CBU Counseling Center hosts a week to “choose healing”

Riverside, Calif. (Oct. 3, 2016) – The Counseling Center at California Baptist University is hosting “Choose Healing” week in conjunction with Mental Health Awareness Week (Oct. 3 – 7). The center will provide education to students throughout the week at various table locations on campus.

“We want to decrease the stigma about mental health [issues]. We just have a heart for our student body to realize that everybody needs help at one time or another,” said Jeff Biddle, director of the Counseling Center. “A lot of time there is a stigma out there that you have to have a severe mental health disorder, but we’re all broken.”

With the theme “Choose Healing,” each day will focus on an issue pertinent to college campuses, such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, suicide and psychosis.

“The onset of significant mental, emotional crisis often happens between the ages of 18-23 nationwide,” Biddle said. “Our students are in the very window of potentially experiencing significant emotional crisis.”

Often students are surprised when faced with a mental health issue such as significant depression or anxiety and they do not know where to get help, he said.

“We want the Counseling Center to be seen as any other department on campus,” Biddle said. “We want people to understand that we’re here for them. We’re available.”