Counseling Center Announces Fall 2017 Group Therapy Options, Including New Groups

The Counseling Center has announced its new and returning group therapy options for students for the fall 2017 semester. Group therapy is an effective and unique therapy option, specifically for college students. The Counseling Center offers popular, yet personal, group therapy options to all full-time undergraduate and graduate students.

“Group therapy has been empirically validated as one of the most effective treatment modalities for distressed college students,” says Carrie Brown, staff therapist, sexual and relationship violence response team member and group coordinator at the Counseling Center. “Given the popularity and effectiveness of group therapy among college students, each year we seek to expand and enhance our group offerings to meet the needs of students.”

For the fall semester, the Counseling Center has created three new group therapy options for students:

Building Resilience is a five-week skills and process group that provides students the opportunity to develop the strength and stamina to deal with life’s challenges.

Emotional Resilience is a weekly semi-structured group that incorporates skills of mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotional regulation and distress tolerance to help students better understand themselves and their emotions.

First-Generation Support is a weekly process-oriented group that provides a space for first-generation students to explore their unique concerns, gain support and learn to manage their college experience. The group is facilitated by a therapist who was a first-generation college student.

These options are in addition to the returning groups:

A Brief Introduction to Mindful Awareness Practice is a four-week group that introduces students to the concept of mindfulness as a means for tolerating stress and managing difficult or painful emotional experiences.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Skills Group is a 12-week skills-based form of therapy that teaches mindfulness skills, interpersonal effectiveness skills, emotional regulation skills and distress tolerance skills and has been found to be effective at helping people manage overwhelming emotions.

 Options Education Group–Alcohol and Other Drugs focuses on harm reduction, decision making and the physiological impact of substance abuse.

 Sexual Assault Recovery Group is a group for female-identified survivors of sexual assault.

 Students of Color: Releasing the Invisible Weight is a weekly group that offers students of color a safe space to process the burden of race-related stress, stereotype threat and the impostor syndrome that often adds to the stress of being a college student.

 Supporting Students with Anxiety is a weekly group for students experiencing symptoms of anxiety and difficulty with stress management.

 Understanding Yourself and Others (undergraduate and graduate groups available) is an interpersonal process group that offers an opportunity to relate to others as you work to increase self-awareness.

 To join a group, students must first contact the Counseling Center at 315.443.4715. An orientation session will then be completed prior to starting group.  For more information on the different group therapy options, visit the Counseling Center’s Group Therapy website or contact Brown at clbrow01@syr.edu.