DePaul University Counseling and Psychological Services (UCAPS) is expanding its free group therapy options for students.

Nine counseling groups and workshops are offered this quarter, covering topics including grief, anxiety, depression, eating disorder recovery and processing through poetry.

There are also identity-based groups including the Black Men’s Therapy Group, the Graduate Student Support Group and the Women’s Group.

According to Orson Morrison, the UCAPS associate director for clinical services, the counseling groups were created based on students’ needs from Fall Quarter. UCAPS staff looked at data surrounding the common concerns that students were bringing to the counseling center and found the topics that could best serve students.

“We all felt that offering more topic-specific groups would be a better way to meet the demand for mental health services,” Morrison said.

UCAPS staff looked at their counseling usage data to see which student populations they could reach out to through counseling groups.

“I did notice that we don’t really have a lot of Black men that are coming to UCAPS,” said Morrison, who is facilitating the Black Men’s Therapy Group. “I wanted to maybe offer something specific or unique so that we may actually create more of a welcoming environment to Black male students on campus.”

Students can register for most counseling groups after completing an initial meeting with a counselor. Some groups require a standard UCAPS appointment with a DePaul clinician known as a Brief Screening & Consultation (BSC). Other more specialized groups require a group screening appointment, which is a one-on-one appointment with a specific clinician that is usually the one facilitating the desired group.

Morrison said that each group is facilitated and created by a clinician with an expertise in and passion for the group’s topic. Most group sessions will host up to 10 participants and last between 70 to 90 minutes. There are groups that meet in Lincoln Park, the Loop and online at different times on most days of the week.

Once a student joins a group, they can expect three different types of experiences.

Open groups can be joined at any time throughout the quarter and students can attend as many sessions as they need. Closed groups start and end with the same group of students throughout the quarter due to the sensitivity of the group topic and to deepen the sense of trust and safety. Skills-based groups provide tools for students to use in their everyday lives.

Morrison said that therapy groups are good places for students to learn and practice skills in a safe environment before implementing said skills in broader life.

Group therapy can also foster a sense of community for students.

“Attending group therapy surrounds you with peer support, or individuals with similar lived experiences, which can provide a greater sense of belonging,” Julia Richards, an occupational therapy graduate student at DePaul, wrote to The DePaulia. “Forming new friendships is also a possible outcome of participating in group therapy, which may allow individuals to identify the impacts of the different relationships in their lives.”

Forming new relationships is especially helpful to students who may have had to move away from their home support systems to attend college. According to DePaul’s 2021 Freshman Admission Summary Book, 37% of incoming freshman students in 2021 came from outside of Illinois.

One DePaul freshman, who wished to remain anonymous, looked into UCAPS’s therapy groups to expand their support system.

“The group counseling thing caught my eye because I am a couple of years in recovery for an eating disorder,” said the student. “I don’t have anything critical, but I just thought it would be kind of a good environment, being away from my direct support system like my parents, to have a place where I am kept accountable with my health and wellbeing.”

Certain groups center around sensitive topics that students may find difficult to talk about. Unless there is a major danger to self or others, whatever is spoken in the therapy group stays in the therapy group.

Extra care is given to ensure that students feel comfortable within the group setting.

“At the beginning of each group, there will be a discussion about group norms, what to expect as well as confidentiality,” Morrison said.

Groups expand UCAPS’s services beyond individual counseling and can create more long-term options for students. Some students may choose to participate in a group session every week throughout the quarter.

“I think that groups are a really nice modality to consider because … UCAPS, in terms of our individual therapy services, are very sort of short term,” Morrison said.

According to Morrison, there is no cap or limit on the number of individual sessions a student can complete, but based on the number of cases UCAPS sees, individual sessions may take a shorter-term model.

“Groups on the other hand, are not subject to have the same sort of short-term framework … so it is one way to get that really consistent, weekly support over the course of a longer period of time, which I know is really beneficial to students,” Morrison said.

Therapy groups were brought back to DePaul during fall quarter following the hire of new clinicians over the summer. According to Morrison, the winter quarter groups might be the most expansive group therapy selection that DePaul has ever offered.

“To my knowledge, I don’t believe UCAPS has ever offered this range of group therapy options,” Morrison said. “I know that they’ve done group therapy in the past, but to my knowledge we haven’t ever offered this many types.”

UCAPS’s group offerings may change quarter to quarter based on students’ interests and needs. Morrison says that UCAPS is open to creating more groups around different topics.

If students have suggestions for new groups, they can submit their suggestions in UCAPS’s formal feedback survey at the end of the quarter. The survey will be sent out to all students who have used counseling services at DePaul. If a student is not connected to UCAPS, they can email their suggestion to Morrison ([email protected]) or Tow Yau ([email protected]), the director of UCAPS.