I believe we should put more focus on a wellness approach to counseling. That would mean more group sessions focused on issues sometimes encountered by young adults such as eating disorders, stress, anxiety, depression, and drug and alcohol abuse. This would be a more proactive approach, and one more in keeping with our strategy of placing responsibility upon students. I believe we should also consider asking our counseling staff to provide training to students as peer counselors. This is an approach used well at several other colleges.
Peers can often be very effective in helping young adults deal with problems.
These aspects of counseling should become a part of our larger Wellness Program, a program that is still taking shape. Just as we do medical emergencies, and just as we are doing at present. We have members of the Student Development staff on call 24 hours a day. If there is a counseling emergency and no Earlham counselor available on campus, we take the student to the hospital. Deb and I would welcome reactions to this column and suggestions about how we can provide the best possible counseling consistent with our mission.