Matilyn Mortensen:
Welcome to Making Utah, the official podcast of the University of Utah. Here, we share stories of discovery, creativity and connection that shape campus and our state for the future.

I'm Matilyn Mortensen and you're listening to U For You, the student-facing podcast where we explore stories, tips and resources to help you make the most of your college experience.

Christina, thank you so much for joining me today. Will you take a minute and introduce yourself and what your position at the university is?

Christina Kelly LaCluyse:
Yes, happy to do that. So my name is Christina Kelly LeCluyse. I am the associate director of outreach and programming at the university counseling center.

Matilyn Mortensen:
And I know that you have a friend with you today and your friend is very quiet and respectful, but maybe you could introduce your friend.

Christina Kelly LaCluyse:
Yes. So Volley is here with us today in the studio and he is our counseling center facility dog. Volley is a fully trained service dog from Canine Companions. And the reason why he's called a facility dog is because I don't have a disability, but as a service dog, he provides a service to our facility, which is our campus community.

Matilyn Mortensen:
That's so cool. So I think Volley is a very fun and unexpected part of the counseling center. I think a lot of the time when people think about the counseling center, they think about maybe just options for one-on-one counseling on campus. So in addition to Volley, can you tell me a little bit more about the range of what the University of Utah Counseling Center offers?

Christina Kelly LaCluyse:
Absolutely and thank you for asking because we really do have so much to offer. So we certainly do individual therapy, of course, but we have a wide range of other services. We have a wide selection of group therapy and I know for a lot of students, the idea of group therapy at first might seem intimidating. I also think that a lot of people jump to an assumption about what group is as being like an AA meeting or something like that and just to say that is not what we do. With our group therapy program, we have a range of topics that are very pertinent to students' mental health.

So for example, we have a therapy group called Loneliness and Connection. We have a lot of students who seek our services because they're really struggling with some social isolation and trying to find their way on campus and sometimes having some difficulty connecting with their peers or finding community. So Loneliness and Connection is a therapy group where students can come on a weekly basis and connect with other students who have similar concerns.

Another example is I, for example, this semester in the fall, I'm going to be leading a group called Navigating Anxiety Together. So all of us deal with stress and anxiety at some point in our lives and this group is for students who might be struggling with anxiety and feeling like it's getting in the way of them being able to engage in their life in the ways that they would like to. So we learn all about how anxiety shows up in our bodies, we look at the neurobiology of anxiety, like how the anxiety impacts our brain and our nervous system and then we learn some good skills for managing it.

One of the things that is incredibly healing about group that people often don't necessarily realize when they get that recommendation for group therapy is there's something incredibly normalizing and healing when you can be in a room with other people who are dealing with the same issues. When you're in a room and you're across the way listening to a peer who is dealing with the exact same issues, might show up slightly differently for them, but it's so relatable. And when we know that we're not alone, it helps to normalize the experience and then we can together in community learn ways to manage those concerns.

So in addition to our psychotherapy groups, we also have support groups. Support groups can be a weekly source of support, or it can be used as a drop-in basis as well. So with our therapy groups, the idea is group members come and commit to coming on a weekly basis. With our support groups, if it feels like you don't need it necessarily weekly, but would like to drop in and still have that experience of a group community to belong to, that's what those are there for.

And if I could elaborate on one more thing, over this past year and going into this next academic year, we have a new service called skill sessions.

So with our skill sessions, students meet one-on-one with a clinician to address and learn particular skills or tools to address common concerns, such as procrastination, time management, task prioritization, low motivation. We find that when we can teach students those particular skills, it helps their mental health. Now, skill sessions can be done in supplement to individual or group therapy.

So in all of this, not only are those the clinical services we offer, but we also do a lot of outreach events. And with outreach, we can do workshops, we can be out on campus with Volley for students to come and say hi and all of our clinical and outreach services are free of charge. So we just have a wealth of things to offer students.

Matilyn Mortensen:
That is so cool. When I was an undergraduate, I actually got assigned to a therapy group through my university's counseling center and I was really pleasantly surprised about how helpful it felt to go into a space, to hear people talk about their concerns, to have the facilitator, the therapist, respond to those concerns, but also for people in the group to share how they've approached situations.

Christina Kelly LaCluyse:
Exactly. Exactly.

Matilyn Mortensen:
And I was just really impressed with how effective I found that. I feel like if you haven't had that experience before, you might be like, "How can I get help in a group? I really need individualized care."

Christina Kelly LaCluyse:
I think a lot of people assume that individual is the best way for them to go and of course, that can be helpful. But as I mentioned earlier, there really is a unique experience and a lot of healing that can happen when you're in a group setting, relating to peers. And oftentimes it surprises people... For example, in the spring and actually over this past summer, I've led a group for female-identified trauma survivors. They did a lot of individual work prior to the group. And then coming into the group, as you can imagine, it's a difficult topic to discuss, but the type of healing that can happen when you're in the room with peers who have had similar experiences to you, it's just a type of healing that by nature can't happen in individual therapy.

Matilyn Mortensen:
I think it can also be a space where you might realize things that you've learned or improved on by hearing other people's stories and that might help you feel better about that you are making progress.

Christina Kelly LaCluyse:
Absolutely. And as you mentioned earlier, there's so much to be said when peers can help each other and not only validate, listen and empathize, but suggest, "When I was dealing with that, I tried this and it really was helpful." That also is part of the healing process.

Matilyn Mortensen:
I love that so much. So you talked a little bit about just the wide variety of options you have and I think that people are pretty aware of mental health language right now. It's all over social media. And in some ways, that's great. In some ways, maybe it's not as helpful. And I think a lot of people might know if they're in a crisis, they can reach out to the counseling center. I'm really curious about your advice and how you might suggest students use your resources to maybe prevent that crisis and help care for themselves earlier in their experience.

Christina Kelly LaCluyse:
I so appreciate how you phrased that because I think sometimes students assume that they have to be in dire straits, they have to be in a crisis mode in order to access our services. And really what I like to promote is this idea of mental health is just health and taking care of your health. And so like we would go and get our flu shot or whatever type of preventative medicine that you want to engage in, mental health is absolutely critical to your overall wellbeing. So students are welcome to come see us even if they're wanting to just get started with their school year, knowing that they are going to be faced with some challenges, be it academically, personal life, family, relationships, social. There's so many areas that we address in therapy. So being able to come to see us to talk through issues can really be beneficial so that you can avoid those crises and really promote your wellbeing. So absolutely, I definitely want to recommend that idea of taking a preemptive, proactive approach in addressing your mental health.

Matilyn Mortensen:
And you mentioned the skill sessions that it sounds like are pretty new and that seems like a really cool way for students to see the ways in which therapy and that support can help them in all areas of their life. I think someone who might be a new student or maybe is dealing with some things in their life that are making some of their schoolwork things hard might not understand that the counseling center can help them. They might see it as maybe a tool for grief or a tool for mental health diagnosis. And I'm just curious how you see those skill sessions fitting in for a student kind of thinking holistically about how they're going to help themselves succeed in college.

Christina Kelly LaCluyse:
Excellent question. So for example, now as we're starting the school year, a lot of students are feeling overwhelmed with classes, adjusting to the U. If they're not new to the U, even just looking at what their semester holds can be overwhelming. So that feeling of overwhelm can cause a lot of anxiety and with that can come some sense of paralysis and not knowing what to do.

And so at the counseling center, we can provide you with individual therapy and these skill sessions can be a supplement to individual or to group. In the skill session, you'll learn a particular set of skills or tools to be able to manage procrastination, for example. So oftentimes when people feel overwhelmed, they procrastinate and start playing video games or do all of their laundry or clean the kitchen. Those are all great things. However, if you need to get the assignment done and you're struggling to get it done because you're anxious perhaps of how to approach that, you can talk about in a skill session learning skills specific to how to deal with procrastination. How do you reduce that? How do you go ahead and tackle the hard work that's ahead of you? When you're doing that, then that's going to decrease your anxiety and improve your mental health.

Matilyn Mortensen:
And then you mentioned the campus outreach events that you do or programming. I'm curious, are those things that your office plans, or are those things sometimes that groups or clubs might invite you to come do?

Christina Kelly LaCluyse:
Great question. So we often like to partner with student organizations, staff or faculty. A lot of our campus partners, we do a lot of collaboration with them for events and workshops in particular. So in regards to campus-wide events, for example, in September, we are partnering with the Center for Campus Wellness as well as the Union Programming Council and we're going to be doing a chalk art festival and it'll be held out in the Union patio and it's all about providing messages of hope for people who might be struggling, so part of that suicide prevention messaging. So that's an example of a collaboration with our campus partners.

For workshops, we often get requests and we're more than happy to do this, to come to a student organization chapter meeting, or if it's a class, that can be another way. If they have, for example, people... We get a lot of requests for general counseling center services, but also mental wellness or managing stress, managing burnout. Those are common themes and we're more than happy to come and do a workshop in those topics.

Matilyn Mortensen:
But also just thinking about some of the material you cover in your skill sessions and I feel like some of that could blend really well to a student organization hosting an event based on that.

Christina Kelly LaCluyse:
Absolutely. Absolutely. We find that partnering with student organizations or campus partners is one of the better ways of doing outreach. I think there can still be a little bit of stigma if it's just the counseling center there. So when we partner, we really welcome that partnership. It's people who are already collaborating with that student organization or members and so then we can come in and provide programming for them, which is a win-win.

Matilyn Mortensen:
And they really know the needs of the people in their group. You guys can tailor something together.

Christina Kelly LaCluyse:
Precisely.

Matilyn Mortensen:
If people are wanting to reach out, what's the best way to contact the counseling center?

Christina Kelly LaCluyse:
Yeah. So on our website at the counseling center, on the top toolbar there is a tab that you will... be a dropdown tab with our services. And on there, there'll be an outreach request form and that actually comes directly to me. So I'll be the one to respond to whoever makes that request and then I'll help coordinate our staff to fulfill the outreach.

In addition, on our counseling center website, we have an outreach page where you can see the type of events that we've already done, as well as a listing of the type of workshops that we provide.

Matilyn Mortensen:
That's so awesome. Is there anything you want to include before we wrap up today?

Christina Kelly LaCluyse:
Yeah. One thing, as we touched upon with Volley, in addition to individual and group therapy that he does with me, we mentioned outreach and so this semester, I'm going to be doing visits with Volley every week. And while the weather lasts, we're going to be out by the Big Block U every other Wednesday between 11:45 and 12:45 so students can stop by and say hi. And then on alternate Wednesdays, we're going to be in the Student Wellness Lounge, which is in the CDA office in the Student Services building on the third floor. I just find that when students come and interact with Volley, it brightens their day. It's a nice stress-reducer. It's a chance to just hang out. Sometimes students miss their dogs quite a bit when they're here on campus, so being able to interact with a dog can be a lot of fun.

And Volley does have his own Instagram account now, so he's @UofUVolley. And our counseling center Instagram is @UofUCounseling. So we'll be promoting all of our outreach events, as well as our services, on both of those social media posts.

Matilyn Mortensen:
And I'll be putting those in the show notes, so if you're listening, it'll be easy for you to find those later.

Christina Kelly LaCluyse:
Thank you. Thank you.

Matilyn Mortensen:
Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for bringing Volley. This was such a nice conversation.

Christina Kelly LaCluyse:
Thank you so much for inviting us. It's a real pleasure.

Matilyn Mortensen:
Thanks for listening to Making Utah. Subscribe wherever you get your podcast and stay connected with us on attheu.utah.edu.