49 - College Students & Creating Supportive Communities (feat. Dr. Gary Glass)

✏️📓👨‍🎓👩‍🎓 This week, we’re joined by Dr. Gary Glass to talk about college & university students’ mental health. We talk about current trends on college campuses, harmful paradigms impacting our students, and how various people (faculty, campus ministries, etc.) can help. Dr. Glass is a psychologist with over 20 years of experience working in college counseling centers, maintaining a private clinical practice, and as a private consultant/trainer to schools and colleges, with a focus on creating supportive campus environments.

Things we mention/other resources:
- Active Minds, a non-profit focused on college students’ mental health
- Mental Health America’s page on ‘Life on Campus’
- National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)’s page: ‘Managing a Mental Health Condition in College’
- Jedi Counsel Podcast episode 86 - College Mental Health
- Counselor Toolbox Podcast episode 259 - Addressing The Unique Mental Health Needs of College Students
- Counselor Toolbox Podcast episode 261 - Addressing Transition Issues in High School and College Students
- Counselor Toolbox Podcast episode 262 - Supporting Student Mental Health
- Dr. Glass’s journal article ‘Introducing a Psychotherapy for the Collective: A Paradigm Shift for College Mental Health’ (requires an academic login.)

Dr. Glass’s proposed problematic paradigms:

1) Over-emphasis on certainty & control
2) Increased worship of the quantified
3) Banishment of vulnerability
4) De-valuation of the feminine
5) Distraction from the present
6) Marginalization of Other
7) Pursuit of power/status

Quotes:
- “Around 10 years ago, the most common presenting concern was some kind of depression. Anxiety passed depression.” (tweet)
- “I call anxiety ‘fear plus a time machine.’” (tweet)
- “Our students are scared and lonely.” (tweet)
- “Vulnerability is a necessary ingredient in any kind of intimacy or connection.” (tweet)
- “The need to have influence and association with that which is impressive; these are all mandates that we often get without realizing that that’s the water that we’re swimming in.” (tweet)
- “It’s hard to persuade students to not be concerned about grades when they’re attending universities that are highlighting where their rankings are.” (tweet)
- “It’s a lot of pressure to live up to the bumper sticker your parents put on their car when you were in elementary school.” (tweet)
- “Some of the most loving & kind things when do, when we do them driven by fear we do not recognize, can have consequences we do not anticipate.” (tweet)
- “A lot of our students aren’t aware that they’ve created an avatar of themselves that they delegate to represent them in their day-to-day lives.” (tweet)
- “Fear is at the root of hatred.” (tweet)
- “Fear compromises your critical thinking skills.” (tweet)

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Intro/Outro music for this episode is ‘Fall Down’ by Rivers & Robots.