by Minnie Stephenson
The Counseling Center at the University of Maryland is back in full swing this year with a full campus, and is trying to reach out to the new student population — but some students say it’s not enough.
In the 2019-2020 academic year, the Counseling Center experienced an 11% decrease in intake appointments from the previous academic year, according to the 2019-2020 Annual Counseling Center Report.
Allison Asarch, staff psychologist and coordinator of outreach and consultation services at the Counseling Center, said the decrease has a lot to do with the switch to online classes and the majority of students going home in March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The decrease in numbers at that time was not necessarily a decrease in needing support or experiencing mental health concerns,” she said. “People were unsure how to access resources in a time where everyone was staying at home.”
Asarch said that although the Counseling Center did outreach before the pandemic, the center changed their approach to outreach in some ways.
The Counseling Center created Wellness Workshops during the pandemic, where students can come to group sessions on topics including managing imposter syndrome, coping with stress, effective communication skills and more. There are 16 topics in total that rotate each month. All sessions are on Zoom to be more flexible for students, Asarch said.
What’s different about the Wellness Workshops is that students can just show up — there is no appointment or evaluation needed, unlike many of the center’s services, Asarch said.
Other types of outreach include services students or faculty request like workshops, presentations and campus-wide events like the Terps Take Care Fair or Mental Health Awareness Week.
Johanna Wolkoff, a sophomore journalism major, said she thinks the Counseling Center should still be doing more outreach to make itself and its services known to students. She said she first found out about it when her mom sent her a link to sign up for an appointment at the Counseling Center, as they were looking at therapy options together.
“If my mom hadn’t sent me that link I wouldn’t have even known that we had a counseling center on campus,” she said. “It’s a really great resource that more students should be taking advantage of.”
Alyssa Caruso, a freshman English major, said she sought the Counseling Center out herself when she came to UMD because she wanted to continue regular therapy sessions like she did in high school.
Caruso said she used the Counseling Center to connect with a psychiatrist in the area, rather than just using the free therapy offered by the center itself, since there are only a limited number of sessions. Although, she does partake in group therapy sessions through the center every week.
“[The Counseling Center] has a limit on what they can do because it’s a free service,” she said.
Asarch said the Counseling Center is trying to make itself more known to students through outreach.
“Mental health is for everybody,” Asarch said.
Featured image: The Counseling Center is trying to reach out to more students this semester and going forward. Photo by Joel Lev-Tov.