Liberty Student Counseling Services Teaches Lifelong tools For Students

College: a place full of sleep deprivation, piles of homework, new friendships, figuring out who one is apart from their parents, working part-time jobs and maintaining a good GPA.

All these things can trigger stress for students.

Liberty University’s Student Counseling Services is attempting to help relieve some of this stress and provide students with tools to better handle stress by hosting Emotional Wellness Workshops throughout the spring 2022 semester. 

The first workshop will be held on Jan. 24, and more are planned throughout the semester. 

There will be two different workshops available for students: Anxiety Toolbox (held in DeMoss 3022) and Getting Unstuck (held in DeMoss 3082). Both will be held on Mondays from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. 

According to their website, Anxiety Toolbox aims to help students learn how to deal with anxiety-triggering situations. Getting Unstuck aims to help students understand the symptoms of depression and how to deal with it.

“Both workshops are intended to help increase student understanding and knowledge about their specific topic. Students will learn how to recognize and manage symptoms while gaining lifelong tools they can use to face triggering situations,” Victoria Jacob, a clinical services coordinator at Student Counseling Services, said. 

Student Counseling Services has held these workshops in previous semesters, but they have recently revamped them based on student feedback. 

“We changed the time to one that’s convenient for most students, updated the format so students can join at any time in the semester, made the PDFs interactive and moved to a classroom setting, so that all university students are able to join,” Jacob said.

Student Counseling Services hopes that these workshops will provide students with the necessary tools to navigate their daily lives better.

“Hopefully students will be able to better understand their symptoms, articulate their personal experience and gain therapeutic tools to help them navigate life,”
Jacob said. 

These workshops will be particularly helpful to students who don’t attend regular, individual counseling.

“Some students don’t feel like they need individual counseling, but they still want to learn how to better address their anxiety and depression. These workshops provide them with the necessary skills to do so. Students are able to practice skills within the workshop that they can then apply to their daily life,” Jacob said. 

Avery, a sophomore at Liberty, appreciates all that Student Counseling Services is doing for the university’s students. 

“I really appreciate that Liberty is willing to help students with their mental health and that they really make it a priority. Student Counseling Services has really helped me set individual goals for myself and set myself up for future success both academically and personally,” Avery said.

Avery also appreciates how accessible and helpful Student Counseling Services is on campus. 

“I really like the accessibility and convenience of Student Counseling Services on campus. For me, when I had a problem, they were able to connect me with different departments at Liberty. If I needed help with schoolwork, they would help me talk to my professors,”
said Avery.

To find specific dates and more information on these workshops, students can visit Student Counseling Service’s website at liberty.edu/students/student-counseling/. 

Editor’s note: For confidentiality purposes, we have chosen to use alias names for current students that are utilizing Student Counseling Services within this story.

smith is a news reporter.