Coping with stress

More students than ever before are turning to the University's counselling services for help. A young woman sits nervously in the waiting room of the University's Counseling and Psychological Services Center. Her friend suggested she seek counseling because her eating habits began to change after she started having relationship problems. ""I realized that I needed to talk about what was happening to me," said a female sophomore, who requested anonymity. "The kind of help I received from counseling was really productive -- it made me feel as though I could handle my pressure in better ways." But another student said her experiences with the counseling center were less than beneficial. The student said she was told that she could not switch counselors, even though she was uncomfortable with the one she had been given. "I felt like I was a number to them," she said. "That certainly didn't relieve the pressure I was coping with." Ilene Rosenstein, director of Counseling and Psychological Services, said the center is attempting to meet students' changing needs. Rosenstein, who has worked at the University for 10 years, said she believes students are experiencing more pressure than ever before. She explained that in previous years, students did not seem as concerned about their post-collegiate lives. "A 3.2 grade point average was considered perfectly acceptable, and students had a sense that everything would work itself out after graduation," Rosenstein said. But she said University students have more of a perfectionistic streak these days. Rosenstein described one student who was extremely upset because he feared his entire future would be jeopardized if he did not make the right decision in a single event. Last semester's violence within the University community added to the increasing pressures many students feel within modern society. Between the commencement of classes and October 31, 470 students were treated by Counseling and Psychological Services. By contrast, the center saw a total of 817 students over the entire 1991-1992 school year. Hospitalizations have also doubled within the past five years. Rosenstein estimated that by graduation, Counseling and Psychological Services will have seen 50 percent of the senior class. Despite the changing statistics, Rosenstein said the areas in which students seek help have remained constant, including stress and anxiety, romantic relationships, lack of self-esteem, depression and family relationships. She added that the severity of cases falling into these categories has increased over the years. In response to students' changing needs, the center has developed therapy groups and outreach programs to better serve the University community. Psychologist Alvin Alvarez, director of the center's outreach program, said the initiative is designed to introduce therapeutic skills to students who might not otherwise seek any form of counseling. "We realize that despite the increase in students, there are still not enough students coming to see us," Alvarez said. "This is our way of reaching out to them. "We're planting a stronger seed within the community than ever before by showing people that we are available when their natural help sources are not," he added. Among the outreach programs offered are workshops -- such as stress management, time management and leadership training -- which concentrate on teaching students valuable life skills. Another outreach program is based on a liaison system in which counselors work closely with University administrators to facilitate help for students. Alvarez said the outreach program was particularly effective in responding to students during crises periods last semester. "Given the rash of recent violence, such as Kathy Change's suicide last semester, the center has learned to develop a fairly responsive crisis mode," he said. "Although we realize the importance of continually broadening our conception of how to help students, we still need to distinguish these programs as 'therapeutic,' different from actual 'therapy'," he added. Alvarez said he is confident that outreach programs will encourage more students to seek therapy. Psychologist Margaret Fichter, who directs the center's therapy groups, said group therapy has become increasingly popular with students. "Groups are becoming more popular as the stability of families becomes more infrequent," Fichter said. She said recently formed groups tend to have more "academic missions," such as two formed this spring entitled Coping with A Learning Disability and Dissertation/Thesis support group for graduate students. Other groups, such as the Anorexia/Bulimia support group, have been operating for several years and have seen a vast increase in their membership. Although they acknowledge the large numbers of students seeking help from counseling services, Fichter, Alvarez and Rosenstein all believe therapy is still considered too much of a taboo. "People still think there's something wrong with you if you're seeing a therapist," said a male student who requested anonymity. "It's just not something people view as completely normal." But Rosenstein added that "as time goes on more people will realize that therapy should be regarded as a healthy ritual, like exercise."

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