Counseling Center to hold Let’s Talk Election series

The ETSU Counseling Center is hosting two special Let’s Talk sessions to help students work through their anxiety about the presidential election.

“We wanted to just create a space where students didn’t have to engage in ongoing therapy or counseling, but could create a safe space to process their own stress and anxiety around the election this time around,” said Rebecca Alexander, the associate director of the counseling center.

The Let’s Talk election series sessions will take place via Zoom on Nov. 2 and Nov. 9 from 2 to 4 p.m. to give students a chance to vent both before and after the election takes place. Students may join the Zoom meeting and be entered into a waiting room until a counselor becomes available to speak to them one-on-one.

Alexander said there have been many conversations within university counseling centers across the nation about the impact the election is having on student stress.

“Being able to manage that stress can keep people functioning a lot better, and there’s some real hard skills that can be worked through with the election stress,” said Alexander.

Alexander suggested practices such as setting boundaries around the time spent engaging with political content, creating sensory experiences through favorite foods and music, spending time in nature, eating healthy, resting well and staying hydrated.

Alexander said part of the stress that the Let’s Talk election series can help people work through is how to stay connected to people who vote differently than they do.

“We are — as humans — we are 99.9% similar,” said Alexander. “We are the same, and there’s only this 0.1% difference between all of us as human beings and to kind of bring ourselves back into that connection and that togetherness, as a community, as a group, as we’re feeling these extreme differences.”

The counseling center offers non-election Let’s Talk sessions via Zoom every Monday through Friday from noon until 1 p.m. that are open to all ETSU students. For more information, visit https://www.etsu.edu/students/counseling/services/letstalk.php