The transition to university life gives students independence and opportunities, but also brings unfamiliar levels of stress and emotional disturbance, especially anxiety. At Neumann University, the Counseling Center is central to aiding students facing these challenges.
According to Bonnie Yake, the Associate Dean of Students for Counseling and Student Health, the most common reasons students come to the center are to talk about challenges in relationships and adjustment to college life, to manage anxiety, especially social anxiety.
The Counseling Center at Neumann University. By Nguyen Ta
“I think a lot of that comes from Covid, years spent behind the screens, and also just genuinely from social media,” said Yake. During the pandemic era, students were not getting experience interacting with other human beings in person.
“I find a lot of students who are phobic or anxious about making phone calls,” she added. “They much rather text or email.”
Counseling can help. The services on campus aid students in relationships, but it also it helps students practice communicating with other human beings directly rather than through social media.
Social media plays a significant role in modern society. But it is like a double-edged sword to young users’ mental health.
“It depends a lot on the content, if there’s something that I don’t like, it will definitely ruin my mood,” said Dikshant Tandukar, a first-year student from Nepal.
For him, social media helps entertain people and keeps them connected but it can create negative thoughts and feelings of inadequacy.
From Yake’s perspective, the students who use the Internet as a tool to entertain and improve mental health will benefit from it. For students prone to over-use, it could have a negative impact.
“We’re trying to empower students, strengthen their confidence, their self-esteem, and their overall well-being,” she said.
Seeking help should never be viewed as a weakness. However, some students are worried about being judged or being labeled too sensitive, making it more difficult for them to seek help.
“I feel like I should try to face everything by myself, I guess, I don’t really seek help,” said Tandukar. However, doing everything on their own is tough, especially for students living far away from home like him.
Margaret Ensell, a senior communication and digital media major, also found this stigma as the biggest concern when she started going to the counseling center.
“I was scared about what my family would think, but then they were very very supportive of it,” she shared. “It shouldn’t matter what people say about you, it should matter how you feel about it.”
Margaret Ensell, a senior CDM major, shares her counseling journey. By Nguyen Ta
With more than a decade of experience, Yake truly understands this. “Some people feel like there are still stigmas around it,” she said. The Counseling Center directly confronts this challenge by offering outreach programs, mental health presentations, and peer-run forums around campus that work towards making these dialogues a normal occurrence.
In addition, Yake informed that Neumann students have access to TimelyCare, a virtual health and well-being platform. “It’s available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year,” she emphasized. “So, students can get on the TimelyCare app and be seen by a counselor within 5 to 7 minutes on demand, in the moment.”
