While many students are aware of the on-campus availability of individual counseling, they may not be aware that the Counseling Services Center (CSC) also provides support groups. These groups give students the opportunity to learn from and interact with their peers in a setting mediated by a professional counselor.
Two types of groups are offered on campus: open support groups and therapy groups.
Open support groups allow students to come at any time. “You don’t have to commit to every single week, new people can come at any time, you can leave at any time,” said Cory Brosch, a senior counselor and the group coordinator at the CSC.
She added that there is no limit to the number of students that can attend or commitment to how long a student attends.
Brosch said that support groups “could be a general topic or a general population.” She added that these groups are fairly unstructured, and meant to discuss whatever the participants discuss what is affecting participants that week. The groups are participant-led, but a counselor is present in case conversation stalls or becomes too intense.
“A closed group is a more therapeutic group,” Brosch said. “You start, it’s a certain amount of sessions, you have a certain amount of people and they commit to every single week for a certain number of weeks. And each session builds off the others.”
There are many different options for open support groups that students can attend. One is the trans support group, which Brosch said helped students in any part of the transgender process. Another is Crafting Calm, which allows students to use art as a therapeutic tool. Another is International Circle, which supports international students. Finally, the Grief and Loss support group helps students who have recently lost someone, and is facilitated by Brosch. All of these groups are open groups which students can attend anytime.
Therapy groups inclue The Body Project, which is led by Brosch and focuses on “body activism” and body positivity. There is also a sexual assault support group, as well as a dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) group, which Brosch said is not intensive DBT, but rather teaches students to learn emotional regulation skills. Dungeons and Therapy is another group, which uses the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons to help students pinpoint their goals for self-growth. All of these groups are closed and require a time commitment to a series of sessions and a screening.
A screening is “really just a conversation with the counselor,” said Brosch. She added that it allows the counselor to get a picture of a student’s needs and goals and assess safety concerns.
Brosch said that group therapy can add a sense of connection. “What better way to connect with someone and learn some social skills and challenge that discomfort by being in a group?”
In addition to group therapy, CSC also offers workshops. These differ from group counseling because in workshops, “you’re in a room with other people, but the work done is pretty individual,” whereas in group counseling there is an “underlying premise that there’s going to be social interaction happening,” said Brosch.
Group therapy is available to students for free through the health fee. A list of current groups can be found online at https://www.oswego.edu/counseling-services/groups-and-workshops-spring-2023. To attend an open group, students can attend at the designated time. Those with interest in a closed group can call the CSC at 315.312.4416. Interested students can also fill out the group interest form found at the same link. Brosch added that if students are interested in a support group that is not currently offered, they can suggest topics through this form as well.
