Student Counseling Service Events
Spring 2013
Building Self-Esteem
Tuesday, 2/26, 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 pm
Monday, 4/8, 3:00 - 4:30 pm
This workshop is designed to help participants define self-esteem, determine where it may come from, and learn strategies to build and maintain self-esteem in positive, empowering ways. *Pre-registration is required for each workshop.*
Facilitator: Bethany Smith
Career Assessment Workshop: Using the Strong Interest Inventory to Help Identify Career Interests
Learn how to match interests with academic majors and occupations. Registration and completion of the interest inventory are needed three business days prior to the workshop.
February 21 Thursday 1:15-2:15 p.m.
March 6 Wednesday 3:30-4:30 p.m.
March 26 Tuesday 11:00-12:00 p.m.
April 10 Wednesday 1:00-2:00 p.m.
April 30 Tuesday 3:30-4:30 p.m.
Career Assessment Workshop: Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to Help Identify Personality Characteristics
Learn how to incorporate your personality into career planning.
Registration and completion of personality measure are needed three business days prior to the workshop.
March 27 Wednesday 1:00-2:00 p.m.
April 12 Friday 11:15-12:15 p.m.
April 23 Tuesday 3:30-4:30 p.m.
Coping with Stress
March 20, 3:00 - 4:00 pm
March 26, 4:00 – 5:00 pm
April 4, 2:20-3:20pm
Feeling stressed with school? Overwhelmed with balancing a full course load, job, and social life? Attend this workshop to learn how to better cope with and manage stress, including learning some relaxation techniques. *Pre-registration is required for each workshop.*
LASSI
February 28, 4:00 - 4:30 pm
March 27, 11-11:30 am
April 23, 4:30 – 5:00 pm
Provides information about study skills strengths and weaknesses in comparison to other college students. Results of the measure can be used to develop techniques for improving study strategies. *Pre-registration is required for each workshop.*
Relationship Wellness Clinic
Tuesdays, 9:30 – 11:00 am
Relationships can affect all aspects of your health, well-being and functioning. This interactive series of workshops are designed to help participants (1) distinguish between healthy and unhealthy relationships and, (2) learn strategies for building and maintaining healthy relationships. Join us to learn skills such as healthy boundary setting and effective communication. The title for each workshop is provided below. *Pre-registration is required for each workshop.*
¨The Blind Side I: Self-awareness and self-love
¨The Blind Side II: Baggage and skeletons in the closet
¨Fatal Attraction: Healthy vs. unhealthy relationships
¨Happily Ever After: Relationship expectations, rights, and myths
¨The Biggest Loser: Insecurity and jealousy
¨Balancing Act: Boundaries, social media, and loving too much
¨Lost In Translation: Communication, I statements, art of listening
¨Angry Love Birds: Anger, control, and vulnerability
¨Superhero: Codependency, balancing healthy self-care
¨Game On I: Conflict resolution, fighting fair
¨Game On II: Fighting styles
¨Access Denied: Relationship endings, healthy letting go and moving on
Facilitators: Jeanette Madkins & Esther Wright-Wilson
Surviving as an Aggie
February 12, 9:30-10:30 am
February 19, 11:30-12:30 pm
March 5, 2:30-3:30 pm
Do you find you’re struggling with procrastination? Or having trouble balancing your academic and social life? This workshop covers strategies for self-management, increasing motivation, improving attitude, and goal setting. *Pre-registration is required for each workshop.*
Building Social Confidence
Wednesdays, 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
This 8 session semi-structured group focuses on one’s experience in relationships. The group focuses on thoughts, emotions, and behaviors related to social interactions and is specifically designed for students who are struggling to comfortably connect with others. Key ingredients to positive social relationships will be reviewed and participants will be encouraged to practice having authentic relationships with others in the group. In a warm and supportive context, students have an opportunity to receive feedback on how they come across to others and to experiment with new ways of relating. Screening is required to participate in this group.
Facilitator: Jason Hindman
Career Development
Day &Time: TBD
Confused about your career path? Worried about your future? Through the use of career assessments and interactive activities, this 4-5 weeks group helps you identify your values, interests, personality, abilities, life style preferences and more. In the process you learn how to develop a career plan and make better decisions regarding choosing a major or career path. This supportive and informative group is sure to enhance your personal and career development. An initial appointment with a counselor is required.
Facilitator: Sarah Ou-Young
Eating Concerns
Day & Time: TBD
This group provides support for those working to overcome disordered eating and/or body image issues. Members will engage in discussions to help them better understand the issues that underlie these coping behaviors, learn to feel more comfortable expressing their feelings and needs and form more authentic, satisfying relationships with themselves and others. Experiential activities will also be utilized to promote greater peace and self-awareness.
Screening is required to participate in this group.
Facilitator: Iris Carrillo & Lori Best
First Generation College Students
Day &Time: TBD
Do you sometimes feel that no one back home understands what you are going through? Do you feel lost trying to figure out how to be in college? This group is for students who are the first in their immediate family to attend college. It provides support, understanding, and helpful suggestions to assist students deal with the personal, social, familial, and academic challenges unique to first generation in college students. Screening is required to participate in this group.
Facilitator: Carlos Orozco
Graduate Students Support
Wednesdays, 4:30 – 6:00 pm
Do you wonder how to balance all the demands of being a graduate student? Are you concerned about relationships with members of your graduate cohort, friends, advisors and professors? Do you sometimes experience feelings of inadequacy (“imposter syndrome”)? If you answered yes to any of these questions, come be part of this support group that provides a safe and supportive setting for students to process challenges and concerns related to their graduate school experience. Invest 90 of the 10080 minutes you have each week in your well-being. Screening is required to participate in this group.
Facilitator: Esther Wright-Wilson
Grief Support
Day & Time: TBD
This group will provide a supportive environment for students coping with the loss of a relative, close friend, or partner. Students will be encouraged to share their stories of grief and loss and how they have coped with their feelings and experiences. The process of grief and loss and the difficult emotions that accompany these experiences are frequently avoided in many social settings, leaving people feeling isolated and not validated. We will explore the unique difficulties of loss and the challenging stages of the grief process. Students will be encouraged to provide supportive feedback to each other and find social connection through their losses so that they may continue the healing process. Screening is required to participate in this group.
Facilitator: Jenny Kenley
Healing From a Broken Heart
Day and Time: TBD
This 8-week process group is designed for those who have ended a relationship and struggled to understand what happened, who they are now without their partner, what worked for them in the relationship and what didn’t, and what they want in a future partner. The process will help members understand relationships from an interpersonal and adult attachment theory perspective. Screening is required to participate in this group.
Facilitators: Lanice Chappell and Bethany Smith.
International Students Support
Date and Time: TBD
Would you like to learn more about U.S. cultures and practice English speaking skills? Feeling lonely and want to connect with other international students? Feeling different from others? Fearful of asking for help? Not performing well in school? You are not alone. Discuss your experiences with other international students. Meet people who understand. Offer support to others. Join the support group free. Pre-registration is required.
Facilitator: Dr. Gisela Lin
Journey to Wholeness
Mondays, 3:00 - 4:30 pm
This experiential support group is for survivors of recent or past sexual assault, and will provide a safe atmosphere in which you can receive encouragement as you move through your recovery journey. Group discussions will include effective and healthy coping skills, emotional healing, relationship concerns, trust building, and setting healthy boundaries. Screening is required to participate in this group.
Facilitators: Jeanette Madkins & Nancy Welch
Managing Anxiety
Fridays, 10:15 to 11:45 am
Is anxiety and stress adversely affecting areas of your life such as your academic performance and social interactions? If so, join us for a semi-structured group designed to help you increase awareness of your personal reactions to stressors, learn anxiety management techniques, practice breathing and relaxation exercises, and gain support from others. The group will meet once per week, for 7 weeks. Screening is required to participate in this group.
Facilitator: Esther W. Wright-Wilson
Manning up: A group to help men be men
Date and Time: TBD
This 8-10 week, semi-structured group will provide a safe space for men to acknowledge and more flexibly engage common barriers that many men experience when developing closeness with others. This group will provide a venue for men to learn to more skillfully manage uncomfortable emotions and cultural and societal messages that may impede men from feeling confident, whole, and connected with others. This group will be semi-structured and will use humor, video clips, and short exercises, but will also provide ample opportunity for men to relate and process issues in a supportive group context. Screening is required to participate in this group.
Facilitators: James Deegear & Tim Richel
Mature Aggie Women Support and Personal Growth
Day & Time: TBA
This group provides a safe and supportive environment for female students to explore and work on academic and personal issues. Issues and topics are determined by group members, but often include adjustment to A&M; handling personal, romantic, peer and professor relationships assertively; self-confidence and self-esteem; stress management; and finding balance and perspective in that complex personal and academic life experienced by graduate or undergraduate female students who are older than the typical undergraduate age. Screening appointment with group leader(s) required.
Facilitators: Kerry Hope & Carly McCord
Mindfulness Transformation
Tuesdays, 5:00 - 6:30 pm
This 8 weeks group will introduce and instruct students in the use of techniques to transform their experience of themselves and others. Combining ancient mindfulness practices of the East, the modern science of neuroplasticity, and the power of shared experience, this weekly group will help students discover their own unique path toward experiencing increased aliveness, acceptance, and happiness within themselves as well as the deep joy of relating intimately with others. While this group will focus on creating increasing spirals of positive experience rather than providing psychological treatment, it is expected that members of the group will find new ways to move beyond entrenched, self-limiting patterns of attitude and behavior over the course of the semester. Screening with the facilitator is required to participate in this group.
Facilitator: Ron Lutz
Qigong
Thursdays, 5:30 - 6:30 pm
Location: The Rec. Center, Room 304
Qigong is a 7,000-year-old Chinese system of healing and empowerment that integrates gentle movement, sounds, visualization, and meditation into a synergistic practice promoting mental clarity, emotional balance and physical health. This is class is being offered by the SCS in collaboration with the Texas A&M University Health and Wellness Committee to teach participants methods to reduce stress, improve immune and endocrine system function, and cultivate a greater sense of peace while increasing balance and flexibility. Qigong also enhances other mind-body-spiritual practices you may be involved in such as yoga, meditation and other martial arts.
Instructors: Kristin Clemens & Ron Lutz
Returning Veterans
Day & Time: TBA
Are you having a hard time readjusting to college life? Is reconnecting with family and friends who may not understand your experiences challenging? Do you find yourself depressed, angry, or anxious at times and in ways that did not occur before deployment? This group is for students who are returning to A&M after deployment and/or combat. It provides support, understanding, and suggestions to help students deal with the readjustment challenges unique to returning veterans. Screening is required to participate in this group.
Facilitator: Nancy Welch
Thesis/Dissertation Support Group
Tuesdays, 5:00 – 6:30 pm
Wednesdays, 5:00 – 6:30 pm
This group is for graduate students struggling with the process of writing a thesis or dissertation. Group topics include issues of competence, procrastination, anxiety, goal-setting, and bureaucratic struggles. Screening is required to participate in this group.
Facilitator: Brian Williams
Thriving as an Aggie
Day &Time: TBD
Are you having a hard time figuring out your purpose for being in college? Do you struggle with motivation? Are you unsure about your career/life path? This 6-week, semi-structured group allows the space to discuss these issues and more while connecting with peers who struggle with the same questions. Screening is required to participate in this group.
Facilitators: Bethany Smith & Megan Thoen
Understanding Self and Others
Tuesdays, 2:00 – 3:30 pm
In this group, through interactions with other group members, you will better understand yourself and your relationship patterns, and develop ways of changing these patterns to improve your relationships. You will have opportunities to observe your own and others’ emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and reactions as they occur. Screening is required to participate in this group.
Facilitator: Jason Hindman
Women of Color
Tuesdays, 4:00 - 5:30 pm
This group is for female students from U.S. ethnic groups (e.g., Latina/Hispanic, Asian American, African American, Native American, etc.) and other countries. It provides a safe and supportive environment to discuss the influence of race/ethnicity/culture on family of origin concerns, relationship difficulties, trauma experiences (e.g., abuse, violence), and academic and/or career concerns. This group also helps members explore the impact of race/ethnicity/culture on identity (e.g., sexual orientation, gender, religion, class, citizenship status, etc.), developmental, and transnational (e.g., migration, documentation, acculturation) concerns. A screening with co-leaders is required to participate in the group.
Facilitators: Iris Carrillo & Gisela Lin