Every Tuesday evening since February, the little yellow brick house on the edge of campus, otherwise known as the home of the Baker University Counseling Center, hosts a Mental Wellness workshop to help students develop four key methods of wellness. They aim to improve frustration tolerance, mindfulness, interpersonal relationships and managing emotions.
“We started the workshops so students would have a place to learn and practice simple skills for managing mental health in a fun way,” Maryn Palmer, a counselor for the center said.
Their goal was to provide a relaxed and welcoming space to help students learn mental health skills using fun activities, as well as make them feel capable of having good mental health.
“We thought it would be beneficial if the students at Baker had more opportunities to learn about common mental health struggles as a college student and ways to overcome them,” explains Britney Slater, who is also a counselor for the center, “this is also a judgement free zone to explore ways to cope with college life!”
Some activities included playing Jenga, matching facial expressions to emotions and creating art. In the upcoming workshops, they plan to have guided meditation and Jeopardy games, as well as snacks.
These activities allow students to think about several different aspects of their mental health in an out-of-the-box way. Creativity and openness are encouraged, which improves the student’s willingness to participate.
Each workshop is also designed to create meaningful connections. Whether those connections develop between their peers, with the world around them or with themselves, they all provide support and a positive mindset.
“Depending on what topic we are covering, our goal is to have students walk away from our workshops feeling like they had fun, and it was a relaxing experience,” Palmer said.
To Slater, the main takeaway for students is a sense of empowerment and agency. Since mental health issues can often be overlooked, Slater shares that spreading knowledge about mental health strategies can help students feel less overwhelmed when dealing with their struggles.
The Counseling Center also offers many more opportunities besides the mental health workshops, for those looking for something more long-term or one-on-one. From individual therapy sessions to couples counseling and group counseling, there are many options to suit everyone’s mental health needs, whether they are a student, faculty member or staff member.
Sherri Pahcoddy, the department assistant for the Counseling Center and Residence Life, sends out an email each week with a Google Form and QR code for signing up in advance.
“With the workshops, having a fun way to explore topics like emotions and frustration among peers can help reduce the stigma of mental health and make students leave feeling lighter,” Slater said.
If there are any new ideas or skills that students would like to see in the next workshops, the Counseling Center says that they will do their best to incorporate them and listen to their needs. There are only a few workshops left in this spring semester according to the counselors, so attendance and participation is highly encouraged and snacks will be provided.
The Baker University’s Counseling Center uses these workshops to show their passion for improving and spreading awareness on mental health. The care taken to develop these workshops for students shows the dedication the Counseling Center has to helping all students, no matter their identity, past struggles or experience level.
Located at 519 Grove Street, the Counseling Center’s main goal as a pillar of the Baker community is to serve the campus and the surrounding city of Baldwin City to promote wellness using mental health services and educational opportunities.
The workshops are held weekly on Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m., and last around an hour.
