UTRGV offers therapy support groups
Paulina Longoria | THE RIDER
The Counseling Center at UTRGV offers five virtual group sessions for students who complete a clinical screening, and need help in stress management, grieving, behavior, self-love and recovering their creativity.
Director Christopher Albert said the Counseling Center provides free and confidential mental health services to students.
“We see enrolled students who are in need of mental-health help, so we provide professional counseling services,” Albert said. “We also do outreach and education in regards to mental-health manners.”
To initiate services at the center, students undergo a screening evaluation in their first appointment “to understand the nature and impact of the presenting concern and to provide options of what may be helpful in addressing it,” according to its website.
Andrew Perez, a supervising clinical therapist, conducts the “Engaging the Wise Mind” ongoing group sessions from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays.
Perez said it is an open group which started in the spring and accepts students who may stay for as long as needed.
“It involves teaching students skills in order to manage things like mood and distress, and how they communicate with other people,” he said. “We [will] talk about some of those things and encourage students to support each other and practice those skills.”
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy is also the focus of the group.
“[DBT] has to do with opposites and understanding that there’s usually a gray area to life, not necessarily splitting things into right or wrong, or good and bad,” Perez said.
From 1 to 2 p.m. today, the “Stress Management” five-week group will hold its first session with Regina Sandoval, a counseling intern, and Albert.
“It’s to provide help with coping skills and helpful techniques,” Sandoval said. “We’ll begin giving information as far as anxiety and stress, kind of getting the basics on it.”
She also said it is a closed group, but if other students want to join they can do so in the first three weeks.
Albert said they will listen to the needs of each member of the group, but they already know what to teach in the first session.
“We’ll go over the basics in terms of what stress is, what happens in the body, in the mind, and then the fundamental technique skills to learn, which are breathing techniques,” he said.
Some exercises that will be taught in the sessions are diaphragm breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, imagery techniques and sleep hygiene tips.
Clinical therapists Maria Alejandra Mazariegos and Carmen Villegas will conduct the “Self-Love 101” six-week group from 3 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays starting Oct. 20. It will be a closed group.
“[It is] a six-session group on improving our self-esteem, learning a little bit about self-compassion, self-care,” Villegas said.
She said it is the group’s third cohort.
“It’s been successful in students’ participation,” Villegas said. “They learn a lot about themselves and they’re able to grow together and engage and socialize, which is something we kind of see less of during these challenging times.”
She said the group would be a good opportunity for students to engage with peers outside of classes.
Ashley Martinez, a counseling intern, and Elsa Garcia, a clinical therapist, started the “A Time to Grieve” eight-week group from 2 to 3 p.m. last Wednesday.
“Part of the reason why I felt the importance of having this group is a lot of people going through the grieving process during this uncertain time,” Martinez said. “For example, not being able to do proper burials for family members, or not being able to be with their family members in hospitals.”
She also said the group will not limit students to talk about a recent death, but they could also grieve and remember past deaths.
“I think the purpose of the group also is just to provide a safe place and [normalize] remembering our loved ones,” Martinez said.
Christy Rivera, a counseling intern, and Valerie Rivera, a clinical social worker for the School of Medicine, started the “Recovering Your Inner Child” group three weeks ago. It is an eight-session group that meets from 2 to 3 p.m. Mondays.
“It’s … focusing on people who went through difficult things in their childhood and maybe suppressed their inner child,” Christy said.
She defined the “inner child” as your creativity, feelings and intuition.
“It’s activity-based,” Christy said. “We do a lot of drawing with different colors and writing out our feelings. … The goal is to get back in touch with that side of yourself that’s been kind of suppressed.”
Valerie said it is a closed group and will not allow other students to join. They want their current students to become comfortable with each other while they talk about their vulnerabilities without feeling exposed to new audiences.
Albert said if students are interested in the groups that have already started their sessions, the center could support them in the spring semester.
Also part of the Counseling Center, the Collegiate Recovery Program offers four support groups open to UTRGV students struggling with alcohol, drugs and other addictions.
“We work to support students [who] are in recovery from various types of addictions,” said Krystal Klein, assistant director of the Counseling Center and Collegiate Recovery Program.
To view a PDF with the program’s groups and schedule, click here. To sign up, students must email recovery@utrgv.edu.“Reasons for contacting us or asking about our services is that we know that when students are in a better place mental-healthwise, they’re more likely to do better as a student, they’ll feel better and function better generally,” Albert said.
