Students Help Peers in Counseling Program

For some UC Berkeley students, balancing personal lives while staying afloat in the school's often competitive atmosphere can lead to depression and other mental problems.

Though 3,000 to 4,000 graduate and undergraduate students make use of the Tang Center's Counseling and Psychological Services each year, for others, mental problems are highly stigmatized and often go untreated until it is too late, said Tang Center psychologist Susan Bell.

To battle the sense of social stigma often attached to seeking help, Student to Student Peer Counseling, a lesser-known peer counseling service on campus, exists as an alternative support system.

"I think any place where you have bright students with high stress levels and competitive natures, it's hard for people to ask for help," said fifth-year Jennifer Diamond, a co-coordinator of the group. "I think it's hard for people to admit, 'I'm feeling weak.'"

Peer counseling serves as an alternative or stepping-stone to professional counseling for students who might be uncomfortable with the idea of seeking professional help, Diamond said.

"It's more socially acceptable to talk to peers," said junior Nardeen Maximous. "I'd like to say there isn't a stigma to seeking professional help, but there is."

Student clients of the service are encouraged to express and talk out their academic and personal problems in hopes of becoming empowered, rather than just receiving advice.

With more than 25 counselors handling five to ten student clients each week this semester, the group is widely accessible, Diamond said.

But the appeal is also largely about the comfort of talking anonymously to peers who stand to be just as sympathetic but more objective than friends, she said.

Still, the student-run peer counseling team has begun to align with the Tang Center in a natural partnership formed from sharing the same goal of supporting students.

On a regular basis, students are referred out to Tang Center or outside groups after the third session with peer counselors.

"We don't want to create dependency," Diamond said. "Students might feel more comfortable talking with us, but at the same time, we also want to really stress the fact we're not professionals."

This year's Mental Wellness Week events are a part of the collaboration between the two organizations.

"We're building bridges for students by working together, not competing," said Bell. "We don't care how students get help, as long as they're getting help."

Students who have used the campus's support services agree, stressing the importance of finding help.

"Adjusting to a big university my freshman year was hard," said junior Naz Nami, who struggled with an eating disorder for six years. "Berkeley is such a big university-it's much more impersonal than high-school-and being in science classes with hundreds of people was really hard."

After the Tang Center referred Nami to a therapist, she now works as a peer counselor herself, encouraging students to find help when needed.

"I feel so powerful now," she says. "Like I can go back to my peers and help."

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