The Relational Health Initiative (RHI), a program through the Counseling Center, plans to give students practical help with issues ranging from anxiety and stress to dating violence and unwanted same-sex attraction. The RHI’s goal is to help prevent students from feeling distress while in college, according to Counseling Center Director Dr. Lew Moore.
“The Counseling Center is a therapeutic, helpful climate,” Moore said. “Our focus on the RHI is a very proactive part of the Counseling Center program. This is the preventive, resourceful component of the Counseling Center.”
According to Moore, Dr. Margaret Wehrenberg, Psy. D., a licensed clinical psychologist, will be on campus on Feb. 4 as the first speaker of the initiative.
Wehrenberg will present easily applied advice with a preventative, resourceful approach to avoiding stress, Moore said. Wehrenberg will speak in both 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. chapels on Feb. 4 about stress and anxiety. From noon to 4 p.m. she will conduct a continuing education class for therapists, therapists in training and others who are interested. She will speak the same day in Cone Chapel at 6:30 p.m. followed by a Q & A period.
“We believe this is a good starting point because it is addressing the two very common experiences of students: anxiety and depression,” Moore said.
The Counseling Center is confident in Wehrenberg’s credentials and ability to teach Harding’s students and faculty, according to Dr. Sherry Pollard, assistant director of the Counseling Center. Pollard said Harding counselors first encountered Wehrenberg when she spoke at a continuing education program in Little Rock, Arkansas.
“We felt she was very on track as far as what our students needed to hear,” Pollard said. “(She will also) offer some continuing education for our graduate students and faculty.”
Senior graphic design major Victoria Park, who designed the logo for the initiative, said she thinks the RHI will help put student stress and anxiety into perspective.
“They seem to be addressing problems that university students experience every day in an informative, helpful way,” Park said. “I’m excited to hear more about the programs and speakers they plan on having.”
