The University’s Student Health Center is offering Emotional Wisdom Seminars during the 2017 spring semester to help students manage anxiety and stress.
Clinical Psychologist Tiffany McCaughey said the Student Health Center began the seminars in the summer of 2015 to help students learn about practical skills and topics that support emotional health in a group setting. The seminar teaches students how to reduce negative moods, and introduces breathing and relaxation exercises along with better sleep practices.
“I think people in various phases of their life can benefit from these skills,” McCaughey said.
McCaughey said the health center has been carefully designing the course to ensure the Emotional Wisdom Seminars fit students’ needs. Students have the option of coming to all six sessions or a few of them. The sessions are every Wednesday from 3 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. in the Student Health Center.
“Most of those topics remain the same, but we do special topics as well,” McCaughey said. “There’s always something to learn. If a student misses a session, they can come back later in the semester and go to it. We’ve tried to make it user friendly.”
Although students could benefit from the seminars, McCaughey said many are unaware of them. The Student Health Center has been trying to spread the word about the seminar sessions, she said.
“I think we have something really important to offer, and we are working on widening the campus awareness to what we are offering,” McCaughey said. “I think we really could be getting the word out more widely and would love to see more student participation.”
McCaughey said the Student Health Center has brought fliers to academic counselors and residential life andworked to put their schedule on TVs in the UREC. They have also utilized social media, and they have widespread support from other University services. However, psychology junior Perri Walker said the Student Health Center needs to do more to reach out to students.
“I don’t think a lot of students probably know about this. I’ve never heard of this, and I’m a junior,” Walker said.
Education freshman Madison Schnebelen said that students would not be interested in the services, but said there is a need for them.
“I think many students do not want to be seen … at the Health Center,” Schnebelen said.
Walker said it is important for students to learn skills that help manage emotional and mental health.
“I used to do yoga on the weekends as a stress relief, and I think that’s kind of similar to what the health center is doing,” Walker said. “We did a lot of breathing and relaxation exercises, so I would be interested in the seminars.”