Well­ness Cen­ter Of­fers On­line Coun­sel­ing

MISHAWAKA – While Bethel Uni­ver­sity has sus­pended in-per­son classes and meet­ings un­til the end of the school year, the Well­ness Cen­ter has con­tin­ued of­fer­ing coun­sel­ing ser­vices on­line for Bethel stu­dents. The Well­ness Cen­ter re­ports they are see­ing only about half of the stu­dents they were see­ing prior to be­ing forced to move on­line, but they are thank­ful for those who have de­cided to con­tinue coun­sel­ing re­motely as well as those who have re­cently be­gun coun­sel­ing from home.  

The Well­ness Cen­ter is notic­ing stu­dents han­dling COVID-19 and the changes re­lated to it in a va­ri­ety of ways. They rec­og­nize that while every­one is stressed to some ex­tent, every­one is work­ing hard to fig­ure out our “new nor­mal.” They also rec­og­nize that this tran­si­tion has been more dif­fi­cult for stu­dents with weak or non-ex­is­tent in­ter­net ac­cess, poor cell phone re­cep­tion, fi­nan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties due to job losses, those ex­pe­ri­enc­ing dif­fi­culty stay­ing con­nected with fam­ily and friends, and those with stresses due to liv­ing in close quar­ters in iso­la­tion. 

“Stu­dents are also work­ing very hard to keep up with classes, of­ten in the face of in­ter­net prob­lems, con­fus­ing pro­ce­dures, lack of the usual in-per­son con­tact with pro­fes­sors and peers which, of course, has un­til COVID, been an es­sen­tial part of ed­u­ca­tion,” stated the Well­ness Cen­ter. “De­pend­ing on a va­ri­ety of fac­tors, this is some­what eas­ier for some stu­dents than oth­ers; over­all, Bethel stu­dents are a phe­nom­e­nal group who are try­ing very hard to make the best of things, to con­tinue course work on­line, keep re­la­tion­ships strong, find sup­port and give it to oth­ers, and look for­ward with hope.” 

Of­fice hours are Mon­day-Thurs­day 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Fri­day 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. For stu­dents who are in­ter­ested in on­line coun­sel­ing but may be con­cerned about the se­cu­rity of an on­line pro­gram, the Well­ness Cen­ter is cur­rently us­ing a web­site called Doxy.Me to con­duct coun­sel­ing ses­sions. Doxy.Me is HIPPA com­pli­ant, pri­vate and se­cure for stu­dents. On­line coun­sel­ing ses­sions may be con­ducted by phone if a video ses­sion is not pos­si­ble. If a stu­dent would like to meet with a coun­selor, or if they sim­ply have ques­tions, they may con­tact the Well­ness Cen­ter of­fice at (574) 807 7370 or email Robin Dykes, of­fice man­ager, at Robin.Dykes@BethelU­ni­ver­sity.edu.