The WKU Counseling Center will host four support and psychoeducational groups this fall to help students cope with stress, developing skills for better communication and tackle racial issues affecting students.

All of the support groups and psychoeducational groups will be split into several sessions and will take place on Zoom.

Peggy Crowe, director of the Counseling Center, detailed how the upcoming support and psychoeducational groups will help students and how they decided to start them.

“We create groups based on student needs from decades of working with college students and our understanding of college student development theory, student psychological development, experiences working with students in and out of therapy, as well as national trends in society and within colleges and universities,” Crowe said in an email. 

An Introduction to Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction aims to help students learn mindfulness skills to cope with stress and anxiety. Each session takes place on every Wednesday of September from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm. 

Psychological Skills for Helping Self, Relationships & Communication is for students who desire to work on their communication skills with themselves and others. These sessions will take place every Wednesday starting Oct. 7 to Nov. 11 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) Student Healing Circle and Tackling Racism within White Circles are both support groups that are new to campus and aim to handle racial issues and trauma. The BIPOC Healing Circle sessions take place on Sept. 8 and 22, Oct. 6 and 20, Nov. 2 and 17 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Sessions of Tackling Racism within White Circles take place on Wednesday, Sept. 9 and 23, Oct. 7 and 21, Nov. 4 and 18 from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

“Regarding the 2 new groups, we wanted to create opportunities for students to engage in supportive and challenging conversations around race in their own lives and on campus,” Crowe said. “It seems like each day brings a new assault on the differences in our world. We yearn for a time when our society becomes more civil, and finds a way to address the root causes of racism so that no one has to live in fear while doing daily activities that most of us take for granted.”

Debra Murray can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @debramurrayy.