K-State’s counselors are fighting against the villainous stress affecting college students
For K-State counselors, student well-being is the number one priority. To meet the growing need for psychological services, they offer many innovative therapy options and continue to add more.
In addition to well-known individual counseling, support groups and couples therapy, K-State students have a ticket to many supportive services through Lafene Health Center Counseling and Psychological Services.
Together is better
One of the innovative opportunities is a group session called Therapy 101. Students learn about the basics of therapy and how to build rapport with their therapists.
Through the group, students might even learn that therapy is not the best fit for them, or a counselor might recommend a specific group curated toward their needs.
“For students with social anxiety, sometimes the best treatment is to be exposed to a group setting,” said Dr. Stephanie Jacobs, associate director of Lafene CAPS. “They may be hesitant at first, but all of our programs are safe spaces giving students the skills and encouragement they need.”
Another support group is Moving Naturally Through Challenges, one of Lafene’s most popular. Students learn how to manage anxiety with fundamental techniques and then the last 30 minutes of each session are spent outside playing games, walking, doing yoga and enjoying nature through movement.
The kinesiology department collaborates with Lafene in this program for research projects, which delivers an interdisciplinary approach to wellness.
There’s more!
Another service offered by Lafene CAPS is the Timely Care app. Through this platform, students access videos and lectures about how to manage struggles, a Talk Now service for timely communication, scheduled online counseling and crisis services.
Within the first few months of offering Timely Care, there were already 500 students registered. It is also available for the Salina and Olathe campuses.
Another one of Lafene’s tools is an anxiety management service called biofeedback. The patient’s anxiety levels are monitored through a computer as the counselor asks questions. Together, they uncover which topics trigger anxiety by observing the computer data and then work to discover relaxing methods.
No wrong door
Lafene CAPS is only one of the doors students at K-State can walk through when in need. Lafene works with other campus and community partners dedicated to supporting students in every way.
“Occasionally, when we feel we’re not the best fit, we refer students to another specialized care facility or organization that better matches their needs,” Jacobs said. “We help make the connections and schedule appointments with students’ consent.”
Coming soon
Lafene CAPS is hiring additional counselors to bring more hands and skills to the table. It’s working on creating another group focused on substance use counseling and recovery, with more groups to come.
“We want to better understand how we can not only help students and connect them to resources, but we also how we can improve suicide prevention care,” Jacobs said. “We want to instill hope in our students and help them understand that the difficulties they’re going through are temporary and will get better.”
Supporting Lafene CAPS is a great way to touch the hearts of students with a healing hand.
By Kate Ellwood