ESS 512: Wellness & Mental Health

Laura Vogt:
Hello, thank you for joining me and The (not so) Secret Guide to being a Berkeley Engineer. I’m your host, Laura Vogt, the associate director of marketing and communications in the College of Engineering. And this week we’re talking about wellness with our counselors from the Tang Center, Christine Zhou and Denise Goitia. So welcome and thank you both for being here on today’s podcast. Christine, can you tell us about yourself and your role at UC Berkeley?

Christine Zhou:
Sure. Thank you so much, Laura, for having me back and welcome everybody. My name is Christine Zhou. I’m a staff psychologist from Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), but also I’m the lead counselor who’s coordinating our satellite office here at College of Engineering. So I started working at College of Engineering back in 2012 when we received a request from the College to establish a satellite office for specifically serving engineering students. And so at that time, I only had 20 hours a week. Over the past, almost 10 years, I’ve worked with both undergraduate students and graduate students, consulting with faculty and staff and doing trainings and outreach. I absolutely love my work here in the College of Engineering, mostly because we have amazing, hardworking, dedicated, and creative engineering students here. And so I’m so happy. And this fall, we actually have two colleagues of mine joining the engineering satellite office, and one of them is Denise.

Laura Vogt:
Well, thank you, Christine and Denise, it’s your turn to tell us a little about yourself and your role at Cal.

Denise Goitia:
Hi Laura. Thank you so much for having me. So I am a newish staff person at CAPS. I am a clinical social worker and started around this time last year and have just recently joined the College of Engineering part-time covering Dr. Du’s parental leave, and hopefully will be continuing in the fall as well. I’m originally from Texas. I’ve lived all over the world and I lived in California before and then back again. And so I’m really excited to be at Cal in this role and I’m also a bilingual practitioner so I’m happy to meet with students who want to speak in Spanish as well. Yeah, that’s a little bit about me.

Laura Vogt:
Awesome. Well, thank you for coming on here today and being with us. And so let’s start off with what counseling services are available for engineering students this fall and how will students access them. Christine?

Christine Zhou:
Yep. Thank you, Denise, for mentioning that you’re bilingual and just FYI, both me and Dr. Yi Du are also bilingual. We speak Mandarin Chinese [inaudible 00:02:56] for international students that want to speak that language. So counseling services are actually going to launch a big transition in the fall. CAPS here on campus, we’re rolling out a new counseling model. It’s called One At A Time. So, what that means is that you will have very quick, sometimes even same day access to counseling services, and you’re going to be able to meet with one of the providers pretty quickly. And then we’ll meet with you instead of going through the very cumbersome intake process and then you get assigned to a different counselor. At this point you’re going to be able to just meet with your counselor and right away talk about what’s on your mind. What’s the urgent and concern and brainstorm solutions and ways to address them.

Christine Zhou:
So it’s going to be very quick, easy access. And then after that one session we have, and there is not an automatic assumption that we’re going to schedule a follow-up, but if you do need, and we will work with you to make your work. But the idea of one at a time, meaning that not necessarily everybody needs ongoing counseling, but you can always go back to the counselor that you talked to in the beginning and have a session. And so this is quite a little bit different than what we’ve done in the past. And so how does this affect the satellite office? I think so far what we decided is we’re probably going to keep the same walk in hours. So I think Denise, me and Dr. Du will have different days and all the information will be listed on the website.

Christine Zhou:
We’re going to be updating it starting fall. So you will just meet one of us during a walk in or you can either call or maybe stop in person. And we’ll do a very quick triage, maybe 20 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, just very briefly understand what you’re looking for. If you’re coming in and you’re looking for consistent, a weekly ongoing therapy, one of us probably will be more likely to help you to look for off campus resources. However, if you just wanted to do very quickly, I just want to talk to a counselor. Something happened, and I just wanted to be able to resolve this sooner than later and one of us will meet with you again. This is what we call one at a time model. And so we’ll assess what your needs after the session, but with no automatic assumption that you’re going to be followed up and you’re going to come back and see us on a regular basis.

Christine Zhou:
So that gives us quite a bit of freedom to be able to open up our schedule and to be able to see students who are reaching out particularly, maybe in the same day or same week. So we’ll very quickly get students in without them having to wait. So that’s a little bit different than what we’ve done. Denise, you have anything else to add?

Denise:
Nope, not specifically, just wanting to encourage folks to check out our other resources, our groups and workshops online. In case you’re not familiar, you are able to register online yourself. So you don’t need to do that through a counselor. And there are a huge range of options from single session drop in groups and meditation groups to four to five sessions, skill building groups to more formal processing therapy groups. So there’s something for everyone and they’re free and unlimited services. So I definitely encourage folks to check that out.

Christine Zhou:
And also I wanted to say that in addition to individual group services, CAPS is also going to launch a lot of… I think right now we’re back in person and so there’s a bunch of the combination of virtual resources in combination with in-person. For example, as far as I know that CAPS is actually contracting quite a lot of individuals, one at a time service hours from a company, [Humanist 00:07:07]. So basically I think they’re contracting about 50 hours per week. And so that’s a lot of clinical hours. And so then you will be able to maybe even choose, do you want to meet with a person, in person or do you prefer to talk to the counselor online or virtually? And so over the past year, that’s one of the changes because we used to all do sessions in-person, but I think in the fall what we’re going to do would be a combination.

Christine Zhou:
So we’ll work with students and depending on your preferences, we might be able to see you in-person or virtually. So you have a lot more choices. And I believe with the contracting out hours with Humanist, we might even be able to see you over the weekend or at night. So your hours are pretty much more flexible. Again, we’re still rolling it out. And a lot of these things are in the working and so please bear with us and be patient. The best way to find out what’s the latest is to check the website. And so I’m sure that Laura at some point is going to put it on the ESS newsletter. And so we do have a counseling resource webpage through ESS and also check the webpage of CAPS under university house services for the update. And so stay tuned.

Laura Vogt:
Yeah, we’ll definitely have all the websites and links on our podcast page as well. And yeah, that’s always a good way to tell folks, make sure you’re reading the newsletter, because the newsletter is always going to have more information and more links to these types of things. One of the things that we’ve been talking about a lot this summer with the students is the resources that are available. And so we keep telling them that they should ask their ESS academic advisors. So what’s the real difference between talking to a counselor at CAPS and talking to an academic advisor?

Christine Zhou:
That’s a very good question. I sometimes see many students coming to me and say, “I found that you are online but I don’t know. Are you,” and then they start talking to me about a lot of the academic struggles. It’s difficult to separate your struggle academically and personally, because a lot of the times the academic stress will contribute to your struggle personally. But I will say the biggest difference is that if you have a specific question regarding your academic plan, for example, what classes that you want to choose and your schedules or your degree plan, what classes to take, or if you feel like I wanted to adjust my schedule and maybe petition to drop a class or petition to add a course or anything that related to academic adjustment, all those things that needs to go through your academic advisor.

Christine Zhou:
But when you meet them as an academic advisor, an advisor doesn’t have a lot of time, right? So they usually are booked and their appointments are short. So a lot of the times that again, what happens to us academically, something happen in your life. For example, you might feel too stressed out or you’re going through some adjustment or maybe there’s something going on with family, or you’ve struggled with relationship. So all these things can influence how you’re performing academically. A lot of those times and you don’t feel comfortable sharing too much with your advisor or your faculty professor, because it’s very personal. So the biggest difference I would say is that talking to a counselor is confidentiality. So we actually, whatever you share, once you become a client and so whatever you share with a counselor is legally confidential.

Christine Zhou:
So we will not be able to share that information without your written permission, but there are several exceptions. If you were to disclose, you’re seriously thinking about hurting yourself or another person, if there’s abuse of a child vulnerable or a dependent and so those are the cases we’ll have to bridge confidentiality. So a lot of the time students actually ended up talking to both. They’ve ended up talking to a counselor and also talking to a academic advisor. And I will say, that’s probably the best case because when you talk to a counselor, we can help you to figure out how do we advocate for you academically? And sometimes the students will assign a release information and for the counselor to exchange information [inaudible 00:11:37] the advisor. And so maybe for example, in cases to petition to drop a class or petition any kind of academic petitioning.

Laura Vogt:
So Denise, we had [inaudible 00:11:50] that a lot of our new students are thinking about their wellness, physical and mental from the start of the school year. And our podcast is really for all those students that are just coming in. So what challenges do you see that these students might be having as they start college?

Denise:
Yeah. And we talked a little bit about this before our podcast and we just really wanted to acknowledge the significance of the pandemic and its impact on transitions. So that first year students might actually be in a similar boat as second year students that have also not been on campus. But we really were thinking about the impact of being away from home for the first time, getting homesick or just having to get used to new routines. I think one of the other big factors with Berkeley students specifically is having been maybe the top of your class where you came from and coming to a school with everybody who’s also at the top of their class. So there can be a lot of pressure that people put on themselves, especially first gen students or students of color to be the first in their family, or have some distinction.

Denise:
There’s a lot of pressure riding on folks to really achieve. And so just recognizing that that pressure translates to stress sometimes and that keeping balance, keeping your routines, really prioritizing sleep and consistent mealtimes and movements and socializing, just remembering that you are a person in addition to being a student. So those are some of the things that I think is important to remember the first year and even coming to campus for the first time for second year students.

Laura Vogt:
Christine, do you have anything to add?

Christine Zhou:
Well, I think Denise pretty much summarized everything and I would say that academically that’s one of the thing that I see a lot of first year students struggle. And the classes at Berkeley is very fast paced and also the materials can be… Students feel very overwhelmed depending on where you’re coming from. Are you familiar with a lot of it? It’s like uneven starting ground. Some students may be exposed to a lot of materials. Others may not necessarily have the opportunity. So I would just say that first shock when you take the first midterm, you’re like, “Wow, this is so over my head.” And I also wanted to say that a lot of our students particular, like Denise mentioned first gen students, student of color, academic success is what we take pride in.

Christine Zhou:
It’s what defines ourselves. It’s like everything else in our lives is not going well, but we put always cling to this academic success. And that’s how it made it at Berkeley. You are not going to be making to Berkeley if you’re not academically successful. So this is where we get a lot of confidence. So when you’re going through this huge transition and this one thing you’ve always know how to do, and you’ve always done well, is falling apart. And so a lot of students will feel like, “Oh my gosh, I don’t have anything to hold on to.” But the reality is that it’s not true because number one, it is only one midterm. It’s the first midterm. It doesn’t really determine the rest of your academic life here at Berkeley. And so I will say, give yourself space in time, pace yourself.

Christine Zhou:
I’ve seen a lot of students very eager, jumping on a bunch of classes and overload their schedule. Maybe for the first semester take it easy, right? Get your time and allow yourself to get used to how people learn, what’s the materials and what’s this like here at Berkeley and also spend time balancing it up. Don’t just do everything related to a school. Try to think about reaching out, making friends. And so that’s other things to help you to feel like you’re starting grounded and balanced. So those are some of the things.

Laura Vogt:
So what would be your first thought of when you get that first quiz or that first midterm that you just didn’t do as well as you thought you were going to do on? How do you find that resilience? Where do you think the first step to go is to find that resilience?

Denise:
I think that’s a really good question. I think one way to think about it might be like, this is a learning opportunity. And so what can I gain from seeing this low grade [inaudible 00:16:23] grade? Does it mean that I need to study more? Does it mean I need to reach out for help? Do I study better with people or study better alone? So really seeing it as an opportunity for figuring out what kind of students or what kind of student you need to be now in college and what resources you might need to support you in that. And I think that there’s a lot of research about failure and how failure can really strengthen our commitment to things. It can be a real opportunity for excellence. And so that is another perspective. And also realizing that we are not our grades, right? That we have so many other aspects to our identities and to draw on those things as well and [inaudible 00:17:09] myself that just because you got a bad grade, doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person.

Christine Zhou:
I definitely will echo that. And I think I really love the idea of reframing it rather than this is a judgment like this is who I am, but this is the purpose of the grade is to give as an opportunity to evaluate what’s going on well, what is not going on well, so you will be able to adjust. And one of the biggest challenges I’ve seen is that it’s not about getting a bad grade. It’s how do you face it? How do you interpret it? How do you maybe internalize and not internalize it? And so I think a lot of the students, when they get this emotional shock and they just gave up or feeling so discouraged. And so instead of and say, “Hey, you know what? Something is not going well, let me try to take a look and trying to see what I need to do to adjust.”

Christine Zhou:
And then you talk about something [inaudible 00:18:07] is extremely important. That is asking for help. I wish I could tell all my students, whenever you are in trouble, you’re struggling, reach out. There are so many resources. Everybody is here to help you. But I think that sense of feeling embarrassed and feeling ashamed, again, feeling like I’m less, I’m inadequate, or I’m not smart. All those negative things is preventing students from reaching out and to say, “Hey, I need some help.”

Christine Zhou:
And so help can come from everybody. Can come from your peers, can come from the faculty member, the GSI, can come from your academic advisors, can come from people like us, the counselors or anybody you trust. And so I think part of it is just to normalize that and to say that it’s okay, there’s going to be bumps in the road.

Christine Zhou:
It’s not a smooth [inaudible 00:19:02], but at the end, what’s important it to learn and grow and continue to feeling that you’re learning and you’re growing and continue to stay engaged with the material because once you checked out, that’s pretty much then you lose the battle. I think that’s what I see in students. Then they are so discouraged. Then they’re just checked out once you let it go. And then things can fall down really fast because the pace the class is going on, it’s very difficult to pick yourself back up later. So whenever you sense then you’re not getting it or some of the stuff is, “Wait a minute. I’m not getting, I’m not learning,” reach out. Ask for help.

Denise:
Yeah. And I just want to add a little bit there, Christine, because I think that asking for help can be hard sometimes, especially if you’re looking on social media or you’re looking around the room and seeing that everybody seems to have it together. There’s a lot of looking around and assuming that everyone’s okay because you don’t see people crying and falling apart or whatever. And just recognizing that we often compare the worst part of ourselves or the worst day in our life to someone else’s best day. And so, it doesn’t mean that you have to be totally struggling in order to ask for help. I would say, ask for help early and often and recognize that there are many people around you that are probably going through the same thing, even if it’s not apparent on the surface, because I have so many experiences of students telling me the same things over and over again, like struggling with making connections and friends or just feeling like it’s hard to ask a professor for help in a certain moment because it’s intimidating.

Denise:
So I just want to really normalize that if you’re experiencing it, guarantee that someone else around you is also feeling the same way.

Laura Vogt:
One of the resources that we have that I really like is the Center for Access to Engineering Excellence, because it’s tutoring, that is your peers, they’ve taken the classes. And a lot of them have been in the exact place that you might be finding yourself in now. And that’s why they decided to be a tutor because they wanted to be able to support students in their own place. So definitely check them out and they start early. The tutoring center opens the second week of classes. So that just backs up that idea of start early, start often. And I like being able to go to peers because they understand it maybe a little more.

Denise:
Definitely they’ve walked in those shoes for sure.

Laura Vogt:
Exactly. And recently, because I know a lot of the professors and things like that might not have been as recent. [crosstalk 00:21:48] a few. All right. Well thank you both so much for coming today. We have covered everything that we wanted to talk about. Is there anything that we wanted to reiterate that we hadn’t said yet or reiterate or speak about?

Christine Zhou:
I just want to say coming back from the pandemic it’s a little bit of a new situation and nobody really knows. And what exactly is the impact of the pandemic on us emotionally, psychologically, but I want to share, and then what I heard from a lot of my students is that because of the pandemic, a lot of the students feel somewhat cut off from connections, whether it’s their friends or maybe their family members. So there’s a sense of feeling maybe isolated or lonely. And also we’re so used to… Even if you have people you’d go back home, living with folks. You’re just seeing this couple of people. Right. And so I think coming back to campus in person, all of a sudden living in the dorms and going to classes or all of a sudden you’re in the crowd, a lot of people are walking around. I would just say, give yourself time. Maybe it takes a little bit of time for us to warm up and you can know what to do in those social situations.

Christine Zhou:
If you don’t feel too comfortable and then starting with a smaller group and maybe getting to know your roommate or floormate, just making a couple of connections first. It doesn’t have to be a lot, but maybe just even making one to two good friends who can help you to go through the first semester of transitioning, that’s a good start. But I think take advantage of it. It’s the first time then after almost like a year and a half, we’re going to be able to see people in person. Right. And so I would say, take advantage of it and [inaudible 00:23:45] out, but also gave yourself time if you need cool down time by yourself. And that’s a good thing too. So you can balance both.

Christine Zhou:
Denise, do you have anything else to add?

Denise:
The only thing I wanted to add is just to make sure that if you want to utilize our drop-in hours for the College of Engineering, that you can check that out on the website, which maybe you all can help me with the exact… I know it’s through the College of Engineering.

Laura Vogt:
engineering.berkeley.edu/counseling

Denise:
So the drop-in hours are listed there if you want to meet with someone in particular. Check out which days work for you.

Laura Vogt:
I think we wanted to end today with a breathing activity. Denise, did you want to lead us through that?

Denise:
Yeah. So what I was going to lead today was something pretty basic called diaphragmatic breathing, which is a complicated word for just saying belly breathing. So the invitation, if you want to, if you’re listening and you want to get comfortable just for a few moments to practice this exercise. You can either do this sitting or lying down, what ever your preference is and if it feels comfortable, you can put a hand on your belly or just bring awareness to your belly and notice where you’re sitting in this moment, what you’re sitting on, finding a moment of stillness and turning inward for a moment and just inviting you to take a breath here.

Denise:
And as you breathe, you might just notice that your stomach expands. And if that’s not totally obvious, if you’re breathing a little more shallowly or up in your chest, try to bring the breath into your belly for this moment. So on your inhale first pushing your belly into your hand or pushing air into your belly and then exhaling and noticing the belly contract. And then just going to invite you to hold the breath for a moment. So on your next inhale, holding it for a count of five and then exhaling for a count of five.

Denise:
So try it again. Inhale for 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, hold for 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and then exhaling. So 5, 4, 3, 2. Just noticing maybe a moment of stillness, noticing what that feels like to breathe that way and just inviting you to practice that as you like. You can play around with how long you hold the breath, or if you do a shorter or longer periods. But just noticing what it feels like to try to breathe into the lower half of your body.

Laura Vogt:
All right. Good job. Well, thank you both so much for joining us today. I appreciate all that you’ve offered to our students.

Denise:
Yeah. Thank you.

Christine Zhou:
[crosstalk 00:27:05] had this opportunity.

Laura Vogt:
Thank you Christine and Denise for joining us today and thank you everyone else for tuning in to The (not so) Secret Guide to being a Berkeley Engineer and I look forward to podcasting with you next week.