Whether you’re interested in our class-style workshops or a group counseling session where you all have a chance to talk to each other, you’ll find something for you at CAPS. We can help you with everything from mindfulness to grief support.
Drop-in workshops
These aren’t group counseling sessions—they’re more like a class led by CAPS counselors. You’ll learn strategies you can use immediately to improve symptoms of stress, depression, and anxiety, and to better manage problems that affect your academic success. These workshops can help you make changes faster and, if you’re a CAPS client, use your individual counseling sessions more fully.
Announcement: All of our workshops are now online! See the individual listings below for links to join.
Workshop descriptions
Mindfulness is the practice of intentionally bringing attention to the present moment with acceptance. The use of mindfulness-based techniques is linked to reductions in anxiety, physical symptoms of pain, and depression. It has also been shown to enhance relationships and to reduce distress.
These workshops offer various ways of practicing mindfulness with optional opportunities to discuss the practices offered, the process and benefits of developing a consistent mindfulness practice, and other ways to bring mindfulness into daily life.
These workshops are designed to be helpful for long-time meditators and for those who have never practiced mindfulness prior to attending. Participation is free and we encourage you to attend as many as you wish.
If you’re already familiar with mindfulness and would like to engage in regular practice, this workshop is for you.
The advanced mindfulness/meditation workshop provides an opportunity for people to practice meditating together and to discuss their experiences of independent meditation practice with each other. This can be very helpful when we are trying to maximize the benefits of meditation by developing it into a regular habit.
Typically, we will begin with a warm-up exercise, then open some time for people to share their questions, concerns, and/or insights related to practice. Finally, we conclude with a sitting meditation that typically lasts about 20 minutes. While the advanced mindfulness workshop has been primarily aimed at supporting practice for people who have already had some experience with meditation, beginners are also welcome to join.
Do you have concerns about your alcohol or marijuana use? Are you ready to make a change in a nonjudgmental, supportive environment? Come practice meditation and mindfulness, research-proven interventions that can help.
Mindfulness means paying attention to the present moment with a sense of acceptance. Research has shown it to be helpful for a broad array of common challenges including anxiety, chronic physical pain, depression, coping with stressful life experiences, attention regulation difficulties, and relationship issues. This series of one-hour workshops will include:
Brief explanation of what mindfulness is and how it's practiced including a short basic practice
Presentation of information on mindfulness as it relates to that day's topic;
10-20 minute mindfulness meditation chosen to complement the day's theme;
Time for Q/A and/or discussion about applying the ideas and practices from the workshop to everyday life.
Topics for the Spring semester include:
1/28: Developing self-control (with mindfulness!)
2/11: Increasing focus and concentration (with mindfulness!)
2/25: Lifting mood and finding joy (with mindfulness!)
3/11: Coping with chronic pain (with mindfulness!)
3/25: Becoming more self-aware (with mindfulness!)
We offer a variety of counseling groups each semester, with free options and pay-per-session options.
In these groups of two to eight participants and one or two counselors, you’ll receive weekly support from peers going through similar experiences and can learn how to problem-solve and better manage your symptoms.
(We know you may find talking with your peers about your problems uncomfortable at first, but most students get over this discomfort quickly. Don’t let your doubts keep you from joining us.)
Announcement: All groups have moved online until further notice. To join an online group:
You need to be physically located in Indiana when participating in the group session.
You must be referred by a CAPS counselor. To make an appointment with a counselor call 812-855-5711.
Pay-per-session counseling groups
Graduate and returning students:
Thursdays, 2:30–4 p.m. or Thursdays, 4:00–5:30 p.m.
Undergraduate:
Fridays 10–11:30 a.m. or 2–3:30 p.m.
Men’s graduate and returning students:
Fridays, 9:30–10:30 a.m.
Cost: $15 for 1-hour session; $17 for 1.5-hour session
Often the personal issues that bring us to counseling (e.g., stress, anxiety, or depression) have more to do with how we relate to others than we think. Healthy Connections Group will help members explore the relationship between their interpersonal style and their emotional well-being. Members will be encouraged to experiment with new behaviors, which can foster more meaningful connections with others and enhance emotional health.
Cost: $17 per session
Do you have a difficult relationship with food and how you see yourself? This process-oriented therapy group is designed to explore eating disorder struggles while creating self-awareness of thoughts, feelings, and effectiveness in relationships. Discussion is not focused on when/where/how members engage in disordered eating behaviors.
Cost: $17 per session
These groups are based on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills. The goal of these groups is to help participants feel more balanced and in control of their lives. The skills focus on improving relationships, managing emotions, and getting through distressing moments.
The groups are broken into three skills training modules of six to eight sessions each:
Emotion regulationskills help you to decrease vulnerability to negative emotions, increase positive emotions, and tolerate emotions.
Distress toleranceskills teach new coping skills to help get through high-distress situations without making things worse and to decrease the use of unhelpful or unhealthy ways of coping.
Interpersonal effectivenessskills teach you to communicate more assertively so that you can achieve your goals, maintain relationships, and maintain your self-respect.
These groups focus on teaching and discussion about the application of the skills or difficulties using them.
One or more will be offered each semester, and mindfulness skills are included in each, to help you bring your attention to your experiences and stay in the present moment.
Cost: $17 per session
About 1 in 4 individuals experience depression at some point in their lives. In this group, we will examine how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors influence our mood and work to navigate our depressive experiences through the development of coping strategies. Each session will consist of an education component and time for each group member to process how the material relates to their personal experience. Through the use of mindfulness, group members will learn how staying in the here-and-now can be a valuable strategy toward working through their depression.
Free three-week skills groups
MAPS will help you better be able to recognize your concerns, identify what is keeping you stuck, and give you a clearer picture of your values and what you’re wanting to change in your life. This experiential three-week group is FREE. It focuses on the overall themes of: meaning, acceptance, and progress, what we believe to be the best tools in creating your own personal roadmap. The group is designed to answer three important questions:
Where are you now?
What got you here, and what keeps you stuck here?
Where do you want to go?
It is our hope that once you have developed your roadmap toward a more valued and meaningful life, that you will have a better understanding of what needs to change.
Anxiety Toolbox is a fast-paced three-session group specifically designed to help people who struggle with a variety of anxiety-related concerns (e.g., panic attacks, generalized anxiety, or test anxiety). The goal of this group is to provide education on anxiety and to teach coping skills for managing anxiety symptoms.
Getting Unstuck is a fast-paced, three-session (50 minutes each) group specifically designed to help people who struggle with a variety of depression-related concerns. The goal is to provide education on depression and to teach coping skills for managing symptoms. The three sessions are divided into content that builds upon itself. The first session is devoted to understanding the experience of depression. The second session will explore how thoughts and behaviors impact depression. The third session will address how we can begin to make changes to our thoughts and behaviors in order to better manage depression.
Free support groups
A confidential, all-gender support group for individuals who are questioning the health of their relationships and/or recognizing patterns of power and control within their relationship. We offer separate groups for grads and undergrads at the same time, but that meet every other week.
For undergraduate students: Tuesdays, 3:30–4:30 p.m. For graduate students: Wednesdays, 6–7 p.m.
This is a support group for students of color using a multicultural approach. Topics covered in the group may include:
Navigating spaces as students of color
Negotiating privilege(s)
Addressing responses and emotional reactions triggered by experiences of discrimination and micro/macroaggressions
We will be able to address interpersonal difficulties, academic stress, and other topics that will help you and the other group participants increase your sense of empowerment.
Chronic illness can be stressful, but you don’t have to experience it alone. In this support group, we provide a confidential space to process and share your story, connect with others, and develop tools to manage your illness. Topics include adjusting to your new life, how to share your illness with others, advocacy, navigating health care, and self-care.
Gender Expressions offers a safe and supportive environment for gender diverse students to explore issues related to their gender identities including but not limited to:
Interpersonal relationships
Mental health
Systemic oppression
Micro-aggressions
Transitioning
In addition to offering one another a space for exploration and social support, group members will discuss potential ways of navigating stress and distress from social, cultural, and political sources.
This group focuses on peer and emotional support, goal setting, and anxiety/stress management related to doctoral dissertations.
Have you lost a loved one? Are you grieving the loss of a family member, a friend, a partner or anyone else whose death is affecting you? Whether your loss was recent or years ago, this group will give you support through the grief process, the opportunity to connect with others experiencing a similar loss and a space to work through the pain of grief.
For undergraduate students: Thursdays, 4–5 p.m. (biweekly) For graduate students: Thursdays, 5–6 p.m. (biweekly)
The group will serve as a safe space for students who identify as LGBTQ+ to come together to offer and receive support on common challenges facing members of our community. Topics include:
Micro-aggressions
The coming out process
Family support or lack thereof
Social difficulties related to gender or sexual identity
Impact of political events
Exploring one’s gender or sexual identity
The challenges of being considered to be outside the societal “norm.”
This group is open to undergraduate and graduate students who are survivors of: sexual violence/misconduct, interpersonal violence, intimate relationship violence, childhood sexual abuse,stalking and sexual harassment. The purpose of this group is to provide a safe and therapeutic environment to decompress from weekly stressors.
Students interested in this workshop should call CAPS (812-855-5711) to schedule time with the group leader before starting group.
100%have a better understanding of themselves and their issues
89%made progress toward their goals in group counseling
I was able to share things with my group that I was too scared to share with other people. Once I learned to do this, I started feeling better about myself.