Services Offered

Wednesdays 1:30 p.m.-3:00 p.m. via Zoom

This group is for individuals looking to expand their awareness of themselves in relation to self and others. The focus is on themes such as trust, intimacy, and boundaries. If you struggle with interpersonal patterns such as not knowing how to communicate your needs/feelings, putting others’ needs ahead of your own, and/or shying away from getting close to people, then this group might be for you. It is a unique opportunity for honest (& sometimes challenging) exploration of personal and interpersonal process in an emotionally supportive environment. It is also an opportunity to practice new ways of being in connection with yourself and others.

Facilitators: Dr. Inez Strama, Supervising Clinical Psychologist for Student Counseling and​ Rozita Alaluf, M.A., Clinical Fellow

This group is not currently running, but please request services if you are interested in alternative sources of support.

This is a group for master’s students working on their theses & capstone projects. Students from all programs, at all stages in the process, are welcome. You are not alone! This is a space for you to give and receive emotional peer support during a time in your academic journey that can often feel lonely and isolating. You may also benefit from the accountability, learn practical strategies, and hear how others are navigating the process. This is NOT a peer writing and/or editing group.

Facilitator: Dr. Inez Strama, Supervising Clinical Psychologist for Student Counseling

Mondays 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. via Zoom

This is a group for doctoral students working on their dissertations. Students from all programs, at all stages in the process, are welcome. You are not alone! This is a space for you to give and receive emotional peer support during a time in your academic journey that can often feel lonely and isolating. You may also benefit from accountability, learn practical strategies, and hear how others are navigating the process. This is NOT a peer writing and/or editing group.

Facilitators: Dr. Inez Strama, Supervising Clinical Psychologist for Student Counseling and Irena Curanovic, M.A., Clinical Fellow

Wednesdays 1:00 p.m.-2:15 p.m. via Zoom

This is a group for graduate student parents. It’s hard enough to manage the usual stress of graduate student life. Juggling parenting and all your other responsibilities on top of that? What a challenge! You are not alone!

Facilitators: Dr. Nicole Benedicto-Elden, Assistant Director for Student Counseling and Sophie Schiff, M.A., Clinical Fellow

Thursdays 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. via Zoom

This group addresses the unique stresses graduate students often face, including multiple responsibilities, academic pressure, concerns about the job market, and financial responsibilities. These stresses exist alongside the potentially exciting challenge of developing identities as new scholars in students’ chosen fields.

In this group, students are also welcome to discuss life issues outside of school such as family of origin issues, friendship and romantic relationship dynamics, stressors of living in New York, etc.

Facilitators: Dr. Arielle Shanok, Deputy Director of Wellness Center for Student Counseling and Kendell Doyle, Clinical Fellow

Fridays 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. via Zoom

Graduate school can be exciting and exhilarating; it can also be a source of stress. For graduate students who identify as LGBTQIA+, there may be additional stressors connected to the academic and social demands of graduate life. Are you looking for a supportive space to explore and process your queer identities and how they might intersect with other identities (class, race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, nationality etc.) in the context of graduate school? Do you worry about coming out in your classroom or department? Could you use a safe place to discuss instances of homophobia or gender-based discrimination in school? Would you like a queer-friendly space to talk about your dating/sexual life, friendships and family relationships?

Facilitators: Dr. Arielle Shanok, Deputy Director of Wellness Center for Student Counseling and Jiaqi Li, LMSW, Clinical Fellow

Wednesdays 3:15 p.m.-4:15 p.m.

Being a Black-Identified graduate student can be a unique experience. Sometimes you may feel a great sense of accomplishment while also feeling completely burnt out. You may feel a pressure to always be “on,” but long to find a way to reclaim your time and redirect your energy. Other times it might feel like you are struggling to maintain your academic workload but you are eager to learn new strategies to help you stay on track. You might also find that although you are satisfied in your relationships outside of school, you feel isolated within your program and often question your sense of belonging. You don’t have to navigate this journey or wrestle with these dilemmas alone.

The Black-Identified Graduate Student Academic Support Group is a restorative and empowering space designed for students to show up as their full selves. This group provides opportunities to build community and gain support by exploring challenges and celebrating successes. Through sharing and processing thoughts and feelings, giving and receiving feedback, and learning new tools and strategies for self-care and academic wellness, this group offers Black-identified graduate students a space to be seen, honored, held, and elevated.

Facilitators: Dr. Daam Barker, Community Supervisor for Student Counseling and Elisa-Cameron-Niang, LMHC, Clinical Fellow

Friday afternoons, time TBD for Fall 2022 semester, via Zoom

Being an Asian-identified graduate student can be unique experience for a variety of reasons. If you are an Asian international student, you may be grappling with a vastly different culture and academic setting and grapple with questions such as how do I interact with the faculty? How do I make friends and network?  What does critical thinking even mean?  Being an Asian-American, you may notice yourself ruminating about certain interactions, wondering if they were racially charged? You may be feeling physically exhausted or emotionally fatigued. For any Asian graduate student, at times you may feel isolated or alone, seeking community and support.

For many Asian graduate students, recent events have exacerbated existing challenges and posed entirely new obstacles within their graduate programs. For example, fear and anxiety may now be present for some due to the anti-Asian discrimination and assaults exacerbated by COVID-19. You may find yourself feeling isolated and questioning how you will be able to navigate this journey alone! This group is an academic support space designed to offer Asian-identified students the space to process thoughts and feelings, get feedback and support on individual and collective experiences, develop organizational skills and self-care strategies, all while building community.

Facilitators: Dr. Nicole Benedicto Elden, Assistant Director for Student Counseling and Tingyun Tseng, M.A., Clinical Fellow

Thursdays 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m.via Zoom

Congratulations! You’re the first in your family to go to graduate school. And yet...

Navigating graduate school as a first-gen student can be complex. This group offers an affirming space for you to build community, support each other, and share your feelings about this unique experience. Themes may include: managing the impostor syndrome and self-doubt; learning and perhaps challenging the unwritten rules of academia; juggling financial stress and work-life balance; feeling misunderstood by family, professors, or peers; identifying strengths associated with being a first-gen student and translating them into action and empowerment. Join us!

Facilitator: Dr. Inez Strama, Supervising Clinical Psychologist for Student Counseling

This group is not currently running, but please request services if you are interested in alternative sources of support.

The Grief Support Group is for graduate students who have lost a loved one in recent years and would like a supportive space to grieve. We know how hard it can be to carry on with your many roles and responsibilities after a major loss. Setting aside time to grieve with others who understand can help you heal. In the group, you will be invited to speak about your loved one (at your own pace), about the impacts of the loss and about navigating the broad range of feelings and physical sensations that can be present. There is no one right way to grieve and we will honor the range of ways that each member is journeying through their loss. While there are many kinds of losses that bring up grief, this group is specifically for those whose loved ones have passed away.

This workshop aims to empower students to manage their levels of procrastination in graduate school. Students will develop a better understanding of the different types of procrastination and the factors that maintain these behaviors. Students will also learn useful techniques and strategies to overcome procrastination activities.

Are you feeling “burnt out” from writing your dissertation? Are you rethinking your commitment to your dissertation topic? Do you feel disconnected from the excitement you once felt about the work that you do? 

If you answered “YES!” to any of these questions, this workshop is for you! Join us to rediscover your passion for and reclaim your commitment to your research. There, you will have the opportunity to reflect on your experience, meet others sharing in your struggle, and refresh your perspective. 

Within this workshop, graduate students will learn about the concept of race based trauma and the corresponding mental health symptoms that they might be experiencing while operating in the world with their numerous minority identities. The workshop will speak about race-based trauma in the context of current events such as the Black Lives Matter movement, police brutality, and COVID-19. The facilitators will provide tools to assist in gaining awareness about the impact that race based trauma has on the mental health of BIPOC individuals, and will offer coping mechanisms as a means of reducing distress and receiving increased support within their personal and educational community. The workshop will also speak to the ways in which allies and confederates can be supportive of their friends/family members/colleagues/etc. of color who experience race-based trauma within their daily lives. Students will have the opportunity to discuss, process, and connect on their experiences within a safe space.

COVID Got You Overdrinking?

Whether overimbibing is new for you or it’s an old habit flaring up as a result of boredom, uncertainty, anxiety, fill-in-the-blank, the good news is, you can learn to reduce your drinking to healthier levels by practicing some mindful drinking techniques.
 
Join Beej Christie Karpen of Insight Out Coaching in this 90-minute experiential workshop. Beej, a Certified Coach, holds a Certification in Harm Reduction Psychotherapy, a modality of working with addiction and habit change that empowers the client and includes moderation as a viable goal. Beej is the creator of Conscious Drinking 101: A 4-Session Group Coaching Workshop.

This workshop is centered on the experiences of BIPOC graduate students.

Imposter syndrome is pervasive among graduate students and characterized by students’ belief that they are undeserving of being in graduate school and a feeling that they are “a fraud.”  This often leads to anxiety and depression which makes completing an advanced degree even more daunting.  This is particularly salient for some BIPOC graduate students who enter graduate school already feeling that their experiences are not represented by the faculty who teach them and fearing that they will further be underestimated, misunderstood and marginalized. The presenters will discuss how race-based trauma, including racial battle fatigue, police brutality, and intergenerational trauma, compound the challenge for students from these marginalized groups.  Participants will have the opportunity to personalize the information presented by discussing strategies to reduce and manage the negative impact of the Imposter Syndrome.

There is no question that we have been experiencing a pivotal, paradigm-shifting time for the world, and collectively we will be experiencing its ripple effects for years to come. The collective grief and anxiety of a global pandemic and the impacts of pre-existing conditions such as racism and systemic oppression cannot be underestimated. We have been continually called in and challenged to be in deep and radical relationship to the nature of impermanence. To meet this call, we must lean into practices that can support our moment-to-moment experience. In this experiential workshop you will learn the fundamentals of mindfulness meditation and how to work with whatever arises within your internal experience and to meet the moment with more ease and spaciousness.

Are you feeling stressed or overwhelmed? Does it feel like you’re always somewhere else, ruminating about the past or worrying about the future? Are you engaging in behaviors to manage stress that you would like to change?

Mindfulness is a practice of learning to attend to the present moment with more acceptance. It is a systematic way of slowing down, observing one’s reactions, and relating to experiences with greater ease and compassion. Mindfulness has been shown to enhance well-being by reducing the impact of stress and helping people cope with symptoms of anxiety and depression. In addition, mindfulness can be applied to managing urges and cravings to use substances or other problematic behaviors such as self-injury and overeating.

Learn more at our upcoming What is Mindfulness Really? Workshop.

This workshop will focus on providing a safe space for participants to examine racial microaggressions that have occurred while in graduate school and to identify and develop strategies to address ongoing interpersonal discrimination. A combination of lecture and experiential exercises will be utilized to facilitate this discussion. Participants can expect to develop a deeper understanding of racial microaggressions and microintervention strategies for addressing them.

In this workshop you’ll learn simple yet effective techniques for reducing stress, anxiety, and the sense of being overwhelmed from a whole-body perspective. We’ll look at how sleep, diet, time management, self-care, communication, meditation, and breathing practices can help improve mood and calm your nervous system. You’ll come away with easy tools to implement in daily life and to help you get through the holidays and finals season with a little (or a lot) more peace of mind. 

Does your adviser seem to be avoiding you? Are your adviser’s expectations of you unclear or do they seem unrealistic? Is your adviser really the best fit for you? Your relationship with your adviser is vital to your success and well-being in grad school. This workshop will address: how to choose an adviser, how to build and maintain a working relationship with your adviser, and what to do when problems occur.

Where does your stress live? In your shoulders? In your impatience with loved ones? In between you and a good night of sleep? This workshop will provide strategies to help you identify and manage the unavoidable stress of graduate student life. Ways of moderating perfectionism, a common contributor to stress in grad students, will be addressed.