Pioneering New Social Services Through "Counseling × Advertising"

Dentsu Kokoro Lab and Dentsu Macromill Insight, Inc., with the cooperation of the National Federation of Psychological Associations (Zen-Shin-Ren), a network of psychological counselors, developed "Counseling Group Interviews," where psychological counselors participate in group interviews. Mariko Ukiyo, Representative Director of Zen-Shin-Ren, shared her expectations for "Counseling Group Interviews" from the perspective of psychological counselors' skills.

Attendees:
Mariko Ukiyo, Representative Director, National Federation of Psychological Services (Center in photo)
Ms. Yoko Oya, Dentsu Inc. Business Creation Center, DENTSU SOKEN INC., Dentsu Kokoro Lab (Photo right)
Takayuki Sasaki, Dentsu Inc. Business Creation Center, Future Creation Group, and Dentsu Kokoro Lab (Photo left)

Psychological counseling is often perceived as a narrow skill set.

Oya: For "Counseling Groupin," we secured cooperation from the National Federation of Psychological Services, where Ms. Ukai serves as Representative Director. Establishing a system to collaborate with psychological counselors—who excel at listening to and interpreting people's stories—is truly groundbreaking.

Sasaki: I don't believe there has been a system before where psychological counselors were directly involved in marketing or research. What are your impressions of "Counseling Groupin"?

Ukiyo: I believe the "Counseling Group" system has created a pathway for counselors, who possess diverse social experience and high levels of expertise, to give back to society using their skills.
I feel tremendous potential in this collaboration.

While most people know the profession of psychological counseling exists, it's often perceived as having a narrow skill set focused solely on resolving psychological issues. In reality, counselors possess diverse expertise—some specialize in social psychology, others excel with statistical data.

One defining feature of Zen Shin Ren is that it comprises counselors with diverse experiential knowledge—such as those who have worked in corporate product development, raised children, or gained consumer-perspective insights through various experiences—all holding a unified qualification meeting specific standards.

Counseling is like strength training

Oya: I used to think psychological counselors only worked with people who had some kind of mental issue, but that's not the whole picture, right?

Ukiyo: I think that previous image was far too limited. Fundamentally, what counselors excel at most is organizing things. Our basic skill is approaching deeper psychological aspects by helping people organize not just information, but their emotional side as well.

For example, consider someone experiencing stress who occasionally can't ride the train or feels dizzy. If a doctor's job is to prescribe medication and tell them to "stay home and rest" to eliminate the symptoms, then a psychological counselor's job is to listen to that person, analyze "what might be causing the stress?" and "why does riding the train cause stress?", and provide care based on that.

I often say counseling is similar to weight training. Imagine someone hurt their back carrying heavy loads, but through consistent training, they eventually think, "This weight is no big deal." Counseling is essentially encouraging them, "Keep training, and you'll be able to handle loads like this," while gradually building their capacity.

We listen carefully, helping you organize your emotions and values. If your distress stems from feeling overwhelmed and confused, simply gaining clarity often resolves most worries. We use the phrase "cultivating oneself," but I feel counseling—this treatment and learning process of nurturing yourself—isn't always properly understood.

Counseling Groin: Commercializing the Skill of Listening

Sasaki: You mentioned care, but to provide care, the ability to listen to people is essential. This time, we've commercialized that very listening skill in the form of a group interview: "Counseling Group Interview." Essentially, we receive advice on questions and research methods. On the day of the interview, we listen to the group dynamics and receive a report detailing what underlying psychological aspects were identified. Additionally, as an option, we can request someone to act as the group interview moderator.

Ukiyo: Both care and group sessions start by carefully listening to the other person, organizing and analyzing their actions, emotions, and values. If you proceed to a care program based on that analysis, it becomes counseling, often called psychological therapy. If you provide it in the form of a report, it becomes a group session.

Psychological analysis employs various investigative methods: psychological tests, painting, collage, sandplay (arranging miniatures), and photography. These techniques reveal deeper, inner values beyond superficial ones—such as "they say this, but their true feelings are different," or "they consciously focus on this, but unconsciously think something else," highlighting aspects often unrecognized. Each method shares the characteristic of making the unconscious realm, often difficult to verbalize, more visible.

For example, you might hesitate between turning right or left at an intersection and then decide somewhat arbitrarily. But if you actually take a photo, the scenery visible to the right and left turns out to be different, meaning you instantly judged and selected based on different elements. The same applies when choosing products. Values and preferences come into play not only with luxury items but also with necessities like food and daily goods. Is there a hidden interest behind the phrase "I don't particularly like or dislike it"? Or might someone say "I like this" while actually feeling some resistance that prevents them from buying it?

By bringing unconscious psychology to light and categorizing tendencies—such as "they might have this inclination" or "they likely hold these values"—we can achieve a deeper understanding of customers.

Hypotheses grounded in edge insights are also valuable for marketing.

Ōya: While psychology-based methods exist for analyzing qualitative research, I believe the key feature of "Counseling Group" is the direct participation of a psychological counselor, which holds significant meaning.

Ukiyo: When interpreting data from counseling or group interviews, several points are crucial. First, we must identify edges without overlooking subtle words or casual gestures. Take the phrase "betsu ni" (literally "not really"). While it's often interpreted as "either way is fine," we analyze it as potentially carrying a meaning of rejection. Psychological counselors, whose livelihood involves delving into the depths of the mind, can pick up on signs from a single word or gesture and sharpen their focus.

Furthermore, they build hypotheses based on that edge. Young people often use "whatever," but it might not be outright refusal; it could express discomfort with being asked the question itself. If that's the case, they set up several axes to hypothesize: which specific words caused discomfort, what personality traits or upbringing might lead someone to feel this way, and what kind of environment they're in. For example, a young person who answered "Whatever" might actually feel discomfort or resistance when asked about financial matters. So why did that person dislike being asked about finances? A hypothesis emerges: perhaps they were discussing affluence while actually harboring financial anxieties. By combining multiple hypotheses like this, we can extract generational characteristics and common traits among people belonging to certain categories. I believe such hypotheses are also extremely useful in marketing.

Psychological Counseling × Advertising: The Synergy

Sasaki: Since the " desire to buy" is hard to verbalize, having counselors articulate or edit it is incredibly valuable.

Oya: There's a huge difference in persuasiveness between us planners saying something and having an expert definitively state, "Psychologically speaking, it's like this" (laughs).

Sasaki: "Counseling Groupin" realized this combination of "psychological counseling × group interviews." It seems like various collaborations and developments could be explored going forward.

Ukiyo: Collaborating with Kokoro Lab opens up new connections and possibilities for social services, which is incredibly important. We counselors have honed our expertise, including experiential knowledge, but a team of only counselors struggles to create meaningful social connections. It would be wonderful if this became a place where social services needed by society emerge, both for companies and for us.

Only by reforming our own mindset and becoming more useful to society can our work truly become a viable profession. While we've long been in the "era of the heart" and the "era of the individual," we counselors want to strive to be of service to society by acting as the supporting cast, providing the backing from behind the scenes.

Oya: I truly believe that skills for engaging with the heart are incredibly useful in everyday life and should also be applied in workplaces like ours where communication is central.

Sasaki: During the process of developing "Counseling Groupin," focusing on the core skill of active listening made me realize something profound: the fields of psychological counseling and advertising are actually very closely related. This insight was hugely significant for me. By collaborating with different players, I want to challenge myself to develop new products and services.