By Julia Barth, Editor-in-Chief
Located on the main floor of Bosch Hall on the Canisius College campus lies the Counseling Center, a support service that the school offers to all students who might be struggling mentally. Now more than ever, the Counseling Center has been an integral resource to students, helping them get through everything from stress to anxiety to depression. But not everyone knows what the Counseling Center is, and doesn’t know how it could benefit them through hard times.
Sabrina Sosa, a graduate assistant at the Counseling Center and the center’s outreach coordinator, has been taking an active role in making the Counseling Center more known and prominent around campus. She’s been adding informational posts to their social media and sat outside of the library to hand out positive affirmation cards.
The center’s core message is that they’re there for any and all students. “Of course, we want to try our best to prevent students from having to deal with mental health issues, but we are also here for when things do happen,” Sosa said. “Counseling is for everybody. You can have nothing going on but just want to talk about something in the past or things that are coming up in the future.”
One of the center’s most popular events is Stress Less Day, which is back this semester. The event will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 2 in Science Hall Commons. Activities and giveaways include smoothies through SAAC, kindness rocks with the Griff Center, mental health screenings and essential oils with the counselors, journaling with the USA Public Health Committee and there will even be a therapy dog, Riley.
Sosa, who is extremely excited to bring this event back said, “One thing I love about Stress Less Day is the collaboration. All of these departments and clubs around campus are chipping in.”
Besides continuing the tradition of Stress Less Day, Sosa is also looking to improve the peer to peer experience by bringing in a chapter of Active Minds, a mental health nonprofit that has hundreds of chapters on college campuses around the U.S.
According to their website, the Active Minds mission statement is, “Student-led chapters work to increase mental health awareness on campus, raise funds for critical mental health education and resources through the Active Minds national office, promote positive mental health, educate their peers about the signs and symptoms of mental health disorders and encourage students to reach out for help when needed. Chapters play an important role in referring students to resources and starting conversations about this important topic.”
A chapter at Canisius would mean events like speakers, panels, movie nights and trivia nights that all have a mental health focus. Students would be able to go and learn about different things related to mental health and garner support from their peers.
But overall, Sosa just wants students to know that the Counseling Center is there for them. It is free and completely confidential — a great resource for anyone that is struggling. If you are interested in going to the Counseling Center, you can email the center at counsel@canisius.edu or call at 716-888-2620 — they are offering both virtual and in person visits. The counselors' pictures and bios are on the Canisius website, and you can also meet them in person at Stress Less Day.
Sosa summed it up by saying, “We mostly just want students to know that it’s okay not to be okay and that they aren’t alone. The Counseling Center is a great resource if you’re looking for an unbiased opinion and advice.”