00:00:03 Lexie

Welcome back to the I'm doing fine podcast. I'm Lexie. I use she her pronouns and I'm a junior at Grand Valley this year. 

00:00:10 Katie F

My name is Katie F. My pronouns... pronouns are she, her, and I am a sophomore.

00:00:18 Katie B

I'm Katie B returning again, for... with you guys using she her pronouns and I am a senior here at Grand Valley.

00:00:26 Emma

My name is Emma and I use Pronouns she, her and I'm a senior this year.

00:00:31 Lexie

Today is an especially spooky episode...

Interjections

Lexie

With fall here and Halloween fast approaching. We wanted to share our favorite fall or Halloween activities. I will go first; my favorite part of fall and Halloween is definitely the costumes. I love Planning it and getting all the parts and all the pictures on Halloween, but I also love hiking in the fall colors and cider.

00:00:59 Katie B

I know I love looking at... just the colors of fall are so pretty just to take pictures.

interjection:

They are. 

Katie B 

Especially seeing like all the professional pictures online of just like the different fall leaves and everything. But for me. While I do love that as much. I love going to like haunted houses, watching scary movies. I know it's like, not typical for a lot of people but I Just love it. And I also love watching football games. Grand Valley's doing really good. They just beat Farris. 
interjection:

They are.

Yeah. Yeah

Katie B

which is really exciting. Yes.

Interjection:

 dogs down. Yes

00:01:30 Katie B

And I also have been recently into painting pumpkins. I love carving them. That's very traditional. But like, there's something so fun about, just like painting little Ghost on pumpkins. I don't know if you guys have seen that on TikTok or anything. But I love it.

00:01:43 Emma

I also love going on… doing... going to the cider mill, getting cider and donuts. Also I like decorating a house or your apartment. So seeing like all those cool like cob webs or a ghost or like a graveyard.

00:02:02 Katie F

I really like going to apple orchards as well. I always try to pick out that perfect pumpkin, like the perfect round, no dent.

00:02:13 Katie B

Like not dirty, no. No dents.

00:02:16 Katie F

I take pride in the pumpkins, I pick out. Anyhow I also really, really like this is like Weird, but like fall scented candles. Yeah, like the apple and cinnamon. I love it. I love it. So so much.

00:02:31 Katie B

I just love the smell of fall, honestly. It's just with all of that. It just reminds me of, like, Pumpkin spice lattes. I know it's so basic. But I love it.

00:02:41 Emma

I got one today

Interjection.

I love pumpkin spice latte.

00:02:45 Katie B

So good.

00:02:47 Katie B

But with all that, fall brings so much happiness and joy, there is a spookier side of fall that can come upon us with midterm, school. It seems like every day, every life in October, it just can bring a bunch of stressors and it can become overwhelming. And it can be really stressful to deal with transitioning. Into college, as we talked about in the last podcast.

00:03:10 Katie B

And there seems to be this daunting stigma over mental health. So, we thought this episode we would talk to you guys and break some of these spooky stigmas of mental health and specifically of the university counseling center. To try to not make it not so scary to take care of your own mental health.

00:03:25 Lexie

Yes. Yeah. So, I feel like I hear people say all the time, you know like ohh. Well, doesn't the UCC limit your amount of sessions you can receive? And you know it's not goanna work if it if it limits how many sessions you can receive.

00:03:43 Lexie

And I just really want to talk about how that is a stigma that is not the case. You know, for everyone. So many students matched with short term individual counseling, feel better after just a few appointments and group counseling can provide longer term, you know, more weekly support for those who need it.

00:04:05 Lexie

The councilors absolutely care about ensuring you receive the services you need, and they will connect you with people in the Community if that's the best fit for you.

00:04:16 Katie B

Absolutely And I think it's so cool that even this month and a couple weeks prior, they've been really focusing on like the myths of the UCC to help erase, this sigma and one of the ones that I saw posted on the counseling center's Instagram was you won't get therapy right away, and that's just simply not true. Now the... the counseling center does offer triage appointments where for whatever you need. You will be seen within those 48 hours. So, you will be seen within the time frame, that is reasonable. For your best needs. So, whatever it might be. Struggling with classes, maybe you were struggling with roommates, transitioning into college, or whatever it might be. You will be seen within a proper amount of time that best suits your needs. And of course, we offer crisis appointments here at the counseling center. If it is a more imminent risk. So, you will be seen right away. And it is not as scary as it might seem to come to the counseling center and get the proper help that you might need. Which I think is really important to see and understand.

00:05:16 Emma

Absolutely, but there are many myths at the UCC, but one of the myths umm I saw that only individual counseling will work for you and the fact is that there are many ways to improve mental health. So, such as, like spending time with your loved ones or also important now to take care of your mental health like. So, self-care like college is a very stressful time in October. Like there are midterms or stressed about work or anything happening in your life. Like, it's important to like self-care and like maybe. Taking a break from your studies or going on a walk.

00:05:56 Katie B

Yeah, I Agree. Especially like we tend to get so hyper fixated on, like doing homework, doing homework, doing homework, going to work, and then going to sleep. If we even sleep at all that it's so important to like, do something for yourself, like Emma said.

00:06:10 Katie F

Another thing that I saw on the myths of the UCC. Is like your parents and professors will find out that you kind of sought out help for your mental health. That is just not true. Everything is completely confidential. None of your information gets sent to your parents or to your professors. It is basically you and your counselor. And you guys are kind of working together on whatever problem you're trying to solve and the professors and your parents don't really find out unless there was a crisis and your counselor asks you to reach out to maybe your professor for like coming back to school, something like that. They will contact your professor, but not unless you say it's OK. But yeah. So now that we've talked about, and learned, and debunk some of the myths of the UCC. We have a very special surprise.

00:07:12 Lexie

Yeah, really.

00:07:14 Katie F

Well, we have a  guest speaker Jordan Gregory, she is a doctoral intern at the UCC and umm basically our boss.

00:07:26 Katie F

She is here to speak with us. About like more myths about mental health and kind of what she does here at the UCC. So, Jordan did you want to introduce yourself? 

00:07:33 Jordan

Hi. Thanks. So, yeah, this is my first time being a boss. So that's really different. Umm yeah, I'm a… my pronouns are she/her. I'm in my fifth year of my graduate program. So basically, what that means is I'm in my very last year of training. So, I'm working here as a therapist and seeing clients here at the college University. I absolutely love it so far. I love working with college students. Previously, my graduate program was Xavier University and that's in Cincinnati. OH, so this is a big change for me. Just moved here a few months ago, I really like Grand Rapids so far. And the Allendale area. It's really nice. Originally, I'm from Kentucky. So, I just keep inching up like one state at a time. Seeing where I end up next year. It’s great to be here with you guys.

interjections

We love having you. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

00:08:30 Emma

What's your favorite fall activity to do?

00:08:33 Jordan

So yeah, recently I just discovered drinking cider and getting like apple cider doughnuts. That's like, not a huge thing where I'm from. So... So that's my new favorite thing. 

Interjections

Yeah, it’s like a tradition. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a tradition.

00:08:49 Emma

You have to go to like a cider mill in the fall.

00:08:53 Jordan

Yeah, I… I love it. I think it's so fun. And I'm trying… all my friends and family who visited have been totally hooked. They can't get the doughnuts where they are, so you guys definitely have…

00:09:10 Lexie

So, I know you work in the counseling center. What is your specialty in UCC.

00:09:17 Jordan

Yeah so, I ... I Love working with anxiety. It might be weird to say. But I think everybody experiences anxiety, and if you're elevated to the level where it's like starting to negatively impact your life or it doesn’t feel good to you definitely stop in at the UCC. I worked with people with OCD, panic, social anxiety, general anxiety, kind of the whole gamut. Yeah, and other people, people with other concerns as well. But that's what I would say, my specialty is. 

00:09:48 Katie B

So, we talked about some myths that... about the UCC, but what would you say is the overall biggest misconception about therapy in general?

00:09:59 Jordan

Yeah, I think. The biggest one I've heard is that talking won't help. Yeah. And my experience overwhelmingly has been that a lot of people experience relief just by talking to somebody who's compassionate. Yeah. And so…

00:10:17 Jordan

I have hear that as well.

00:10:19 Katie F

A lot of my friends are like. No, it's not. It's not goanna do anything. And I'm like but it will.

00:10:27 Katie B

And sometimes just having like an ear for someone to listen to that's like not... like an outside ear, someone that well, is truly listening to you just might help.

00:10:36 Katie F

Yeah, absolutely. So, with that being said, how do you like manage or like do you have any tips and tricks?  For like managing your mental health for like your day-to-day lives.

00:10:46 Jordan

Yeah, absolutely. That's a big question, but, t's kind of like, yeah, it's what people want to know, right?

Interjection:

 Tell the people what they want to hear. 

00:10:56 Jordan

Will do... one big thing is a sense of belonging, which can be really hard, especially as a first-year student on a college campus.

00:11:07 Jordan

It's really important to make those connections with the people in your life that matter to you. That make you feel good, that make you feel like you belong. So, while you're building that, let's say you don't have that at GVSU yet. While you're building that, make sure you're connecting to the people, maybe from your past, who are able to give that to you while you're anchoring here as well.

interjection:

Yeah, for sure.

00:11:32 Katie B

For sure, I really like that. Like finding... while you're finding yourself here, don't forget about who you were at home as well, because those people help develop who you were... to get here. So, I think that's really important as well. And thank you so much, Jordan, for helping break some of those stereotypes about mental health. And just for being here today, we really learned a lot. And we love having you here, working with us as peer educators.

00:11:43 Lexie

Right.

00:11:57 Katie B

And now that we've kind of broken some of those stereotypes about mental health, I think it is a perfect time to talk about our…

Group speaking:

mindful moments 

Katie B

of the week. Thanks to Lexie for coming up with that. So, I am going to go first. For me what I've been doing lately is. It is extremely important to me you've probably heard me talk about this a million times. But every day I need to wake up before I go to class, do homework. I have to exercise in the morning, especially at the rec center. Huge shout out to that. For at least 60 minutes today, I need to move. Whether that's cardio, lifting, doing an abdominal workout doesn't matter what it is. It just gets my mind off of whatever I'm doing. It's a great way to kind of just like start my day and it's really important to me if I don't workout in the morning or do something, even if it's just a walk. I feel like stressed for the rest of the day. So, that's just kind of what I've been doing for my mindfulness, for the week.

00:12:55 Katie F

Yeah, I'm A little bit more lazy on that one. But um me and my roommates. Favorite shows is Gray's Anatomy. So, recently, we've honestly just been putting, like, our phones away. We make dinner for, like, all four of us, and we'll just watch Gray’s together and just hang out. And it's honestly so therapeutic because we all love Grays, and it's not just like that one person sitting out like, what's happening and asking questions like we've all watched it like 2 to 3 times. 
 

00:13:15 Emma

Yeah, I love Gray’s.

00:13:25 Katie B

Me too.

Side conversation: Lexie

Yeah, like this character. And we love this character.

00:13:31 Katie F

Like it's so it's just so fun to sit there with everybody.

00:13:33 group

 I love Mark. Mark, I love him.

00:13:36 Emma

Yeah. And then just going back and rewatch the same episodes. Over and over again

00:13:44 Katie F

it so comforting Because like you know, what’s going to happen.

00:13:47 Lexie

Similar to that, we... my roommates and I Have like struggled because we always. Had homework and we would want to talk. We needed to get our homework done and so it was just like a hard environment for a little while. So, we've made it a priority to really work hard to end our homework at a certain time so that we have the evening to unwind and do things we all enjoy and talk and we watch sex Ed together and we love that show. So just really making it a priority to give, give ourselves that space.

00:14:16 Katie B

Yeah, I love.

00:14:19 Emma

To a Katie um said, I also love watching your favorite show. I've been going back and watching Teen Wolf 

Interjection

Ooooh yeah.

Yeah

just not worrying about school or work or anything that's happened in your life. I also like to go to yoga class, which is like very relaxing.

00:14:39 Katie B

I love yoga.

00:14:40 Katie F

Me too I haven't done it in a long time. It feels good.

00:14:49 Katie B (Group discussion)

One of my roommates has like this, like soothing voice and I kid you not she could be a yoga instructor.

00:14:54 Katie B

It's so fun. It's so fun.

00:14:55 Katie F

Maybe she should change her major.

00:14:59 Katie F 

Never mind.

00:15:01 Katie B

It's so funny.

00:15:04 Lexie (Back to subject)

Like, wow, mental health stigmas can be really scary, especially if they aren't addressed. So we hope that you can enjoy your October knowing that the UCC is always here to support you. Yeah, bye guys.

 Group 

Bye Guys!!!