The LSU Student Health Center began its second group seminar this semester, called #RelationshipGoals, Monday to help students with their relationships.
Clinical social worker Christen Cummins from the SHC said they began the seminar series to assist students.
“One of the common reasons students come in is for relationship concerns,” Cummins said. “We are trying to address that need in part by educational skills that are useful in relationships.”
Cummins said the seminar series will cover four topics that will repeat over a span of eight weeks. The first session began on Feb. 6 and will continue until April 17. The sessions include topics such as communication, how to fight healthily, social media and dating and breakups and grief. Cummins said she wants students to learn relationship skills and the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships.
“I think a lot of times people think they know how to handle a relationship, or think they know how to communicate or they don’t think so and just avoid it,” Cummins said. “I hope that students get some education on how to interact more healthily in their relationships and see better outcomes.”
Cummins said the seminars don’t focus on just the romantic relationships, but also platonic ones. Educational skills about relationships are not always taught to students, she said.
“It’s just something that often does not get taught,” Cummins said. “We just assume that people know how to do relationships well. A lot of these things are communication skills and an understanding about what is healthy versus unhealthy. We thought this would be a useful thing to offer.”
Mass communication sophomore Hannah Kleinpeter said she thinks students have more healthy than unhealthy relationships in college.
“It’s hard to generalize whether they are healthy or unhealthy, but I would say based on the people I know and my friends, there’s healthier relationships,” Kleinpeter said. “Not many people choose to be in serious relationships in college, so if they do, they generally work hard to make sure it’s a good relationship or founded on the right things. If they don’t, they break up.”
Unlike kleinpeter, communication disorders junior Annie Finch said she thinks college students have more unhealthy relationships than healthy.
“When you’re in college, there’s so many elements like going out and school work,” Finch said. “In one of my unhealthy relationships, we fought because he wanted to do all these cool college dare-type things, but I didn’t, so we always clashed. There are probably more unhealthy than healthy relationships because students are also growing in college, and they aren’t stable or anything like when they’re older.”
Kleinpeter said the SHC seminars are valuable to students.
“I think this is very important for the University,” Kleinpeter said. “We learn a lot about safety, and I think it’s good to have something on relationships because it’s so common for young people to get involved in. There’s not a lot of education on relationships and what’s healthy and what’s not. I think it’s a good asset to have at LSU.”
Finch said students should utilize the #RelationshipGoals seminar so they can recognize what a healthy relationship is.
“Girls are kind of crazy and boys are kind of dumb, so these seminars probably help out and help them know what a real relationship is,” Finch said.
The LSU Student Health Center began its second spring 2017 group seminar, called #RelationshipGoals, Monday to help students with their relationships.
Clinical Social Worker Christen Cummins from the SHC said they began the seminar series to help students’ needs.
“One of the common reasons students come in is for relationship concerns,” Cummins said. “We are trying to address that need in part by educational skills that are useful in relationships.”
Cummins said the seminar series will cover four topics that will repeat over a span of eight weeks. The first session began on Feb. 6 and will go until April 17. The sessions include topics such as communication, how to fight healthily, social media and dating, and breakups and grief. Cummins said she wants students to learn relationship skills and the difference between a healthy and unhealthy relationships.
“I think a lot of times, people think they know how to handle a relationship, or think they know how to communicate or they don’t think so and just avoid it,” Cummins said. “I hope that students get some education on how to interact more healthily in their relationships and see better outcomes.”
Cummins said they don’t focus on just the romantic type of relationships, but also ones involving family and friends. Educational skills about relationships are not always taught to students, she said.
“It’s just something that often does not get taught,” Cummins said. “We just assume that people know how to do relationships well. A lot of these things are communication skills and an understanding about what is healthy versus unhealthy. We thought this would be a useful thing to offer.”
Mass communication sophomore Hannah Kleinpeter said she thinks students have more healthy than unhealthy relationships in college.
“It’s hard to generalize whether they are healthy or unhealthy, but I would say based on the people I know and my friends, there’s healthier relationships,” Kleinpeter said. “Not many people choose to be in serious relationships in college, so if they do, they generally work hard to make sure it’s a good relationship or founded on the right things. If they don’t, they break up. That’s just my experience. It’s been mostly healthy for what I’ve seen.”
Unlike Kleinpeter, communication disorders junior Annie Finch said she thinks college students have more unhealthy relationships than healthy.
“When you’re in college, there’s so many elements like going out and school work,” Finch said. “In one of my unhealthy relationships, we fought because he wanted to do all these cool college dare-type things, but I didn’t, so we always clashed. There are probably more unhealthy than healthy relationships because students are also growing in college, and they aren’t stable or anything like when they’re older.”
Kleinpeter said these seminars offered by the SHC are valuable to students.
“I think this is very important for the university,” Kleinpeter said. “We learn a lot about safety, and I think it’s good to have something on relationships because it’s so common for young people to get involved in. There’s not a lot of education on relationships and what’s healthy and what’s not. I think it’s a good asset to have at LSU.”
Finch said students should utilize the #RelationshipGoals seminar they can recognize what a healthy relationship is.
“Girls are kind of crazy and boys are kind of dumb, so these seminars probably help out and help them know what a real relationship is,” Finch said.