[Feature: Toward a Campus of Mutual Support] Midori Takayama: Thinking About Student Counseling and Support After the COVID-19 Pandemic — From the Perspective of the Student Counseling Room

2023/03/06

Three years have passed since the global pandemic of COVID-19. While the end of the infectious disease is not yet in sight, in order to regain campus life, many classes at Keio University returned to in-person format in the 2022 academic year, and the activities of student organizations such as circles have also resumed. For a period immediately after the campus closure, the Student Counseling Room was limited to telephone consultations at the Mita and Hiyoshi Campuses, but now, Student Counseling Rooms at all four campuses are open, and most individual interviews are returning to in-person format.

The experience of the global pandemic served as a major opportunity to re-examine the functions and roles of the Student Counseling Room and to rethink what should be done to support students' mental health, adaptation to student life, and psychological growth and development.

As an institution of higher education, a university is a place for education and research, as well as a place for students to grow. Through interaction with peers, faculty, and staff, students enrich their minds and each student forms their own unique personality. In this process, they may sometimes feel stuck in their studies or research, or suffer from interpersonal relationships due to friction or conflict with peers or faculty. They may also be overcome by a sense of impatience and anxiety when they cannot find their true selves. The Student Counseling Room provides consultations regarding the problems and stress that students face during their student life. Counselors stay close to the process in which students face these issues and overcome them themselves. Through professional support and advice, they work to support the psychological growth of students and assist their efforts as they prepare to head out into society.

Currently, Student Counseling Rooms are established at four campuses—Mita, Hiyoshi, Yagami, and Shiba-Kyoritsu—and are staffed by resident counselors who hold qualifications as Clinical Psychologists or Certified Public Psychologists*. In addition, university faculty members belonging to undergraduate faculties, graduate schools, and Research Centers and Institutes also participate in the activities of the counseling room as concurrent counselors.

While the number of users of the Student Counseling Room fluctuates slightly from year to year, there have been over 1,000 users every year for the past few years (excluding the 2020 academic year when the room was closed due to COVID-19). The total number of annual interviews exceeded 7,000 in the 2021 academic year (approximately 1.4 times the pre-COVID level), and this year it is approaching 6,000 as of December. About 70% of users are undergraduate students, with users distributed evenly from first to fourth year. The number of graduate student users is also on a gradual upward trend, accounting for about 15% of users. Faculty, staff, and families of students can also use the service for consultations regarding students. About 15% of the users of the Student Counseling Room are faculty members from seminars or laboratories, faculty and staff involved in student support, and families of students.

The content of consultations received by the Student Counseling Room in the second and third years under COVID-19 varies widely, but a large proportion consists of consultations classified by the Student Counseling Room as "psychological." These include interpersonal relationships with friends and family, psychological distress, developmental disabilities (Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Learning Disabilities (LD), etc.), and sexual diversity (sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression), accounting for about 50% of the total. Next, consultations related to "academics," such as course registration, repeating the previous year, taking a leave of absence, seminars/laboratories, and studies/research, account for about 30% of the total. Finally, consultations related to "career paths," such as deciding on a major, changing career paths, aptitude, employment, and going to graduate school, account for about 10%.

Similar trends have been reported in student counseling at other universities nationwide, with many consultations regarding interpersonal relationships and psychological distress such as anxiety and depression. The fact that consultations regarding developmental disabilities and sexual diversity are increasing is also common to other universities nationwide. The content of consultations received by the counseling room is becoming more diverse and complex every year. This trend remained consistent even under the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the other hand, behind the worries and consultation content (chief complaints) that trigger a visit to the Student Counseling Room, there are often more fundamental challenges and problems, whether the individual is aware of them or not. Counselors assess what kind of fundamental problems or challenges lie in the background of the consultation. About 30% of the consultation content is backed by stressful situations, and about 20% is related to developmental tasks of adolescence concerning the formation of one's true self and identity. Additionally, consultations backed by physical and mental diversity or psychopathological problems each account for about 10%.

Looking at the trends in students' chief complaints is useful for understanding what problems students are currently struggling with.

In the first year of COVID-19, the Student Counseling Room also received voices from faculty, staff, and students' families expressing concern about students' mental instability and stress. In May and June, the Student Counseling Room prepared materials titled "Regarding the Stress and Anxiety Felt by Students—To All Faculty and Staff" (published May 1, 2020) and "Troubles Regarding Online Classes—To All Faculty and Staff" (published June 10 of the same year) and shared them with the university executive office, deans of undergraduate faculties, and deans of graduate schools. These were also posted on the website, explaining how to understand the anxiety and stress students are currently facing and how those around them can respond. It is also the role of the Student Counseling Room to disseminate the problems students are facing in an anonymous form and share them within the university.

On the other hand, the counselor's assessment provides several suggestions for what university student counseling and student support should consider in the future. First, by creating opportunities within the university for students themselves to understand the mechanisms of stress and acquire self-care methods for stress, it may be possible to increase the possibility of preventing the deterioration of mental health and maladaptation. It is impossible to eliminate stressors (factors that cause a state of stress) in life. However, if students can face stressors and, even if a state of stress is triggered, deal with it appropriately and acquire flexible recovery power—namely, resilience—they will be able to take on new challenges more lightly and freely.

Materials on stress self-care are posted on the Student Counseling Room website. Those who are interested are encouraged to take a look.

Second, in addition to expressing oneself through education and research, it is important to create spaces and diverse opportunities throughout the campus where students can express their true selves and have the experience of being positively accepted and recognized. Third, it is important to create an environment on campus where diversity is accepted as natural and where people respect and understand each other. These serve as opportunities to notice one's true self or encounter a new self, and become an important step for forming identity, which is a developmental task of adolescence.

This is also related to the creation of a "place to belong" (ibasho). A place to belong is "a place where one can feel safe and be oneself" (Nakafuji 2017); it is a "physical space that serves as a mental anchor," as well as a "metaphor that encompasses relationships that serve as a mental anchor, or time where one can feel safe being as they are" (Murase et al. 2000). By having a place to belong, one can express feelings with peace of mind, feel a sense of belonging and affiliation, and feel self-esteem.

In the Student Counseling Room, we hold not only individual interviews but also workshop-style events (Group Hours) six or seven times a year. The purpose is to promote self-understanding and understanding of others through talking and exercising with counselors and other students across the boundaries of faculties and school years. During the three years of COVID-19, we have offered events to encourage campus life and interaction with others, which tend to become sparse, workshops to learn EQ and communication skills by inviting experts, and stress care workshops through Pilates and yoga by Professor Etsuko Itagaki and Professor Shizuyo Okuyama of the Institute of Physical Education. We also hope that students with common interests will meet, interact, and connect in relationships that become a place to belong.

And fourth, to create a safety net within the campus to protect students' lives and safety when anxiety escalates, depression increases, or they are driven by impulses to harm their own bodies. Originally, adolescence is also a period of high onset for mental disorders. The constant repetition of surges and declines in infections, and the behavioral restrictions that occurred each time, created a state of great stress in themselves, and there were likely cases where inherent vulnerabilities were more likely to manifest as symptoms. In the uncertain situation that will likely continue for a while, there is a high possibility that this risk will persist. Building a safety net to protect student safety is necessary both for the students and to ensure the psychological safety of the faculty and staff who are in a position to support them.

Within the counseling of the Student Counseling Room, a place to belong as a space to express one's "true self," including the self one wants to deny or feels is miserable, and to find and integrate one's uniqueness, is an important place for self-formation. On the other hand, in a group where each individual is respected and recognized as a diverse being, expressing oneself with peace of mind and noticing a new self is also an important process for the formation of the self. Creating a campus where everyone can exist and act with peace of mind is also the mission of the university.

・Shinya Nakafuji (2017) "Psychological Clinical Practice and 'Ibasho' (Place to Belong)" Sogensha

・Kayoko Murase et al. "Integrative Approach to Adolescents and Young Adults Who Have Lost Their Place to Belong: Therapeutic and Growth-Promoting Factors of Day-Care Intermediate Facilities" Japanese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 18(3) 221-232

・Edited by the Japanese Association of Student Counseling (2020) "Student Counseling Handbook, New Revised Edition" Gakuyensha