Health Center debuts 'coping skills' program

With classes, homework, friends and life in general, many students sometimes need help managing stress or keeping up their self-esteem. 

Counseling and Psychological Services now offers a solution that’s designed to benefit students on campus.

Every Monday, CAPS will host “coping skills” sessions free of charge to all IU students.

“It’s a great idea to invite students into CAPS, not for counseling, but to help them learn to manage their mood and help self-confidence,” said Tim Davis, a psychologist with CAPS and instructor of the sessions. “The idea is to give students a place to come develop better coping skills, even if they are not into counseling.”

When planning the program, psychologists thought about the most important coping skills and picked four of them, so each Monday of the month will have a different theme, such as “Stinkin’ Thinkin,’” a session about the importance of positive thinking, self-confidence, assertiveness and mindfulness.

The programs will run through November.

“These are the ones we decided are the core of being an emotionally-successful college student,” Davis said. “These are things people work on their whole lives and college is a great place to start.”

Each session begins at 3:15 p.m. and lasts about 90 minutes. Students will have time to listen to information and participate in group discussion activities.

Freshman Abby Snyder said she would consider going to the “Stinkin’ Thinkin’” session if it could fit into her schedule.

“I feel fully confident and assertive already.” she said. “But I think negative all of the time.”

Davis said he hopes to have at least eight to 10 students in each session.

He said people get a lot out of help through peers and having other people around.

“We really just want to reach as many college students as we can,” Davis said.

He said any undergraduate is a perfect candidate for the group because they are just beginning and could use the information to make college less stressful.

Davis said he could have used a lesson on self-confidence when he attended IU years ago.

“You can always do a better job of coping,” he said. “If I had taken advantage of things like this in college, I would have had a better experience.”