>> Welcome to George Mason University, Counselling & Psychological Services. This presentation is going to explain CAPS Services in more detail, who we are, what we do, and how to connect with us. Counseling and psychological services provides free and confidential psychological and learning services to students who are actively enrolled and currently registered for classes at Mason. Group counseling is one area that we've really expanded as of recent and we're trying to target as many topics as well as different clinical issues that may come up for students. That being said, we offer groups that are general coed, undergrad, and grad process groups and that group is known as understanding self and others, and that groups design to help member explore issues and dynamics that are affecting their personal life. Specific areas of focus are generally determined by group members and may include relationships, intimacy, boundaries, communication, and self-awareness. The group also provides an opportunity for members to practice new ways of behaving within a safe and encouraging environment, where they can receive and provide feedback and support. Another group we offer is the LGBTQ plus group. And that group offers a safe space for members of the LGBTQ plus community to learn more about themselves, relationships with others, coping strategies, members will have the opportunity to share life stressors and give feedback, and gain support from one another. Again, LGBTQ plus is intended to be an inclusive umbrella term, including those identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, asexual gender non conforming, intersex, pan sexual, and those questioning their gender identity or sexual orientation. We also offer a group called Live Your Life and that group is designed to help members encounter depression, anxiety issues, it's really targeting a different pursuit in living a full and meaningful life. These sessions can include short educational components, group discussions, experiential exercises. And there are also exercises to complete between group meetings to help members apply lessons discussed in the groups to their everyday lives. We also offer some graduates students groups and those groups are designed to help members explore issues and dynamics affecting personal lives as well, and those may include relationship issues, intimacy, boundaries, communication, and self awareness. Another group we offer is called I Thought It Was Me, and this group is designed to support students who've been negatively affected by traumatic experiences, or all forms of abuse within their family of origin or actively seeking healing around issues related to these experiences. We strive to create a supportive and safe environment that acknowledges the healing process is unique to each individual. And the goal of this group is to facilitate a sense of awareness to reduce self blame and shame, and to build mutual support and connection between members. We also offer a surviving to thriving group and this group is for self-identified undergraduate and graduate student women seeking support in their journey towards healing after having survived sexual assault that occurred during their adolescents or adulthood. This group will provide members with an opportunity to explore concerns such as difficulties with emotional and physical intimacy in personal relationships, struggling with trusting oneself or others, coping with emotional and physical triggers related to their sexual assault, managing self blame and guilt toward their sexual assault among many other topics. And this group will provide members with the opportunity to connect and relate with other women who share similar experiences and realize that they're not alone in an authentic, affirming, and confidential space. CAPS also offers brief, time-limited individual counseling, and what that entails is meeting with a mental health provider one-on-one, here in our office, and getting the chance to explore a wide range of issues. Personal issues, family issues, issues maybe that are affecting academic performance, drugs and alcohol, could be a wide range and really anything is acceptable. Prior to starting time limited individual counselling, folks would need to do an initial consultation, which can be done over the phone or in person. During the this and a great opportunity to get that piece of the process out of the way is coming in during the CAPS working hours, the daily working hours between 12:30 and 2:30. So that is an option as well so that if folks need to be seen that day that's possible here at CAPS. CAPS also offers brief time-limited psychiatric services, and in this process, individuals are also likely seeing a therapist here at CAPS. But they would meet with our psychiatrist, Dr Kavetha Jagalu Moody and she can manage medication and assist in that realm as well. Another service we offer here at CAPS are referral services in case management. And kinda depending on what presenting problem folks bring to us, we in ways to best support our clients and our students. And sometimes folks need more support than what is potentially offered here at CAPS. Maybe they've had a history of struggles with mental illness or with drugs and alcohol or disordered eating behavior and maybe require a higher level of care than what can be provided here on our campus. And that being said, if folks are referred to maybe a provider in the community or an intensive out-patient program, we will help facilitate that process. We won't leave you hanging, in fact, we will get the ball rolling on making an initial contact with some of these outside providers and make sure that it's a seamless transition from CAPS to whatever the next treatment avenue might be. I also wanna remind folks that we do have daytime on call support. So, if you are in crisis, you can in fact, come to CAPS during the day and we can support you here, as well as our after hours on call support. And that would be for students who are in crisis after 5 PM. And how that would work, is you would call George Mason Police, and then the police can connect you to our after hours on call provider. I wanna next touch on our daily skills-based workshops. So we offer workshops every day of the week from 3 to 4 PM, and that's right here sub one, in room 3008. The workshop that we have on Mondays is called, Creating Connections. And many students feel alone and disconnected from others on campus. And these feelings can arise from feeling different, feeling marginalized, or out of place at Mason. And this workshop seeks to create a supportive space for students who feel isolated to connect authentically with other students who understand those feelings and identify avenues of support. We offer tranquil Tuesdays on Tuesdays and you can come chillax and destress with CAPS. As a college student, you may have many things to juggle, likely you do and this can increase your stress level. Meditation's an effective and simple way to conquer life stresses by calming the mind and body and adding energy, focus, and enjoyment to personal experiences. On Tuesday, you can join us to help calm your mind, to settle your body, and to increase self-awareness. On Wednesday, we offer a workshop called all things relational. And again, touching on the idea that connection with others is an integral part of our lives, if we have difficulties understanding ourselves or relating to others. Sometimes we find ourselves feeling lonely, isolated, frustrated, misunderstood, unheard. In this workshop, we can really explore healthy ways to communicate with others, to cultivate healthy relationships by learning to resolve conflicts, have difficult conversations, be assertive, and set boundaries, and learn how to have healthy relationships with ourselves and others. So this would be a good space to come learn how to do some of that. On Thursdays, we had a workshop called art for expressions and art is a really creative form of self expression that can increase our sense of well-being. Allowing us to express our emotion and release stress. So you can join us for a drop in workshop on Thursday is that we'll focus on using various art media to promote self exploration and growth. And we'll alternate between plan activities and open studio time. Additionally, we have a self care space Fridays. And self-care is very integral part of how we navigate challenges in our lives. And we will practice a variety of self-care activities together each Friday. So that might be a good space to come take a break in your week. I also wanna make sure to touch on online self help TAO which is therapist assisted online. And when using TAO, TAO is an interactive web based program that provides educational interventions and support for a variety of common mental health concerns. So maybe if there's some hesitancy about coming into CAPS or maybe it's taboo for whatever reason, be that cultural or familial or maybe you had a bad experience before, sometimes TAO can be a great starting point to kind of get a refresher of some topics that maybe you would consider discussing in therapy. But also doing this right from the comfort and convenience of your own home. Every mason student can make a TAO account for free, you can log in with your Mason email, and create a profile and then TAO ends up designing content specifically for let's say generalized anxiety or sometimes occasionally feeling stressed out due to all the demands of being a student. So TAO is a really, really nice thing that we've been working with during the fall 2018 semester, and again, plan to use going forward. We've heard some great reviews from some of our clients. I also wanted to make sure to touch on learning services here at part of CAPS. Learning services is a separate department from CAPS and they offer academic coaching and academic skills workshops. And learning services is really a phenomenal department that are housed with, and they provide a variety of free experienced-based learning opportunities for the Mason community through one-on-one academic coaching, academic success workshops, and online resources. They are also located here in SUB 1 in Suite 3129 with us in CAPS. CAPS also does consultation with faculty, staff, parents, or students. Slide four is a brief image of what a CAPS website looks like and that's CAPS, C-A-P-S, .gmu.edu. And a lot of this information from the presentation is also on our website so you can take a look there if you have questions about something, or you can also give us a call at 703-993-2380. That would be a way to get some information as well. And moving on to slide five is really at the foundation of all of our work is privacy and confidentiality here at CAPS. And CAPS staff cannot provide follow-up information to anyone, family members, friends, faculty, about a student of concern without written permission from that student via signed release of information. This is both an ethical and a legal statute, and if you're concerned about a Mason student and you want a Mason administrative member to directly contact a student of concern. You can contact the Student Support and Advocacy Center here at Mason, and they are known as SSAC. SSAC may be better able to directly reach out to a Mason student of concern. And moving on to slide six, again, kind of touching on privacy and confidentiality here at CAPS, really just wanting to explain the limits of confidentiality. So when clients come in and meet with us confidentiality is applied and is present and there are very few reasons when confidentiality needs to be broken. One of those is if there's substantial likelihood that the client may cause serious harm to themselves or others in the near future. Another is if there's a reasonable suspicion of current abuse and or neglect of a child or incapacitated adult. Another reason would be if there's a valid court order or subpoena to disclose relevant information in a legal proceeding or investigation. And lastly, if the university threat assessment team receives information that results in the team opening an investigation on the client in which case CAPS may be required to provide information in CAPS record to the threat assessment team as part of their investigation. And onto slide seven, to CAPS locations and how to make an appointment. It's real exciting if you're interested in coming to CAPS, we'd love to meet with you and check in and support you to the best of our abilities. Students can schedule, as I mentioned before, what's called an initial consultation, or an IC appointment for psychological and/or learning services. And you can contact us at 703-993-2380. You can visit us at CAPS at Fairfax Campus, in the Student Union Building 1, or SUB 1, and we're in Suite 3129. And we have walk-in hour at our Fairfax campuses I mentioned before from 12:30 to 2:30 PM everyday Monday through Friday. And again, we receive a wild variety of questions during the IC and do our best to provide support for students when they ask those questions. And appointments are also available at our science and technology campus and that's at 229 Colgan Hall. And then also in our Arlington Campus, and that's at 222 Founders Hall. Those appointments are by appointment only so usually you would come to the Fairfax Campus or do the IC over the phone, and then we would get you set up at science and tech or at Arlington. And moving on to slide eight, what to do if a student is having a mental health crisis. So during normal business hours we'd wanna call the CAPS number, which is 703-993-2380. Or come into CAPS and visit us as I mentioned, we're in SUB-I, in room 3129 and ask to speak with the day time on-call clinician. After normal business hours, we'd like folks to call GMU police which is 703- 993-2810 and ask the police to connect you to the CAPS after hours on call clinician. And if you're ever concerned about someone's immediate physical safety, please call GMU Police as soon as possible. Moving on to slide nine, some additional on campus resources as we discussed today are the student support and advocacy centers. So that was SSAC and they can be reached at ssac.gmu.edu and they're in SUB-I also with us in Suite 3200. So 3200, and their phone number is 703-993-3686. It's also important to mention the Department of Police and Public Safety. They can be reached at police.gmu.edu. They're in the Police & Safety Building, and their phone number is 703-993-2810. Should you have any questions about anything that I've just described in the presentation, feel free to come and visit us at CAPS or you can find some of the other information on our website at caps.gmu.edu. Well, just wanted to say what a pleasure it is to be part of the mason community. We have some incredible students here, and faculty, and staff. We're really just lucky to be a part of the campus fabric and framework here and supporting students to the best of our ability. So if you have any questions, we would love to hear from you again, thank you for your time and hope you have a great day.