The Student Health and Counseling Center (SHCC) hosted the “Taste Of Counseling Event” virtually on Feb. 23, encouraging students to find a counselor or program they enjoyed as much as their favorite cookie.

SHCC staff member Georgianna Negron-Long hosted the event to give students a taste of the services that the SHCC offers daily to students, using cookies to reference the variety of counselors at the center.

“Part of counseling is finding the right match as a counselor, and that can feel discouraging at times, but we try to make it easy for you by having a good variety of cookies here so that there’s something for everybody,” Malia Sherman, director of counseling and psychological services, said.

During the event, counselors introduced themselves, discussed their programs’ focuses and what groups they currently run, while also sharing their favorite cookie.

Sherman emphasized the importance of students finding a counselor whom they can connect with and feel comfortable with. 

“We have so many different counselors on our team that we really have somebody who’s a match for everybody,” Sherman said. 

One program discussed was Project Hope, led by Diana Karageozian, which helps students with issues that are impacting their education like financial hardships, interpersonal struggles and housing displacement.

Other counselors, such as Marie Haroutinian, discussed with students one-on-one about anxiety, depression and trauma to wellness checks. 

“There doesn’t have to be a super serious reason to come to counseling. You don’t have to wait until it’s super bad before you come in. We are more than happy to just have you check in with us,” Haroutinian said. 

Three-week, 50-minute group workshops available to students were discussed during the two-part virtual event.

Mental health counselor Live Mercer, who currently runs the Anxiety Toolbox workshop, paints these group workshops as psychoeducational, which may be different than what most students envision group therapy is, Mercer added.

“I tell people to think of it as a live podcast where I’m going to be teaching you some good educational material and your participation is able to happen more so on your side of the screen,” Mercer said.

Mercer also mentioned activities such as journaling, mindfulness and visualization exercises, in which students can choose to participate as much or as little as they want to in the group workshops.

Fresno State sophomore Idali Guerrero said she attended the  event after struggling with being online her entire first year, hoping to learn about campus resources that could help her with the adjustment.

“Being that this is my first semester on campus and in-person, I felt very nervous and stressed out, so I wanted to know more about counseling and to feel comfortable about it,” Guerrero said.

She joined the Anxiety Toolbox workshop where she learned about other upcoming workshops and met some of her potential counselors. 

“Getting to know the counselors really helped a lot. At first, when you’re going to look for a counselor, you want to get to know the person and see why they’re there and why they’re wanting to help,” Guerrero said. 

Moving forward, Gurrero plans to join a group workshop that she learned about recently to help her adjust to being on campus. 

Other students who attended the event were also able to sign up for upcoming workshops that stood out to them. 

Students who were unable to attend the event can still learn more about SHCC resources and upcoming events on its website.