Abstract
The author suggests that mental health experts provide ‘rapid counseling’ as psychological help for individuals who need counseling in this COVID-19 outbreak, as one of the steps to be taken to get rid of this national and global crisis, in particular for patients with COVID-19.
Keywords: covid-19, new concept in counseling, new findings, rapid counseling
Dear editor,
This correspondence was written in response to a recently published article by the authors.1 This topic is very interesting and relevant to what is happening in the world today. In this correspondence, I recommend that the first alternative step that should be taken before doing mental health self-care strategy with meditation is to do this ‘rapid counseling’.
The number of people infected with COVID-19 is increasing every day, according to data from throughout the world.2 It has led to an increase in the number of people seeking therapeutic help through a treatment mechanism throughout the world, including those who have never been exposed to COVID-19, patients with COVID-19 and families with COVID-19 members.3,4 Anxiety, dread, despair, tension and death fantasies are among the psychological issues they face.5–8 Mental health experts must provide psychological support in response to these issues. Individuals with psychological problems, particularly patients with COVID-19, require rapid psychological support; thus, traditional counseling with a long and regular number of visits is no longer appropriate.
In the realm of bodily health, a ‘rapid test’ is used to determine whether or not a person is infected with COVID-19.9 In this respect, the expression ‘rapid counseling’ in the field of mental health should be used to define the technique of help for people who need therapeutic aid during the onset of COVID-19 so that people may be easily and confidently liberated from psychological issues.
The phrase ‘rapid counseling’ is suited to define a procedure of quick psychological aid that requires only one appointment. Single-Session Therapy (SST) can be used in the application process of ‘rapid counseling’ based on the current theory.10 The phrase ‘rapid counseling’ is suited to define a way of providing fast therapeutic support with only one encounter. According to current theory, ‘rapid counseling’ should employ SST in the implementation phase. SST is a new counseling concept based on the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT).11 SFBT, as a master philosophy, assists mental health practitioners in focusing on solutions to their patients’ issues.12 Everyone should generate solutions to the issues they confront, according to SFBT.13 The most well-known counseling techniques in this approach are ‘scaling questions’14 and ‘miracle questions’.15
Furthermore, SST is a more sophisticated kind of SFBT therapy. The beauty of SST is that it can be accomplished in only one brief meeting.16 With just one quick encounter, it may be dubbed ‘rapid counseling’, especially in the present epidemic scenario. In order to accomplish this ‘rapid counseling’, mental health experts should use two conventional SFBT approaches throughout the counseling phase for persons in need in the present pandemic situation.
‘Scaling questions’
This question may be an opening or concluding question during a counseling session. Mental health experts, for example, can pose questions like the following: ‘On the 1-10 scale, how can you define your anxiety, dread, despair, tension, and death fantasies?’. This inquiry enables the patient to evaluate their own psychological problems. This question helps the experts to look at the size of psychological problems, whether they are mild, moderate or severe. Furthermore, at the end of the counseling session, this issue might be asked again. The aim is to determine if the patients have understood psychological questions or not. If the magnitude of the numbers supplied decreases compared with the beginning, then the consultation process may be effective.
‘Miracle questions’
This question might be the final question in this ‘rapid counseling’ session. For example, if you pose questions such as, ‘If you have a miracle in your life this evening, you may liberate yourself from the psychological issues you have. Would you be joyful?’. The patients will instantly guide them to answer if they are joyful. The next question might then be continued: ‘What can you do to make you feel joyful then?’. The difficulty is a follow-up inquiry, which makes the patients rely on their thoughts. Everyone might find answers to their own issues and a broad variety of choices would have to be provided. The next duty for mental health experts is to support these solutions.
Based on the preceding explanation, it may be deduced that the psychological issues of the COVID-19 epidemic can be treated by means of ‘rapid counseling’ using ‘scaling questions’ and ‘miracle questions’. This article hopefully will be an input to mental health experts working to provide ‘rapid counseling’ for individuals who need help in this COVID-19 outbreak as one of the steps to be taken to get rid of this national and global crisis, in particular for patients with COVID-19.17 The term ‘rapid counseling’ can in practice be used with music therapy mentioned in the preceding article.18
Funding
The author declared no funding was received for this paper.
Conflict of interest
The author declares no conflict of interest in this paper.
References
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