Individual & Group Therapy
CAPS uses a short-term treatment model for individual therapy. Services are tailored to best meet each students’ need.
Some of the goals that are commonly addressed in short-term therapy at CAPS include:
- Coping effectively with immediate life stressors.
- Having a positive experience in brief therapy before engaging in longer-term individual therapy or transitioning to group therapy.
- Gaining concrete skills to cope with new challenges.
- Finding greater understanding and new perspectives on life experiences
Group therapy is highly effective at addressing most issues facing undergraduate and graduate college students. Group therapy offers students an opportunity to meet in a safe, confidential, and supportive space to share experiences, learn fresh perspectives, and experiment with new behaviors and ways of being. Through this process you develop insights, tools, and techniques that you can use to improve your quality of life.
Please see below for more information about group therapy and the specific groups that CAPS offers.
In addition to our group therapy options, check out our Virtual Workshops and Gathering Spaces. These include Coffee Talk for International Students and BIPOC Support Circle.
What is Group Therapy?
There are 3 major types of groups:
- Understanding Self and Others Groups (Interpersonal Process):
USO groups focus on helping student understand more about themselves, understand their relationships with others, and expand their ways of relating/connecting. These groups are helpful for students with a variety of presenting concerns in which connection to others is an aspect of the concern.
- Psychoeducational Groups
Psychoeducational groups provide students with specific skills to help them better manage their concerns. These groups are structured or semi-structured, oftentimes have a curricular component, and tend to meet over the span of a few weeks. These groups may be for students with more specific concerns (e.g., eating/body image related concerns for the Making Peace with Food group) or more general concerns (e.g., issues with depression, anxiety, etc with our Building Emotional Well-Being Group).
- Support Groups
Support groups provide students with shared experiences or identities. These groups allow students to connect with students who have experienced similar issues (e.g., the loss of a significant loved one in the case of the bereavement group).
Groups
Please call the CAPS Front Desk (847) 491-2151 for more details about groups or schedule an Initial Assessment. You can read more about our groups below. Due to current health and safety guidelines, groups will be offered virtually using a secure videoconferencing platform.
Bereavement Group
This is a group for students who have experienced a significant loss and are looking for care and connection with other students who have experienced similar losses. This group helps students to explore, express, and understand their emotions related to grief. The group includes sharing, discussion, and support.
- Open to full-time graduate and undergraduate students in degree-seeking programs. Students must be located in Illinois
Building Emotional Well-Being
Building Emotional Well-Being is a structured program that teaches tangible skills for managing stress, anxiety, relationship issues, and more. The three core components of this group include mindfulness, distress tolerance, and affect regulation. Students will leave this group with skills to help identify thoughts, feelings, and sensations in the moment; to better tolerate distress when feeling overwhelmed; and to modulate their emotional state in order to help respond to stressful situations in ways that are adaptive.
- CAPS runs separate sections for undergraduate students and graduate/professional students
- This is a 6-week group
Understanding Self and Others (Interpersonal Process)
Understanding Self and Others is a safe space for students who are looking for support and a deeper understanding of themselves and their relationships with others. Interpersonal process groups are often the treatment of choice for people experiencing troubled relationships, loneliness, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem, among many other concerns. Students in group benefit from sharing personal experiences, giving and receiving supportive and constructive feedback, and experimenting with new interpersonal behaviors.
- Open to full-time graduate students in degree-seeking programs