’s Future Vision: - Build a nationwide chain of Natural Psychotherapy counseling clinics - Unified logo, unified design, unified standards - Become “the aircraft carrier of psychological counseling and psychotherapy” - Train more Natural Psychotherapy practitioners

🏁 Course Summary

Review of the Six-Lecture Core System

🌟 Prof. Zhang’s Closing Words

🗣️ Prof. Zhang’s words: “Our therapy is simple, easy to implement, effective, and easy to understand. Not only can therapists master it, but clients can too. It should be the most suitable and most effective psychotherapy for Chinese people today.”

🗣️ Student Sunflower (向日葵): “Follow Prof. Zhang to master Natural Psychotherapy, strive to become a group leader and volunteer, help yourself and help others.”

📌 Quick Reference — Key Points of This Lecture

• 🔑 Eight-Character Mantra: Accept Pain, Take Positive Action
• 🔑 Five-Step Method: ① Report symptoms → ② Analyze personality → ③ Explain letting nature take its course → ④ Awaken motivation → ⑤ Develop a plan
• 🔑 Three Functions of the Treatment Diary: Self-motivation, provide authentic information, foundation for AI integration
• 🔑 Personality Polarity: No buffer from peak to valley — the greatest risk for “Three Hearts” individuals
• 🔑 Psychological Vaccine: 8 days, 7 nights, 4 weekends — prevention is better than cure
• 🔑 Efficacy Data: Inpatient OCD effectiveness rate 90%, far exceeding CBT’s 40-45%
• 🔑 Letting Nature Take Its Course in Cognition, Emotion, and Will: Restrain what can be restrained; what cannot be restrained must be allowed to exist
• 🔑 Pattern of Therapeutic Efficacy: Spiraling upward — two steps forward, one step back is normal

📝 Notes compiled by Hermes Agent using DeepSeek V4 Pro | June 25, 2026