Group counseling sessions at NC State’s counseling center offer students a kind of therapy based on sharing similar experiences, challenges and fears with your peers.
In separate interviews with the Technician, director and licensed professional counselor Monica Osburn and group coordinator and licensed psychologist George Nichols spoke about group counseling.
The Technician: What kind of group counseling can students go to and how do sessions generally work?
Monica Osburn: We have a variety of different types of groups and when you come to the counseling center, you can find out what your needs are and if group [sessions] would be a good fit for your needs. One of the primary groups that we have is called “understanding self and others,” and that is what you would call a general therapy group to assist students in understanding themselves and other people. Mostly where students need help is interpersonal conflict and they might not really understand how others perceive them or maybe how to get their point across or interact with others— so that group is really helpful. One of the best things about group is you’re having those interactions with your peers, so you’re really learning from other people.
T: What are some of the main benefits you see in students that attend these sessions regularly?
O: Overall, it helps in every facet of their life. It helps them to feel normal, understood— that the problems they’re experiencing, other students experience as well. There’s a lot of support in that shared experience; just to know that somebody else has the same thoughts, fears and worries that you do. There’s a sense of relief that it’s goingto be okay. We have groups for folks who experience anxiety, and we’ve seen significant reductions in anxiety symptoms by participating in those groups.
T: Do you see a lot of the international students utilizing the counseling services and group services as well?
O: We have an entire group devoted to international students. It’s called “international student success”. International students have specific challenges that domestic students don’t experience, and you need to attend to those as well. That’s why we have some specialty groups. For example, we have a wellness support group, and that really focuses on students with differing abilities and how that impacts their ability to succeed at NC State, different challenges they have and how we can better support them.
T: Other than interpersonal conflict, what’s something else that you see may be more prevalent?
O: The top three issues for years based on national data for students is anxiety, depression and relationship issues. They change places as to what’s number one each year. In the past few years, anxiety has been the top concern expressed by students. That’s nationwide, not just here at NC State.
The coordinator for group counseling also discussed the benefits and process of it with the Technician.
Technician: What goes into consideration when deciding on the different types of group sessions?
George Nichols: Some of that is history. Traditionally, there are basically four kinds of groups that are typically offered in a college counseling center. When groups initially came into being, it was around the time of the end of World War II. Essentially, we had a lot of veterans coming back and entering the university environment, so there was an attention to what kind of things might be helpful to prepare veterans as they go back into the college environment and think about entering the workforce. So it started with an interest in “how do we provide this information that would be helpful,” so that’s what we call the psychoeducational groups. Then from there, things began to emerge. The field of psychology grows and then you have different thinking about “okay there’s something happening when we talk about this in a group, so what else might we be able to do with a group?” We basically end up with four kinds of groups. So these groups are more about helping anyone who’s in that room work on changing something about how they relate to others and work on growing as a person. So these are the four: the skill building, the psychoeducational, the thematic groups, and the personal growth groups. Those are the four kinds of groups that are traditionally offered at college counseling centers, so we try to make sure we’re covering those when we can.
T: How does the group setting affect the students’ therapy versus something one on one?
N: I think everyone has their own preferences, but I do feel that a group experience is gonna feel different than a one on one for a variety of different reasons. One of the things that I think is really powerful about groups, though, is that an opportunity presents itself to every person that’s in a group to discover that what they are experiencing, what they fear and worry that others don’t know that experience. Students discover that other people know that experience. That’s one of the most consistent statements that I think students make at the end of a semester or other time in group, like “I was really surprised to discover that I was not alone in how I feel, and that felt really good.” The two most consistently reported statements that students say is “I was really surprised to find out that I had a lot in common with others and people knew my experience, and that was really validating.” The other thing I hear students say a lot is “I wish I had joined a group sooner,” that there was something about being able to name what’s going on for you with peers and feel acceptance and to worry that it will be judged but discover that it’s not judged — that is remarkably valuable. You can’t really cover that in individual sessions, I mean you can have a person you’re working with and empathize with it, but it seems something different when it’s a peer.
You can talk about the experience of feeling like my difference makes it harder for me to connect or makes what I feel like I have in common makes it easier for me to connect — finding that delicate balance between appreciating and validating the things that make us different, but also searching out for and naming what we have in common, despite those differences that are felt, is such a wonderful life skill to develop. That’s one of the things I really like about group work,and it fits within our philosophy and our mission statement within the counseling center. At the counseling center, we really try to make it known that one of our values is that we appreciate diversity and see value in that. If I can make this a personal experience, I was born in Mexico and I lived most of my life in the United States, and most people who looked at me say “that guy does not look at all Latino,” and so as a kid learning that it meant something to have an identity and hide that identity for the sake of acceptance.I think this is one of the reasons why I’m a psychologist – I learned that there’s tremendous power in owning what makes you special and is your identity and I think in group when we have the opportunity to do that, that is one way in which we achieve wellbeing. I think as a general statement from the counseling center, that is something we really value. We want this space to be about affirming our identities and defining that for ourselves. I think the group piece helps bring that value of ours more to life and how you encourage an appreciation for diversity. One of the ways in which you do that is in the context of groups where you can support students contacting difference.
