[Profile] Ding Yunzhi, female, Hui Nationality, born in September 1984, is a member of the Communist Party of China. She was born in Lanzhou, Gansu, and is a nationally certified second-level psychological counselor. She was one of the first batch of participants of Seed Teacher Training Program of APEPCY. From July 2015 to May 2019, she continuously participated in eight sessions of the Sexual Health Education Seed Teacher Training held by the Beijing Changier Education Foundation. She is currently a mental health education teacher at Zhouqu No.1 Middle School.

Going in Zhouqu

On August 8, 2010, a catastrophic flash flood and landslide occurred in Zhouqu County. In an instant, the entire county was devastated and families were torn apart. As a local resident of Gansu, she was recommended to the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to undertake the initial task of providing post-disaster psychological assistance. On August 23, she went to Zhouqu with experts from the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to carry out post-disaster psychological aid work.

Upon first arriving at the county, she found collapsed houses everywhere along the way. Dozens of excavators were carrying out desilting work. Under the scorching sun, locals were busy with self-rescue. Being on the scene and witnessing the suffering of people, she were deeply shocked. The Zhouqu Workstation of the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was set up in the resettlement area that night.

Before coming to Zhouqu, she planned to return with the experts in three days. After arriving in Zhouqu, she told her parents, "Mom and Dad, please allow me to stay here for a longer period to help the people here. It might take long, and I hope to have your support. I want to do what I can, since the people here need us." In this way, she became a psychological aid volunteer. She stayed in a tent at night, and worked between tents during the day. Following the principles of post-disaster service - "humility, confidence, openness, and diligence", she quietly accompanied, cared and provided psychological counseling service to the disaster victims. Everyone called her: Dingding.

Zhouqu Tent Workstation of the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Love in Zhouqu

"I never imagined that my journey as a volunteer would span so many years. But we walked with determination and steadiness. I'm grateful for the love and energy of my fellow volunteers at that time; grateful for my parents remaining healthy and the support and recognition from my family, grateful for the encouraging and accompanying of our mentors, grateful for the acceptance and trust from the people of Zhouqu. All these allowed our love to be conveyed and allowed the  post-disaster psychological assistance to bear fruit in different ways, which were included in the national report, providing a feasible reference for future post-disaster psychological assistance." said Dingding.

The work they have done in the disaster area is practical, sustainable, assessable, and repeatable. In the three years following the disaster, she and her team coordinated the setting up of 6 "Heart Link Huts" in schools as venues for psychological counseling. They built the Yuanxinqu Psychological Assistance Workstation in Zhouqu County, providing psychological training for the person in charge and teachers of Heart Link Huts. They improved the psychological adjustment abilities of teachers and students in Zhouqu through a series of activities such as teacher training and book corners. She and her team created the Yuanxinqu-Zhouqu Primary and Secondary Students' Mental Health Journal, introducing psychological health knowledge for Zhouqu primary and secondary students, teachers, and parents, setting up a stage for them to showcase their talents. The physical and mental health of the Zhouqu community was enhanced and a social support network was built through outdoor Tai Chi, Guozhuang Dance, and group counseling activities. In addition, two psychological hotlines were established by cooperating with the mobile companies in Zhouqu County, and self-help psychological knowledge was disseminated by drafting and distributing love tips. Interactive counseling was also provided. They went deep among the community, promptly reflecting the needs of the disaster-stricken populace to the society, integrating resources, and ensuring the necessary supplies were promptly delivered to residents. They organized university student volunteers to provide extracurricular tutoring for primary and secondary school students in Zhouqu, helping to alleviate the burden on parents who were busy with post-disaster reconstruction.

Distribution Site of "Spreading Love, Weathering the Storm Together" Donation Ceremony

Teacher Training Program in Beijing

Mianzhu Tri-area Psychological Counseling Exchange

Psychological Training Course for Zhouqu Medical and Health System

Rooted in Zhouqu

Three years later, the post-disaster psychological aid work had come to an end, but Dingding knew that psychological crisis symptoms can linger for even longer, and especially on the anniversary or commemoration day of the event, large-scale psychological crisis reactions may still occur. Therefore, she found ten thousand reasons for herself to stay. Perhaps it was the three years of full-hearted dedication that made her fall in love with Zhouqu; it could also be the lingering attachment of the adults and children she treated; or it could be that she, at that particular turning point in life, decided to stay for a certain emotion.

In the end, she chose to be a teacher, continuing to follow her previous footsteps to provide deeper psychological services. From 2015 to now, she has collaborated with external institutions to organize three county-wide mental health counselor training sessions. She has integrated various resources to build a platform of love, collecting materials for rural schools and impoverished students, donating funds for education, and carrying out "Self-Discipline and Growth" themed exchange activities. She has also given public lectures on Psychology and Life and Work at various institutions on behalf of her school. In April 2016, the Zhouqu No.1 Middle School, where she worked, was included by the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the "First Batch of National Psychological Assistance Alliance Executive Units". In February 2018, the Zhouqu No.1 Middle School was nominated as the Psychological Health Featured School in Gansu Province. In June 2021, the school was included by the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation in the first batch of pilot schools for the "Construction of Rural Children's Psychological Health Service System". Furthermore, she founded the Zhouqu Dynamic Communication Association together with several local mental health counselors who were trained after the disaster. They organized various activities to teach people how to manage their own emotions. Through dynamic communication, they helped more people learn to take care of themselves, manage their lives and families with heart, and make their hearts harmonious..

Ding Yunzhi participated in the first batch of National Sex Education Seed Teacher Training of APEPCY

Ding Yunzhi's husband and their one-and-a-half-year-old child

As a psychological counselor, Ding Yunzhi organized a variety of activities, greatly enriching the academic life of the students left behind in the mountains. She helped high school students address the problems they faced in adapting the environment, academic development, interpersonal communication, value formation, personality improvement, and emotional management, and led students towards a sustainable path of personal development, achieving a unity of knowledge, awareness, emotion, and action.

Just like her love story with Dongzhu, a young man from Zhouqu. An expert of the Psychological Research Institute once said, "The psychological aid we provide has formed many love stories, and in return, these love stories have added a unique and sacred glow to our psychological aid work. Maybe psychological assistance makes it easier for like-minded men and women to enter each other's hearts. Or perhaps, the morality, conscience, and justice inherent in psychological aid are more likely to ignite the spark of love? That is just my guess and an inference. In my secular judgement of the current human relationships, I always feel that true love is luxurious, fragile, and illusory. It was clear that the huge differences in education, family background and living conditions make Ding Yunzhi and her husband difficult to be together. At least due to their respective ethnic culture, it would be impossible to pass the hurdle of their Hui and Tibetan families. Yet, in the end, they walked together toward marriage. Their love story was once included in the major report literature series "Serving the Country through Innovation for 70 Years", a key publication by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China in 2019. This is because it is not only a product of psychological assistance, but also the most beautiful embodiment of psychological assistance.

Now, Zhouqu has become Ding Yunzhi's second hometown, where her home is, and where many people she cares about reside. In September, she was invited by the Zhouqu Women's Federation as one of the members of the "Women's Lecture Group". With a heart for good course, she determines to provide mental health assistance for more people and support those in need.