by Caitlin Wilson
“What we have learned as college mental health providers is that the stigma has decreased around mental health. Mental health care, and actualizing our best selves, is being seen as a part of wellness, which is a good thing,” says Heidi Huber, who is director of McDaniel’s Wellness Center and a licensed clinical social worker.
While the stigma around sharing mental health struggles is decreasing, Huber says, student mental health issues like depression and anxiety have risen in recent years. Traditional counseling models that rely on one-on-one conversation are facing the challenge of meeting every individual that needs support.
With one in five McDaniel students meeting with Wellness Center counselors each year, preventive care, early intervention, and new counseling formats are becoming more important than ever to help students before a crisis develops.
“We need mental health checkups, just like we have physical checkups,” Huber says.
In “Reaching New Heights: McDaniel College Strategic Plan 2022-2027,” wellness programming is as closely tied to student success initiatives as academics. Because for many students, a decline in mental and physical wellness can derail their college journey, delaying graduation and their plans for the future.
The Wellness Center is a calm oasis on the second floor of Winslow Hall, just upstairs from the Home on the Hill food pantry. With counseling offices, group therapy spaces, and a relaxation room, the center has an air of tranquility and comfort.
The average number of counselors at schools the size of McDaniel is two. In the Wellness Center, four full-time, licensed mental health professionals meet students for therapy sessions and lead psychoeducational, skill-based workshops.
Each staff member is versed in young adult development and is familiar with the campus community. The short-term counseling is accessible, and counselors can help students locate long-term and specialized support off campus. When a student is experiencing a crisis, the counselors are ready to help.
“One of the shifts that I made when I came into my leadership role was to provide more urgent services,” Huber says. “We now have urgent walk-in availability that is every hour when we’re open, Monday through Friday. We also have a counselor-on-duty rotation, so there’s always a counselor who can be brought in on urgent cases after hours.”
In addition to counseling, the center also supports students in navigating their physical health needs. An on-staff registered nurse coordinates with Carroll Health Group Primary Care to connect students to medical services and organizes on-campus clinics.
“This spring, we’re doing significantly more psychoeducational workshops than ever before,” Huber says. “We’ve always done educational outreach programming, but the workshop model serves our community in a really important way.”
The center offers group therapy on topics like understanding the self, challenging family patterns, and healing from sexual assault. But when “everybody knows everybody” on a small college campus, group therapy faces barriers, Huber says.
A workshop format, on the other hand, mitigates students’ worries about confidentiality among their peers, while still creating a sense of community.
“Talk therapy is useful and helps, one hundred percent, but it is more nuanced than that,” Huber says. “When we have traumatic experiences, there are times when our nervous system doesn’t need us to keep talking about it. Instead, it might need us to take action or just soothe ourselves. These workshops are concentrated on giving students new skills and ideas they can put into practice.”
Meeting students where they are is the key to groups and workshops, according to group coordinator Laura Knox. “Sometimes one-on-one counseling can be a little intimidating for folks,” she says. “With groups, it’s lower pressure on them as individuals and they have a group of folks that are supporting each other. And then the workshops are designed to address specific needs we’ve heard from students.”
The ideas for these workshops emerged from assessing intake form data, where students reported the areas they were struggling with. The workshops teach students how to use coping techniques that are suited to their unique circumstances and identities.
In the workshop Matters of the Art, Natalie Williams leads students in crafting exercises to discover the therapeutic qualities of artmaking. In Getting Unstuck Together, Jessica Luty-Kabrhel guides students through their feelings of isolation, depression, and loss of motivation, then helps them find pathways to move forward.
Offering a variety of therapeutic outlets for students also allows the center to address unequal access to care and meet the needs of McDaniel’s diverse student population.
“Traditional counseling models are not always accessible or appealing to students of every gender, ethnicity, or cultural background,” says Huber.
Last fall, students had the opportunity to create wellness-inspired art as part of the campus-wide You Matter campaign.
Guarantees long-term counseling support on campus for an additional fee, and scholarships allow more students to benefit from the program. Counselors coordinate with a WESP student’s support team to increase the effectiveness of their overall treatment.
Tailored outreach programming for specific groups of students and organizations to increase accessibility to clinical services. Liaisons from the Wellness Center serve as a main point of contact. Liaison assignments are thoughtfully considered based on natural connections like shared identities/experiences and specialized training.
“When we have traumatic experiences, there are times when our nervous system doesn’t need us to keep talking about it. Instead, it might need us to take action or just soothe ourselves. These workshops are concentrated on giving students new skills and ideas they can put into practice.”
- HEIDI HUBER
UNDERSTANDING SELF AND OTHERS: Learn about yourself and how to function in relationships; explore relationship patterns and techniques to improve self-esteem, trust, and strengthen meaningful relationships.
CHAOTIC FAMILIES: A supportive group for managing difficult family relationships and improving communication skills.
ANXIETY TOOLBOX: Get tips for recognizing and managing things like worry, overthinking, nerves, and avoidance that you can use in any overwhelming situation while exploring how the brain influences our thoughts, feelings, and actions.
GETTING UNSTUCK TOGETHER: Students with decreased motivation, isolation, and depression will explore how thoughts and feelings impact mood, and come together to support one another while learning new patterns in getting unstuck.
SELF-COMPASSION AND SELF-LOVE: Learn how to engage in mindfulness and self-compassion while developing a deeper understanding of yourself. Explore skills to cope with anxiety and stress while enhancing your overall well-being.
MATTERS OF THE ART: Utilize arts and crafts to promote relaxation, provide skills for self-care, increase confidence, and provide resources and information about art therapy and opportunities for further healing.