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According to the American Psychological Association, “More than one-third of first-year university students in eight industrialized countries around the globe report symptoms consistent with a diagnosable mental health disorder.” As the stigmas surrounding mental health are gradually brought to light, more students than ever before are seeking out counseling services on their college campuses.

Kent Schornack, the Director of Leadership and Counseling at GV, and Kenlyn Gordon, Assistant Director of Leadership and Counseling, have more on their plates this semester than in previous years. 

“This year we’ve had a really strong uptick in the number of students coming in for counseling,” Schornack said. “Typically, we see anywhere from 90 to 100 students in one semester’s time. This year within the first three days we had 30 contacts for counseling.” The counselors attribute this uptick to a rising overall awareness of mental health and counseling services at GV, as well as their visibility through overseeing student leadership teams.

The counselors spend five to six hours a day in individual meetings and therapy sessions. With their busy schedules, they both continue to reach out to classes, providing presentations on the topics of mental health, violence and suicide prevention. 

“More students are accessing our services and staff members are doing presentations about mental health and encouraging students to come in,” said Schornack. 

“The primary concern we see is anxiety — that definitely is the most frequent referral — and next comes depression,” said Schornack. “We also work a lot with relational contacts and difficulties, childhood trauma, post-traumatic stress, childhood hurts or abuse, and eating disorders.” 

Along with this, the student counseling center offers lesser-known services including couples counseling, group therapy and crisis response on campus. They’re also offering a healthy habits workshop at the end of the month. 

“I find a lot of benefits in helping people understand how to take care of themselves,” said Gordon. “Normalizing that it is okay to get help and reach out is important.”

Both Schornack and Gordon stress how helpful it can be to have a place to feel safe and talk.

“If we open up our lives to good, trusted and safe people, that’s actually more associated with good mental health and resilience,” said Schornack.

Schornack has set many goals since becoming a counselor at GV.

“I want to normalize counseling and say that it’s a healthy thing to do,” said Schornack. “Having good supportive people in your life that you can talk honestly with, be vulnerable with, who are trustworthy to be that friend and good person, that’s important to develop and have. Here at Grand View, that’s what we are trying to have.”

Kourtnie Cowles, a junior, has utilized the counseling services at GV since she first started college two years ago. 

“I started using the counseling services because I was homesick. As time progressed, I became depressed here at GV and I fell into a really deep hole,” said Cowles. 

This isn’t uncommon for college students in America. The APA reports that, “Anxiety is the top presenting concern among college students (41.6 percent), followed by depression (36.4 percent) and relationship problems (35.8 percent).” 

“Before I was really nervous,” said Cowles. “Now it’s one of the things I really look forward to every single week.”

Cowles is one among many others who have found the counseling services at GV helpful. Noah Dren, a junior at GV, agrees. 

“I did about a year of counseling and I think it definitely helped with some things,” said Dren. “If you have some issues that you want to get sorted out, or you need someone to talk to about your problems, I would recommend it,” said Dren.

With their plates more full than normal, Gordon and Schornack have to be strategic with their scheduling. 

“We’re trying to just make sure that our loads are balanced equally. As well as that we have a waitlist that we had to start to manage the caseload. We try and still get students off of the waitlist between two and three weeks,” said Gordon. She noted that if students on the waitlist cannot wait, they’re also offered other community services and resources within the Des Moines area. 

Gordon also hopes the healthy habits workshop later this month will help students grow when it comes to preventative mental health. 

“We can actually do things that keep our minds healthy, just like we can do things to keep our bodies healthy,” said Gordon.

GV students can access the counseling services or emailing them at counselingservices@grandview.edu, filling out a contact form on GV’s website or stopping into the student life office.