Meet the Therapist: Jack Hou, Senior Psychology Counselor
Body & Soul Medical Clinic cooperated with Hanlin Psychological Consultancy. We are honored to have Jack Hou (the CEO and Co-Founder of Hanlin) join our professional community and clinic as a psychological counselor to further help people in need.
1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself…
I am Jack HOU. I am currently a Senior Certified Counselor & Family Education Coach.
I am also the National Professional Talent Certification Management Center’s National Counselor Certification Administration Program Director.
As a psychological counselor, I prefer to define myself as a practitioner and explorer in the journey of life, looking forward to working with my clients to move on together.
Before being a counselor, I had conducted consumer psychology-related research projects at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), and also once started my own business as an entrepreneur, addressing K12 education & youth psychology issues.
All that contributes to my diversified life experience and accumulation of insights, which I think is a great fortune of life for me regardless of success or failure.
Based on this, I have been devoted to building a more solid foundation and developing more powerful practical tools to better help my clients with their issues.Outside my profession, I always keep an open mind for reading and exploring, involving a wide range of topics. I also have an equally strong love for both Eastern and Western cultures, such as philosophy, history and etc.
Our counseling work is not only restricted to atomized and individualized narratives, but is also and should be combined with a larger space-time and social background, in order to help our clients look at their issues from a more in-depth and fundamental level.
This is a kind of spirit of its times in our psychological work that I strongly encourage and constantly put into practice. That is, in addition to pointing to individual issues, we also need to spare no effort to better contribute to the solutions and thoughts of our time from a psychological perspective.
As for my personal style and technical branch, I am more in favor of existentialism, hence look forward to deeper discussions with my clients on death, freedom, loneliness and meaninglessness.
Though loneliness is the core of existence, but personally I also believe existence is just the meaning of itself. I have been devoting all myself to more intersections of our mutual existence and to more beautiful blossoming and flourish of life.
2. How did you became a psychologist & counselor?
I started my first Internet education company for elementary and secondary school students.
We developed a platform to help students answer homework questions online. We subsequently had college tutors from well-known universities (we called them “editors”) answer questions manually, which was welcomed and used by many students.
Gradually, we found that elementary and secondary students enjoyed interacting with our editors. In addition to subject questions, there were also more and more complaints about internal problems and confusion, which are usually not easy to share with parents and teachers. Students’ psychological state and various problems needed a lot of attention, understanding, and support.
Therefore, I decided to start a new channel that was different from the previous platform that mainly helped students and parents solve problems in mathematics, science, and chemistry, and focused on mental health education and guidance for teenagers (from elementary school students to college students.) I named it Youth for Answers. I also began studying psychology and working as a mental health counselor.
3. Could you tell us more about your professional background?
I have had hundreds of hours of supervised psychological practice in both Chinese and English over 4 years, with a deep insight and focus on cutting-edge psychological and issues, especially on cross-culture and interdisciplinary studies.
4. How do you envision using this combination of training and skills to assist clients in Shanghai?
I want to encourage the present and future with sincere emotional and spiritual support. Together, clients and I address the problems together to rediscover the inherent potential they provide and create better solutions.
With deep healing and growth-oriented spiritual guidance throughout the counseling process, we help break through thinking barriers to elevate thoughts with a more comprehensive and systematic cognitive framework. I encourage thinking deeply about life with a rational mind and living life with an emotional heart.
5. What do you like to help with?
• Spiritual growth
• Philosophy of life
• Pressure/emotion management
• Intimate relationships
• Personal career development
• Communication between cultures
• Family education
• Adolescent psychology