Students come into the Counseling and Testing Center (CTC) for many different reasons. One of the most common is to seek help for academic difficulties.
The CTC’s new director, Greg Lambeth, said that is true not just in Moscow, but around the country. He said students can come in to talk about any issue, even if it’s not clearly defined.
“If things are not going well, that’s sufficient reason to come into the counseling center,” Lambeth said.
Licensed psychologist and counselor at the CTC, Sharon Fritz, said students should never be afraid or hesitant to seek counseling.
“It’s not like you have to come to therapy,” Fritz said. “We’re here to help you solve your problems.”
Fritz said the mission of the CTC is to support students’ academic success. She said they do this by helping students with issues that are preventing them from achieving success. She said personal and interpersonal issues, drugs, alcohol, relationships and stress can all inhibit a student’s success.
Yishan Chen | Argonaut
Greg Lambeth joined UI as the new director of the Counseling and Testing Center this summer.
She said the main thing to know about the CTC is that services are free and completely confidential. Once contacted, the center cannot share any information about the student’s meeting, not even to parents.
“It’s a protected relationship,” Fritz said. “I often ask people ‘What’s the good of me talking to your parents?’”
In recent years, Fritz said she has seen a higher rate of students with homesickness. She attributed this to the higher connectedness between students and their parents. She said with more ways to stay in contact, a student’s ability to let go of home and make Moscow their new home can be hindered. She said contact with parents could be part of a student’s distress.
“In college, students will take on different behaviors that may conflict with what their parents think,” Fritz said.
Fritz encouraged any student who is thinking about seeking counseling to do so. She said people will seek treatment for a cold or flu nearly immediately, but may leave personal issues affecting their mental health lingering for a long time.
“People don’t see struggling the same way,” Fritz said. “People have this misconception that you have to be really ill to seek help. We don’t want people to wait until that issue gets so big. We want them to come in before it gets big.”
Lambeth joined the center this summer as director after 22 years in different roles at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He has been a staff licensed psychologist at their counseling center since 1994. He is replacing Joan Pulakos, who is retiring after 33 years at the CTC, 14 of which she served as director.
Lambeth said he likes Moscow and is thrilled to be here. He said he thinks it is important for a new director to come in without an agenda.
“I think really your job coming in early on is to do your best to know and understand the center and the culture and the staff,” Lambeth said. “One of my goals is to retain the strengths the center has.”
Lambeth said another goal is to make sure the services are accessible. He said services can be inaccessible for many reasons, such as not being inclusive or because of the stigma attached to seeking counseling.
He said the challenge with providing meaningful treatment is to balance the demand of students seeking treatment with providing meaningful treatment to the individual student.
“It’s a tough balance to achieve,” Lambeth said. “I think this center has been able to do that.”
Lambeth and Fritz both said they’d like to better connect the CTC to students. Lambeth emphasized the importance of building relationships with other campus offices and student groups because personal endorsements or connections can help a student seek help.
“I think students are far more inclined to go if someone they already trust, trusts someone else,” Lambeth said.
Fritz said the CTC partners with other UI organizations and often puts on events to help educate students and get the center’s name out. She said they partner with Greek houses for the House Party, an event along with Moscow police to teach students about alcohol and other drugs and how to be safe at parties. She said they are also partnering with Beta House for a suicide prevention walk.
Fritz said she is excited for a program called Sources of Strength, a peer-focused program that is actively recruiting college students to help. The program helps people identify eight areas of strength they can access.
“The more strength, the more resources you have, the more successful you’ll be,” Fritz said.
Fritz said the Alcohol and Other Drugs Program moved this year from the CTC to Vandal Health Education. She said she started the program with grant money, but that it made more sense to have the university’s preventative services under the same umbrella.
“Alcohol and Other Drugs is more for prevention, counseling is more an intervention,” Fritz said.
Fritz said the most common time in someone’s life to develop a mental illness is in their late teens and early 20s, right when many people are going to college. Fortunately, the CTC puts on screening programs for several different issues. Fritz said it is a good way for a student to take their temperature as far as potential mental health or substance issues. She wants students to know that there is help.
“People don’t have to suffer the way they do if they seek help,” Fritz said. “Going to college is stressful, and they don’t have to do it alone.”
Jack Olson
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