“The Counseling and Human Relations Center is committed toward enhancing the psychosocial development of each Plymouth State University student, as well as contributing toward the health and vitality of the institution,” says part of the mission statement of the PSU Counseling Center.
The Center, located across from Hyde Hall, is focused on providing counseling and therapy groups and sessions for all PSU students.
“We offer individual and group counseling and psychotherapy sessions and we currently have four therapy groups. They include one for interpersonal relations, war veterans and stress management and meditation. We have two other groups that are in formation, one dealing with substance abuse sobriety and deciding your major and beyond,” said Robert Hlasny, the center’s Clinical Coordinator.
The counseling groups usually have between four and eight students. They also provide a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week emergency service that they operate in conjunction with Genesis, a counseling center located in town on Tenney Mountain Highway.
The center sponsors several events every semester and works closely with other departments on campus. They work to provide students with a variety of services including a depression and anxiety screening each semester, workshops and consultations for faculty members and are the advisors to the group, “Students Making Healthy Choices.”
“We have seen continual growth, one-thousand student appointments and up in the last couple of years. We attribute that to students being busy and higher levels of stress,” said Hlasny.
The center has increased its staff recently and currently has nine qualified counselors. The Counseling Center plans to further increase the number of staff members and the number of hours they operate. An increase in collaboration and involvement with Academic Affairs can be seen in the effort to assist students in deciding their majors, is also a future plan.
The Center is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You can also visit the Center’s website at plymouth.edu/counselor.