Student Mental Health

One of the most impactful talks when I was at Sacred Heart University was from their Executive Director of Wellness, James Geisler. This talk was a “lunch and learn,” so I didn’t take notes like I did for the other talks. He grabbed my attention from the start. He began by talking about the “teen mental health crisis.” He said that the definition of “crisis” is that it’s something that is “acute.” This has been going on for years; it’s much bigger than a “crisis.” Mr. Geisler has brought so much good to SHU since he arrived in 2020. There was a long waitlist to be seen by the counseling department. He was horrified by that and worked to immediately get rid of the wait list so students could be seen as soon as they wanted to.

He wrote an amazing workbook for college students, and we all received a copy. It’s called Thrive Year One. He also does workshops for high schools. I wish all incoming students received more mental health education than they do. I’m typing his website here (a bit strangely so the link doesn’t autopopulate). It’s thriveyearone dot com. The cover of his book and table of contents are below to give you an idea of what’s included.

Parents of students going off to college, I highly encourage you to have discussions surrounding mental health concerns and where to go for help. You can certainly take a look at Mr. Geisler’s super helpful info for assistance.