09/29/2015
Kali Ledgard
Lead News Writer
K.J.Ledgard@iup.edu
The Indiana University of Pennsylvania Counseling Center has created its group counseling schedule for the fall semester.
There are three groups being offered to students: “Graduate Students,” “Understanding Yourself and Others” and “Women: Finding Our Way.”
Each group will consist of five to eight students and is led by the counseling center therapists, all of whom are either graduate students working toward their doctorate degrees in psychology, are counselors or are clinical staff, according to Dr. Rita Drapkin, group counseling coordinator.
While individual counseling is always an option if a student does not feel comfortable discussing certain issues in a group of students, group counseling may be more beneficial for some students.
The “Graduate Students” group will be facilitated by Drapkin and graduate student Emily Lazar (psychology). This group will meet Tuesdays from 3:20 p.m. to 4:50 p.m. and will cover issues many graduate students may face, such as adjusting to graduate school, the coursework demands of graduate school, anxieties about competition and career, coping with stress graduate school may bring, self-care and healthy interpersonal relationships, according to IUP’s website.
“Women: Finding Our Way” is a group for women who may have difficulty developing and maintaining relationships with others. This group is facilitated by graduate students Abby Costello (psychology) and Camille Interligi (psychology) and will be held Wednesdays from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. This will allow students to learn how to express thoughts and feelings and to learn about themselves to better their relationships. They will also experience giving and receiving support and feedback, according to the website.
“Understanding Yourself and Others” is open to all students concerned with issues of self-awareness and interpersonal interaction like academics, relationships, families, body image and self-esteem. This group will take place Thursdays from 3:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m., and is facilitated by graduate student Gabi Huffman (psychology) and Drapkin, according to the website.
Group counseling has been offered at the university for more than 20 years, and is held during both semesters.
“We offer groups both fall and spring, and the groups are not always the same,” Drapkin said.
Meeting times for the groups are scheduled during times when there are the fewest number of classes taking place in order to allow all students the opportunity to participate. The three groups selected for this fall semester were chosen because the Counseling Center staff believes that they will cover most of the needs students may have.
“We try to offer groups that are more likely to run; we thought with these three groups we were going to be able to cover most people,” Drapkin said.
Drapkin expanded upon the benefits of group counseling.
“There’s a lot of research that shows that some groups are more effective than individual counseling,” Drapkin said.
Students wishing to participate in the groups are required to set up an initial meeting with the group facilitators in order to see which group will suit them best. These initial meetings take up to 45 minutes and can be scheduled by contacting the counseling center as soon as possible.
The initial meeting is held to decide which group will best suit the students’ needs, and if there is not a group for them, they are encouraged to either schedule individual counseling sessions or return next semester to see if there is a new group better suited for them.
“It’s a two-way meeting,” Drapkin said. “We’re trying to learn about them, and they are trying to learn about us.”
Once students complete the initial meeting and are placed in groups, they are encouraged to appear to their meeting weekly.
These counseling groups are closed groups, which means once the meetings begin, no additional student may be permitted into the group.
This is done in order for students to develop trust among each other and to reduce anxiety levels, according to Drapkin.