During the student leaders town hall on Wednesday, Feb. 12, Melissa Ware, Program Director of the Center for Counseling and Well-Being, announced that Grand Rapids Community College will begin offering support groups for students on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
“It’s not like a closed therapy group,” Ware said. “A support group is open, meaning you don’t have to come every week, it’s as needed… It’s not necessary therapy, but it’s using that group dynamic and everyone sharing their experiences to help support each other”
Support groups will be open to all students on Wednesdays from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Currently, these support groups are not restricted to a specific topic, and students are welcome to talk about anything.
“Whether you want to talk about how you feel about academic stress, whether you want to talk about being a community college student on a commuter campus,” Ware said. “If you want to talk about anxiety, if you want to talk about relationships, or if you want to seek support for things just feeling kind of uncertain and up in the air right now or just noticing some tension, maybe, as a result of the election.”
Ware hopes that the Center for Counseling and Well-Being will offer specific support groups in the future, saying, “For right now we want to just keep it really broad and hear about what people really are needing and looking for.”
A counselor will be present in the support group, but their role will be to “hang back and guide conversation by prompting” as the students involved can ultimately guide the conversation.
According to the Mayo Clinic, potential benefits of attending a support group include reduced rates of depression and anxiety, gaining a sense of empowerment, control, or hope and improved coping skills.
Ware encourages students to take “a little bit of a healthy risk” and get involved.
“Your anxiety might be telling you ‘there’s no way I’m going to a support group’ (but) this might be a really great opportunity actually to show yourself that you’re capable of doing something that your anxiety is lying to you and telling you that you shouldn’t or can’t do,” Ware said.
The first support group will be on Wednesday, Feb. 19 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Students interested can go to room 368 of the student center, where a support professional will direct people to the private meeting room.
