Group Counseling
Student Counseling Services offers several group counseling options to meet various needs. Our office provides open groups where new members can join each week as well as closed groups where no new members can join after the group has been established. Group counseling has a variety of benefits in that one may experience a sense of belonging, establish a community, experience encouragement in learning that others may be dealing with similar struggles, and celebrate the successes of growing together.
Leaders Lead Themselves First
The purpose of this group is to provide leaders around campus a time and space to discuss the various challenges they often face alone. We’ll be discussing the many pressures involved in being a leader, which will include psychoeducation and how to develop skills that will help the person lead him/herself well. This time is dedicated to helping them find healing through sharing and applying biblical principles to leading themselves well.
- Day/Time: Mondays from 9:00 A.M. – 10:00 A.M. (Open)
- Location: Student Counseling Services, Green Hall 1830
- Population: GSAs, Resident Assistants, Resident Shepherds, church leaders
- Email studentcounselingservices@liberty.edu for more information
Insight through Art
The purpose of this group is to teach students how to process emotions non-verbally via various artistic mediums. Students will gain insight into their emotional states while examining and representing feelings without the limits of a spoken vocabulary.
- Day/Time: Thursdays from 1:30 P.M. – 3:00 P.M. (Open)
- Location: Student Counseling Services, Green Hall 1830
- Population: All college students
- Students are able to join at any point throughout the semester
- No artistic ability required
- Email studentcounselingservices@liberty.edu for more information
Schema Exploration: Understanding Beliefs About Yourself and Life Patterns
The purpose of this group is to explore one’s individual schemas, which are unrealized beliefs about the self that affect how you relate to others and create unhealthy life patterns. We’ll be using Jeffery Young’s schema inventories to assess individual schemas, explore origins in childhood, discuss meaning, and discover how to understand and meet our needs in healthy ways. This time is dedicated to helping the group find healing through sharing, discussing biblical application, and finding freedom from self-defeating patterns.
- Day/Time: Wednesdays from 2:00 P.M. – 3:00 P.M. (Screening Required)
- Location: Student Counseling Services, Green Hall 1830
- Email studentcounselingservices@liberty.edu for more information
Making Peace with Food
Do you feel stress around eating and/or exercise? Sometimes the most helpful step is realizing you’re not alone. In fact, it’s so helpful we have added a second group! Making Peace with Food uses a variety of evidence based treatment modalities geared specifically towards disordered eating and difficult relationships with exercise and appearance. It also provides a place for group members to find words for their own thoughts, emotions, and experiences in a nonjudgmental environment. Because this struggle can extend far beyond meal times, members can also expect discussion around the way you view yourself, relationships, ways to express your opinions and emotions, anxiety, burnout, depression, perfectionism, self-criticism, and academic pressure.
- Day/Time: Wednesday and Friday Afternoons (Screening Required)
- Location: Student Counseling Services, Green Hall 1830
- Email studentcounselingservices@liberty.edu for more information
Contemplative Prayer for Christians with Chronic Worry
This group will be offered as a closed, small group experience for five (5) consecutive Fridays this Spring ’22. Relying on scriptural support, the contemplative Christian tradition, and psychological sciences, students will learn how to sit in silence with God, trusting in Him during moments of uncertainty, worry, and anxiety. All participants will be provided with the reading material and excused from convocation each Friday the group is held.
- Day/Time: Friday Mornings (Screening Required)
- Location: DeMoss Hall, Room 3114
- Email studentcounselingservices@liberty.edu for more information
Healing the Wounded Heart
The purpose of this group is to allow women to explore and process their past sexual trauma and harm. Using Dan Allender’s Healing the Wounded Heart material, our goal is to provide a safe and well curated space to find healing and offer companionship, support, and learning in the healing and growing process of recovery from sexual abuse and assault. “Harm and heartache are an inevitable part of the human experience, but all too often we lack the tools to care for our wounds well, and the trauma leaves a lasting mark on our body, mind, and soul.” – Dr. Dan Allender
- Day/Time: Thursday Afternoons (Screening Required)
- Location: Student Counseling Services, Green Hall 1830
- Email studentcounselingservices@liberty.edu for more information
Enabled: A Support Group for Students Affected by Chronic or Complex Health Conditions
The purpose of this support group is to provide a space for Liberty University students whose lives have been affected by a chronic or complex health condition. We will offer a safe and supportive environment where students can openly discuss the impacts these health conditions may have on their academic, emotional, physical, and social well-being. Participants will also share effective and efficient coping strategies with one another.
- Day/Time: Tuesday Afternoons (Screening Required)
- Location: Student Counseling Services, Green Hall 1830
- Population: Students affected by chronic or complex health conditions
- Email studentcounselingservices@liberty.edu for more information
Healthy Boundaries
If you have difficulty saying no to others, usually feel guilty when you do, and are interested in developing healthy boundaries with your family, friends, or peers, the Healthy Boundaries group is for you. This is a 10 week group education format covering faith-based principles provided in the book “Healthy Boundaries” (2017 edition) by John Townsend and Henry Cloud. The closed group is designed to be educational by teaching how to set healthy limits with others that are biblically based. Participants will not be asked to share personal content from their study guide with the other group members during our meeting.
- Day/Time: Monday Mornings (Screening Required)
- Location: DeMoss Hall, Room 3114
- Email studentcounselingservices@liberty.edu for more information
Relapse Prevention Group
An aftercare group for students who have worked through their dependence on substances and are striving for ongoing sobriety. This weekly meeting will focus on identifying triggers, bolstering resilience, and creating an environment where those in recovery can support others on their recovery journey.
- Day/Time: Friday Mornings (Screening Required)
- Location: Student Counseling Services, Green Hall 1830
- Email studentcounselingservices@liberty.edu for more information
Motivational Enhancement Group for Addictions
Explore the stages and process of change. In this 4 week group, students will learn about the progression individuals go through to modify problematic behavior. The group setting will enable participants to acquire and refine new skills while learning more about themselves. Anyone who has a desire to reduce or discontinue the use of substances, pornography, or disordered eating will find utility in the material.
- Day/Time: Tuesday Afternoons (Screening Required)
- Location: Student Counseling Services, Green Hall 1830
- Email studentcounselingservices@liberty.edu for more information