Tools for improving academic mental health and holistic wellbeing

Universities are facing mental health challenges at alarming rates. Data reveals that mental health issues impact 60 percent of college students (Leonhardt, 2022). Campus faculty are either de facto first points of contact or are directly asked by administrations to support students struggling with mental health. These requests come with good reason. However, faculty are not necessarily trained for this role and those who are (e.g., psychologists or social workers) understand the distinction between teaching about the field and working in it. Faculty who ‘play therapist’ with their students risk violating serious ethical precepts. Absent support for professors’ own mental health, encouraging student wellness is a Sisyphean task for faculty. Further exacerbating this dilemma is that immersion and overwork are baked into the profession. Appropriately incorporating foundations of the counseling professions provides valuable resources to counteract these aspects of academic culture, while supporting faculty and student wellbeing-in the classroom and beyond.