Personal, professional, and academic work-life integration may feel challenging at times. Free student counseling services are offered with the Student Counseling Services staff. This confidential service is available through appointment.

If you need to schedule an appointment, email scs@tun.touro.edu.

If this is your first time or your thousandth time, Monday Meditation is a good place to grow your practice. Each week we offer a guided meditation. The group discusses meditation, the benefits, and reviews relevant apps and methods to enhance practice. All Touro staff, faculty, students, and their significant supports are welcome to join. No experience with meditation is needed. Bring an open mind and a desire to enrich your life.

Monday Meditation is every Monday at Noon. 

Koru Mindfulness is an evidence-based meditation practice that aims to “give participants tools for quickly reducing distress… [and] emphasizes cultivating positive emotions like self-compassion and gratitude.” Koru Mindfulness was developed with consideration for the challenges that emerging adults often face. Its title, Koru, is derived from a New Zealand Maori word that signifies balanced growth.

If you would like to participate, email tun.koru@touro.edu.

Student Counseling Services provides opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to receive training and earn certificates in the following areas:

• Mental Health Wellness and Knowledge
• Violence Intervention and Prevention:  Creating Safe Communities Program for Medical/Health Professionals
• Changing Environment of Opiates and Cannabis
• Understanding Implicit Bias

The certificate programs are co-sponsored by campus and community organizations such as the Rainbow Health Coalition, the Rape Crisis Center, Neurology and Psychiatry Student Interest Group, Student Osteopathic Medical Association, and Alcohol and Other Drug Committee. 

TUN receives grant-funding from SAMHSA’s Garret Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention Grant, which focuses on enhancing mental health services for college students struggling with serious mental illness/emotional distress and substance abuse. TUN is committed to addressing the prevalence and severity of mental illness among medical students by growing the institution’s infrastructure and network of mental-health and substance-abuse treatment resources and services, and increasing the capacity of resiliency, emotional well-being, and mental health of all TUN students, including those traditionally underserved and underperforming student groups.

The grant allows us to host programming for the Touro Nevada community. 

Touro University Nevada’s Student Counseling Services has partnered with Aura, a personalized mindfulness and meditation app company, to bring each member of the campus community a free subscription.

The award-winning app offers thousands of mindfulness meditations, life coaching, sleep stories, and psychoeducation from coaches around the world. Aura gives you the personalized support to help with stress, anxiety, sleep, personal growth, and more.

Here’s how you redeem your free subscription from Aura:

1. Visit the Aura website (https://app.aurahealth.io/redeem/touro).

2. You must use your Touro University Nevada email address.

3. Follow the directions to download the app and log in.

Graduate school can be challenging for partners, friends, and families alike. Your supporters deserve to feel supported. TUN happily invites all behind the scenes contributors to connect with one another through the Plus One Program. The Plus One initiative gives your loved ones a safe space of their own to relate, release, and recharge, whether it is your intimate partner, your best friend, or your roommate.  We offer virtual events and chats for all Plus Ones in the TUN community to thrive together.

It's WEDNESDAY again and Student Counseling Services is focusing on WELLNESS and ways to open yourself to new possibilities.  You can start by using the following ideas to get out of your head. 

1. Challenge your beliefs about what you can and can’t do. Maybe you are a good leader. Maybe you can do hard things. Maybe you can change careers at your age.

2. Challenge your ideas about how things should work. Sometimes when you decide how things should be you limit your ability to be effective in the world as it actually is.

3. Have a vision session. Write in a journal, create a video, sketch—anything that lets you explore what excites you most.

4. Look for opportunities in a tough situation. Avoid a victim mentality and opt instead for a “ready for new beginnings” attitude.

5. Remove something from your life that doesn’t serve you to make room for something better and new. You never know what you might let in when you let something go.

6. Commit to something you always say you’ll do but always fail to start—and then take the first step right now.

7. Turn your focus from something you don’t want to something you do want. This allows you to shift your energy from complaining to acting.

8. Replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Positive energy creates positive results.

9. Identify the blocks that keep you from breaking a bad habit. Anytime you improve your habits, you pave the path for personal excellence.

10. Forgive someone if you’ve been holding a grudge. Removing that block will open you up where previously you’d shut down.

Understand yourself, gain clarity and make better decisions.  Personal values guide our actions and thinking. They help us make decisions. Our core values are part of who we are, but they're not always conscious.  They're not always in sync with our behavior either. Defining your personal core values is an effort well worth your time.

With a clearly defined set of personal core values, you will better understand yourself. You will be able to reduce the distress that arises when your actions and decisions are not in sync with your values. When you are aware of and intentional with your values, your choices and behaviors are more in align with those values.  This alignment leads a happier life, one filled with more meaning and purpose.  

Student Counseling Services invites you to explore the following links to help clarify your own set of personal values.

The Theory of Basic Human Values

Social psychologist Shalom H. Schwartz developed a list of human values that are recognized throughout all cultures. It consists of 10 core values which can be grouped in 4 categories.

Rokeach Value Survey

Another social psychologist, Milton Rokeach, created the Rokeach Value Survey. This core values list consists of 36 values, split into 18 terminal and 18 instrumental values.

Personal Values Assessment (PVA) - Barrett Values Centre

When things are uncertain or unknown our brains can go into overdrive trying to ‘solve’ the unsolvable problem. Our brains focus on the worry and go over and over it, keeping us from sleeping, concentrating and generally interfering with our lives. Ironically, the more we try to gain control over things we can’t control, the worse we feel. So what can we do about this?

The first thing is to recognize what’s happening! Be compassionate to yourself. Understand that your brain is just trying to be helpful but realize that worrying is not actually assisting you right now. Second, notice how you talk to yourself,.  Are you harsh or gentle? It can be quite a surprise to realize how often we speak harshly to ourselves.  Think of the cumulative negative impact of that. Try speaking to yourself how you might speak to a friend. Next, identify if there are aspects which are within your control, and gently guide your brain in a different direction. Actively choose to ‘do something different’ instead of getting caught up in worrying. This is challenging at first, but with practice we can become good at it.  

But what can we do that’s different?  We can Drop Anchor.

Dropping anchor is a strategy that can help ‘anchor’ or ground us when we feel overwhelmed with thoughts, sensations, and memories. It can be helpful to remember the word ACE.

A: Acknowledge and name your thoughts and sensations. Naming what you feel can often contain it and make things feel less overwhelming.

C: Come back and Connect with your body. For example, take a slow deep breath, push your feet into the floor and notice what that feels like, notice your back pressing against your chair, have a stretch, push your hands together.

E: Engage with your surroundings. This mean intentionally bringing your attention back to the here and now. It is about tuning in to your surroundings. Using all your senses can be helpful.  Right now, what things can you see around you? What can you hear? Can you smell anything? Can you taste anything? Are you touching anything – if so, what does it feel like?

Worrying about what we can’t control can really get in the way of living our lives. Instead of getting caught up in worries about what’s happened already, or what might happen, we can try to focus doing things that give our lives meaning and value. So even when difficult things happen, or might happen, we can carve out space to enrich our lives right now. Try this Dropping Anchor technique out and notice what happens. It can be an effective grounding exercise, helping us to stay in the present moment.

How you feel can affect your ability to carry out everyday activities, your relationships, and your overall mental health. Emotional wellness is the ability to successfully handle life’s stresses and adapt to change and difficult times. 

BRIGHTEN YOUR OUTLOOK 

People who are emotionally well have fewer negative emotions and can bounce back from challenges quicker. Resilience.  Another sign of emotional wellness is being able to hold onto positive emotions longer.

To develop a more positive mindset:

Remember your good deeds.

Forgive yourself.

Spend more time with friends.

Explore your beliefs about the meaning and purpose of life.

Develop healthy physical habits.  

REDUCE STRESS

Stress can give you a boost of energy when you need it most.  But if stress lasts a long time—a condition known as chronic stress—the physical changes can become harmful rather than helpful.  Learning healthy ways to cope with stress can also boost your resilience.

To help manage your stress: 

Get enough sleep.

Exercise regularly.

Build a social support network.

Set priorities.

Think positively.  

Try relaxation methods.

Seek professional support.  

GET QUALITY SLEEP

To fit everything in that we need to get done in a day we often sacrifice sleep.  But sleep is vital to both our physical and mental health.  

To increase your sleep quality:

Go to bed and get up each day at the same time.

Sleep in a dark, cool, quiet place.

Exercise daily.

Limit the use of electronics.

Relax before bedtime.

Avoid alcohol, nicotine, and stimulants late in the day.