Students who experience trouble with school and life issues havea ready resource on campus. Unfortunately, most do not realizeit’s available.

The Psychological Counseling Services, located on the secondfloor in the Student Health Center, is free to students enrolled atSacramento State. It offers individual, couples and familycounseling, as well as numerous student groups and workshops.

“We are here to help with any issue,” said EquillaLuke, director of psychological counseling. “Anything the studentperceives as a problem to them, we will work on.”

The most common type of service is individual counseling in theareas of depression, anxiety, relationship problems and stressrelated to school, Luke said.

The service treats 1,000 students a year for individualcounseling, and most clients come back for at least fivevisits.

In addition, this semester, 10 couples have signed up forcounseling services.

“A couple is defined in our world as two people involvedin an intimate relationship,” Luke said. “We also workwith small groups of people who have trouble livingtogether.”

The most common obstacles faced by couples are poorcommunication and the inability of one person to change another’sbehavior. Counselors also work on behavior, and the importance of ahealthy relationship, Luke said.

“People are in a relationship to be soothed, to becomforted, to be loved and to be honored,” she said.”We are trying to get people from being angry and hostile tosoothing, caring and loving.”

Family counseling is not as common as couple and individualcounseling, but students have still benefited greatly from it, Lukesaid. Students involved in family counseling are invited to bringtheir families into the sessions, and then everyone works togetherto discover and solve underlying problems.

Student Khonnie Lattasima, 22, said she did not know about thepsychological counseling available on campus and she has attendedthe school since 2000.

“People come and go, and I don’t think they knowmuch about it,” she said. “I’d consider it as anoption. It’s free and it’s available.”

The group services the counseling service offers are easy tojoin and vary in topic. If students are interested in joining oneof the groups, they are screened first at the main office, and thenplaced in the group that best suits their needs, Luke said.

Five groups and one workshop are available throughout thesemester. The “Interpersonal Issues Group” helps students deal withsocial situations and issues. Relationship issues are alsocovered.

The “Women’s Experiences Group” is a safe place to explorewomen’s issues. “Surviving the Loss of a Loved One” is the place togo to learn help in ways to explore grief. Meanwhile, the “TestAnxiety Workshop” will give students test taking strategies andrelaxation techniques.

Two new groups are available to students this semester, bothgeared towards students questioning their sexuality or looking foran outlet to share their feelings.

The “Queer and Still Questioning Workshop” is for students whoare confused about relationships or who are still trying to learnabout themselves. The “Queer Discussion Group” explores coming out,sexuality, gender identity, friendships and family. This discussiongroup requires no appointment and drop-ins are welcome.

“I think this group is under-served and we haven’t given muchattention to them,” Luke said. “This is just one group and maybethere will be others we will reach out to in the future.”

Other free services include a psychiatry program, available tostudents if counselors feel clients should be referred, a freetesting program for learning disorders and attention problems and abiofeedback service.

Luke said many students succeed in the programs. She addedthough that students wish there was more counseling time. Becauseof such a small staff, the center has limited service and careavailable.

There are seven full-time counselors, five temporary counselorsand one part-time counselor at the counseling service to serve the28,500 students enrolled at the college.

“If we had more counselors for the size of this school, we wouldbe able to provide better services,” Luke said. “Based on ourstudent enrollment, we are small.”

Even with the small staff, Luke said she knows the help she andthe other counselors provide is instrumental in manystudents’ success.

“I become really enthused by seeing students struggle witha problem and then conquer it,” she said. “Youcan’t help but be proud of them and know that you contributedto making their lives better in just a little way.”