Monday, January 12, 2009

Spring 2009 Personal Growth Groups at CaPS

Counseling and Psychological Services/Sexual Assault Crisis Service
Personal Growth Groups, Spring 2009
Unless noted, groups require an initial individual meeting.
For more information call 855-5711.

HEALTHY CONNECTIONS - GRADUATE AND RETURNING STUDENTS: Mondays 3:00-4:30 p.m.; Tuesdays, 1:30-3:00 p.m.; Wednesdays, 1-2:30 p.m.; Thursdays, 2:30-4:00 p.m.
This group will focus on students learning to improve their relationships with others and deepen their understanding of themselves in relationships. The group offers a safe place for members to share honest thoughts and feelings with one another about aspects of their ways of interacting.

HEALTHY CONNECTIONS - UNDERGRADUATE: Tuesdays, 1-2:30 p.m..; Thursdays, 3:00-4:30 p.m.
Often the personal issues that bring us to counseling have more to do with how we relate to others than we think. These groups will help members explore the relationship between their interpersonal style and their emotional well-being. Members will be encouraged to experiment with new behaviors, which can foster more meaningful connections with others and enhance emotional health.

HEALTHY CONNECTIONS - WOMEN’S GRADUATE AND RETURNING STUDENTS: Thursdays, 1-2:30 p.m.
This group will focus on graduate and returning student women’s issues specifically as they relate to interpersonal and romantic relationships, body image, self-esteem, empowerment, personal growth, and other personal development concerns. Throughout the group experience, women will be encouraged to share their goals and experiences with one another in a safe, confidential, and engaging environment.

HEALTHY CONNECTIONS- UNDERGRADUATE WOMEN’S: Mondays, 1-2:30 p.m.
This group is designed to empower women to gain a greater understanding of themselves and to enhance the way they relate to others. Other issues to explore will include self-esteem, assertiveness, romantic relationships, family, perfectionism, and body image. We offer a safe and confidential group to promote growth and we ask that members share their thoughts and feelings and as well as a willingness to experiment with new ways of relating to others.

RELAXATION: 2 sets of dates (see below)
This three-week group will teach the basics of relaxation techniques and help participants practice them. Limited to 14 participants. First group offered on (Wednesdays) 2/18, 2/25, 3/3 from 11:00-12:00 p.m. Second group offered on (Thursdays) 4/2, 4/9, 4/16 from 2:30-3:30 p.m.

DISORDERED EATING: Wednesdays, 1-2:30 p.m.
This group will provide a safe environment to meet with 5-8 other women who share similar difficulties with body image, binge eating, purging, restricting, laxative use, and over-exercise. Over the semester, this group will explore their eating habits, but also interpersonal difficulties that can contribute to eating problems. An initial consultation is necessary.

SURVIVORS OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE: Fridays, 12:00-1:30 p.m.
This group is open to undergraduate and graduate women and men who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The aim of this group is to provide a safe and therapeutic environment to explore some of the common problems associated with childhood sexual abuse. Some objectives are to help group participants share their secret and recognize that they are not alone, understand the current impact of this experience, and begin to work through and resolve feelings associated with their trauma.

HEALING: Mondays, 4:00-5:30 p.m.
This group is open to Black undergraduate and graduate women who have experienced sexual victimization prior to age 16. The goal of this group is to provide a safe and therapeutic environment to explore together the ways in which sexual victimization impacts one's life. Telling the secret, learning that one is not alone, and recognizing how the present is connected to the past are objectives for the group.

ANGER MANGEMENT: Mondays, 1:30-3:00 p.m.
If you have gotten into trouble due to anger or are afraid that you will, this is the group for you. In this group, you will learn where anger comes from, what it means and what you can do to control it.

DISSERTATION SUPPORT: Tuesdays, 3:30-5:00 p.m.
This group will focus on peer and emotional support, goal setting, and anxiety/stress management.

STAYING OUT OF TROUBLE: Fridays, 3:30-4:30 p.m.
Drug and alcohol use can have a number of unintended consequences. Sometimes students are aware of them, sometimes not. If you are interested in exploring your drug and alcohol use in this non judgmental atmosphere so you can better make up your own mind about the risks and benefits, please consider attending this group.
(No individual counseling session is required prior to attending this group.)

COPING SKILLS FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS: Mondays, 3:15 – 4:45 p.m.
This series of workshops will introduce college students to four different sets of coping skills. During the first four Mondays of each month, we will explore a different set of skills to help students manage their moods, reduce stress, increase confidence and experience a greater sense of emotional well being. The same segments will be repeated each month as follows:

First Monday - Stinkin' Thinkin': How Changing Your Thinking Can Change Your Mood
Second Monday - Improving Your Self-Esteem
Third Monday - Assertiveness: Learning to Ask for What You Need
Fourth Monday - Mindfulness: Finding Peace Through Acceptance of Yourself and Others

No reservations or prior individual counseling sessions required - just stop in. Students can attend as few or as many of the workshops as they like and in any order they desire.

MINDFULNESS-BASED STRESS MANAGEMENT: Tuesdays, 1:30-3 p.m. (4 session group with option to enroll in 4 weeks of advanced practices immediately following the first 4 weeks)
Mindfulness is the practice of being in the present, not the past or future. Use of mindfulness-based techniques is linked to reductions in anxiety, physical pain symptoms, and depression. This four-week psycho-educational group will use graduated experiences and repeated practice to cultivate a greater capacity to focus mindfully on the present. These techniques can be an important component of stress management, allowing you to live your life with less turmoil.

SURVIVORS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT: Wednesdays, 3-4:30 p.m.
This group will meet weekly during the fall semester and is open to undergraduate and graduate students who are survivors of sexual assault. For the purposes of this group, sexual assault is defined as any unwanted and nonconsensual sexual contact. It includes, but is not limited to rape. The purpose of this group is to provide a safe and therapeutic environment to explore some of the common problems associated with surviving a sexual assault. Some objectives of this group are to help group participants share their experience and recognize that they are not alone, understand the current impact of this experience, and begin to work through and resolve feelings associated with their trauma and to make changes.

GRIEF AND LOSS: Wednesdays, 10-11:30 a.m.
This group focuses on providing students who have experienced a loss, through death, the opportunity to experience support, guidance, and understanding, and to learn about the grief process. Students interested in this group should have experienced a loss through death within the last two years. The group will meet weekly and there is space for up to 8 members.

Sign-Up Procedures & Fees


Refer to the group counseling web page http://healthcenter.indiana.edu/groupssum.html for the list of groups being offered during any given semester.

To Reserve a Spot in a Group
• Most groups require an initial individual session with a counselor to assess whether a given group would be helpful, in which case the counselor would formally enroll the student in one of the groups. Groups that have space limitations also require a reservation.
• Advisors or students can call 855-5711 for further info, to set up initial appointments when required, or to reserve a spot.

Fees for Group Counseling
• Group fees are ½ that of individual counseling sessions; therefore, group sessions usually cost about $10.
• Students get two free sessions each of fall and spring semesters, or one free session each summer term. (Must be enrolled in more than 3 credits for the given term. The two free sessions can be comprised of individual and / or group sessions – the client does not get two of each free.)
• Note: Survivors of Sexual Assault Group sessions are free, and are not counted against the two free sessions noted above. See http://healthcenter.indiana.edu/sacsmain.html