By Kenzie Smith, Staff Writer
The Counseling and Wellness Center is in the process of holding a series of Relationship Workshops in February. These workshops have included “Relationships with the Self: PS. I Love Me,” “Men’s Workshop: Dating and Relationships,” “Express Yourself! A workshop for Women on Dating and Relationships,” “Dating and Relationships in a Gender-Expansive World” and “Resolving Conflicts in Relationships.” The Counseling and Wellness Center has one last upcoming session in this series titled “Social Media and Relationships.” This workshop will be in CUB 230 on Feb. 23 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The staff from the Counseling and Wellness Center have been excited to host these workshops.
“Counselors have created really engaging, creative and relevant workshop materials. They’ve been excited to have these conversations with students,” said Executive Director of Counseling and Wellness Krista Dhruv.
Dhruv expanded upon the topic choice of this workshop series.
“We specifically chose relationships as our first series because self-esteem, dating, communication, and confidence in relationships are frequent topics students bring up in individual sessions. Also, February was our target rollout month because of Valentine’s Day; we thought it could be a nice tie in,” Dhruv said.
Dhruv also discussed the goals associated with this workshop series, which included “help[ing] build confidence and self-esteem both for the individual and with (potential) intimate partners, creat[ing] a space where students can talk openly and candidly with peers and a trained facilitator about the complexities of dating relationships, help[ing] students clarify what they want from a partner [and] help[ing] students enhance their communication skills.”
Unfortunately for the sessions held so far, Dhruv shared that “attendance has been minimal.”
Counselor Angelito Aya attributed this low attendance to the stigma of mental health, new experiences, and fear of change.
“We face the stigma with mental health and that some may think they are ‘not well,’ ‘ill’ or ‘something is wrong with me’ if they are coming to a counseling supported event/service,” said Aya. “This stigma makes it hard for individuals to ask for emotional support or even ask on how to approach a difficult situation. The second challenge is that these events or workshops are newer for the campus and with new things comes change. Change is hard and scary at times.”
However, Aya had a positive outlook on the future of the workshops.
“I think over time they will become normal and useful for students to approach,” Aya said.
The Counseling and Wellness Center hopes to increase attendance in their upcoming workshops through marketing and curating workshops to meet students’ desires.
“Currently we are reaching out to different student populations to get feedback on workshop ideas or events the Counseling and Wellness Center can host/hold that would meet the students wants and needs,” said Aya. “I think we can improve and go forward with the workshops, they may get a new name and new look but it will be student opinion driven.”
Dhruv highlighted the importance that workshops, like the February series, still hold.
“It’s important that we’re out in the community, providing wellness opportunities (workshops, discussion groups, tabling events) for all of the students. We are working to build more prevention and early intervention outreach services to complement our traditional counseling services,” Dhruv said.
Upcoming workshops hosted by the Counseling and Wellness Center include “Healthy Sleep Habits” on Mar. 15 and “Combating Burnout” on Apr. 12.
