Counseling Services for College Students
Counseling Services for college students is on the rise for our at an alarming rate. College kids are having an “emotional crisis” involving everyday common life situations. Basic decision making and functioning is too much for them to handle sending many to spiral into extreme panic and anxiety.
Studies are showing that counseling services for college students across national campus’s has double caused by a sense of “neediness” to be taken care of and have decisions made for them. It has gotten so bad that many faculty teachers are hesitant to give the students a low grade. They fear they are to “emotionally unstable” and will come unglued if they do.
Counseling Services for College Students
Is Babysitting
Counselors and therapists are reporting that they feel like glorified hand holders and babysitters. They are unable to be challenged as a result. Counseling is effective and works. In the colleges we are seeing therapy underutilized for it’s original purposes. The original design was for therapy to help students to seek help that will facilitate a shift in the thinking thus leading to better decision making.
Psychology Today, cites two good examples where we can see students asking for help. A girl seeks counseling after her roommate calls her a bad word over a simple argument in their dorm room. The other examples shows two college kids seeking counseling services after they sew a small mouse that was in the roommates apartment. They went so far to call the police after seeing the mouse.
Many college students today are viewing a C, or sometimes even a B, as a complete failure, and they are interpreting this “failure” as the end of the world.
Low grades are being blamed on the college faculty. No responsibility is placed on the students. These students are calling home to parents and getting them to call the teachers and schools to complain with them. They say the teachers are not clear in explaining what the test will cover and what factors distinguish what the teachers consider a good report verses a bad report.
Back when I was in School at Florida State University, we did not challenge teachers. If you got a bad grade that was on us. Today college students feel entitled. They complain and demand that the professors change the grade as opposed to the student studying more.
Counseling Services for College Students
A Waste of Time
With counseling services doubling across the nation, therapist report how ineffective the time spent with these students has become. They are citing that the vast majority are suffering from the inability to function in the world. They are being handheld by hovering parents by their side.
Should therapist just give in and do crisis management therapy? Treating only symptoms of what they perceive as acute anxiety and stress? Do the therapist tell them to suck it up. Let them know that “this is life and welcome to the real world?”
Professors and College staff are now unable to effectively teach in their classroom. They find much of their time defending their teaching styles and abilities. They are constantly defending the schools policies to parents and their kids. This lack of emotional resilience is causing problems for other students in need of serious mental health services. Even professors are reporting they are changing the way they teach their classes. It interferes with the mission of these Universities.
The Future of
Counseling Services for College Students
What exactly is the role for college counselors today in the universities? Parents expect the counselors to provide mental health counseling. They become frustrated with the schools for not meeting the neediness and demanding college students. The counselors are unable to do their job effectively. Parents have not done an adequate job in preparing these students for the future or the “real world”. Therapist are glorified babysitters. Hand holding therapist that are ineffective in helping the college students that really do need their services.
Maybe it’s time that the parents look at themselves. Look for ways to improve the situation at home with their other children. If your child is in high school, make the shift and seek help. Family counseling and individual counseling for the parents can be very beneficial. It can aid in helping you to understand how your enabling is hurting your teen.
Seek the help you need today for counseling services for college students. Get your college kid prepared for the real world. Let’s send them off stress free and without depression or guilt for leaving home. This may involve individual counseling, family counseling or couples counseling. It can be a combination of each if necessary. Let’s work as a team and get them prepared for the real world.
