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Four Strategies to Reinvigorate Group Therapy on Campus

Thursday, Dec 12, 2024
This webconference will walk through four recommendations to build a successful group program on campus.

About the Webconference

Institutions are struggling with an undefined and unsustainable scope of mental health care that is overly dependent on traditional models to connect students with on campus mental health support. EAB’s research explores how institutions can maximize existing clinical resources and target interventions to key student segments on campus.

Group therapy programs allow institutions to meet students’ clinical needs and increase clinical capacity, but they remain underutilized on many campuses. This model allows counseling center staff to see more students and can be used as primary or supplemental treatment. Group therapy is also proven to be clinically effective: Positive measurable outcomes in clinical and academic research have secured this as the preferred treatment method for some common presenting concerns.

More on this topic

This resource is part of the Maximize Counseling Center Operations and Efficiency Roadmap. Access the Roadmap for stepwise guidance with additional tools and research.

Group therapy is flexible and evolves as student needs change. This model provides a platform to reach diverse student populations and easily adapts and scales for pop-up trends and issues. Related, group therapy serves as community support as students build peer relationships and practice coping skills in real-time.

This webconference will walk through four recommendations to build a successful group program on campus, informed by peer institutions' real wins and losses, including how to:

  • Re-educate clinicians about groups and rebrand groups for students
  • Deploy data-informed groups that match students’ top presenting concerns and clinician interests
  • Instill accountability mechanisms for students and clinicians

“The biggest shift for our profession and university counseling centers on the whole-is that we have to think differently about how people can be helped. We can't keep saying that the 50-minute hour is the best answer because we just don't have the resources. We must get creative, explore and commit to new ways of working, and be open to new ideas that don’t compromise the quality of our work with students.”

Director of Counseling Services, Private Research University