Keene State students come from many different locations around the world and bring with them an array of life experiences. The Keene State Wellness Center offers group therapy as a way for students from different backgrounds to gather together to improve and monitor their mental health and wellness.
The group therapy program in the Wellness Center has existed for many years now and involves both students and faculty to find groups of students who share characteristics or interests. Groups are formed at the front end of the semester and can only run with three or more students.
Beth Aronson is the associate director for counseling & training director within the Wellness Center and is involved in group therapies on campus. Aronson spoke on how groups are formed and how they continue from semester to semester.
“We can’t always predict upfront what’s going to actually happen. ‘Dungeons and Therapy’ ran for eight semesters in a row and this semester it is not running,” Aronson said. “It might be the time of day. We typically run at least four groups every semester and they’re on a variety of topics to appeal to a variety of students.”
Dungeons and Therapy gives students the ability to role-play as a character who might have strengths and weaknesses that they themselves may or may not have. Aronson says that students can try that out in a safe setting and then go out and “maybe try it in your real life if they felt like it was useful in the game.”
A group that Aronson highlighted within the group therapies is the “first-generation college students” group as one that has grown in recent semesters.
“There’s a lot of challenges that they face because their parents don’t have the same experience that my parents had when I was in college. If I needed advice about something, they’d be there,” Aronson said. “First-gen students often are trying to translate what college is like to their parents and their parents have a bunch of assumptions that may or may not be right.”
Group therapy differs from the regular one-on-one therapy setting that most people associate with therapy. Aronson discussed the differences between the two therapy approaches and why some students may benefit from one rather than the other.
“When you’re an individual, you’re focused on your own deficits, but even if you’re in an anxiety group because you struggle with anxiety, you end up being helpful to other people around the topic and that makes you recognize that you do have strengths and skills that you weren’t necessarily paying attention to,” said Aronson.
Aronson continued, saying, “It just normalizes a lot of stuff for people too. Like, ‘Oh my god, I’m not the only one going through this.’”
Jacob Enscoe can be contacted at
jenscoe@kscequinox.com
