Student Counseling Services Promotes Emotional Wellness With New Workshops

Our minds are like our skin, according to Laura Claunch, a counselor at Liberty’s Student Counseling Services.

When we get a cut, our skin normally knits itself back together. An infected wound, however, will not heal.

“(God) made our mind so it’s like a Word document that’s always updating, but sometimes when we have psychological distress or not good coping skills, it’s like having dirt in a cut,” Claunch said.

According to Claunch, Student Counseling Services at Liberty can help clean the dirt out of students’ wounds and promote healing.

Student Counseling Services provides a number of tools to students wrestling with their mental health. One of these tools is the new program to set up Emotional Wellness Workshops.

According to the Student Counseling Services’ webpage, there are three workshops covering three different aspects of mental health.

The first workshop, called “Anxiety Toolbox,” helps students learn how to handle anxiety. “Getting Unstuck” enables students to recognize and manage symptoms of depression. “Recognition…Insight…Openness” (RIO) helps students learn how to better handle the stress life brings them.

Michael Trexler, director of Student Counseling Services, said that students should attend all three workshops. Additionally, students must contact Student Counseling Services and go through preliminary screening before being assigned to the workshops. There are nine workshops a week, which means students should be able to find time for the workshops in their schedules, according to Claunch.

“It’s important to note that these are not group therapy,” Claunch said. “It’s set up much more like a class, so that you can share as little or as much as you would like to.”

Trexler added that these workshops are designed for students dealing with low or moderate mental health concerns. He said they want to see students struggling with more severe concerns individually.

“We want to give you what you need based on what you’re coming in with,” Trexler said.

Trexler and Claunch both emphasized that these workshops are designed to give students the tools they need to heal and empower them.

“We do a lot of things to avoid our psychological pain, which results in a lot of anxiety and depression, and, it’s counterintuitive, but what we need to do is learn how to not avoid the pain and go through it (instead),” Claunch said. “And that’s really what the workshops do, is teach skills to go through it instead of around it.”

Although Claunch said some Christians frown upon going to a professional counselor rather than their pastor, she said she believes some of the struggles students face, such as guilt and shame, are the result of spiritual warfare. Claunch said that Student Counseling Services provides many tools, including the Emotional Wellness Workshops, to help students fight spiritual battles.

“It’s not psychobabble,” Claunch said. “It’s healing of the soul.”

Trexler said counseling can help students become better Champions for Christ by knowing themselves better. Claunch added that it can help students spread the gospel more effectively.

“You can know all the scripture that you want, but if your EQ is low, and you are impaired in your ability to have relationships and deal with your own issues, you are not able to shine the light in the same way,” Claunch said.

Trexler said those hesitant to go to Student Counseling services should not shy away because they do not want to confess to and get in trouble for breaking the Liberty Way. Counseling is confidential by law, so Student Counseling Services does not report someone for breaking the Liberty Way.

“Although we endorse and support the Liberty Way, we do not enforce it,” Trexler said.

Trexler noted the Emotional Wellness Workshops are part of a larger program called the STEPPED Model, which Liberty uses with permission from Calvin College, which adapted the program from California Polytechnic State University.

Students can find resources and contact information on the Student Counseling Services webpage on the Liberty website. Trexler also pointed students to their Facebook page for information about their events.