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► Counselling
Counselling
Starting university, making new friends, dealing with relationships back home.
Sometimes people experience difficulties when their circumstances change, such as when you are settling into university life. These difficulties can present themselves as unexplained changes in mood, such as feeling low, anxious, stressed, feeling homesick, sad, lonely or isolated. At these times it may be helpful to access the support of a professional counsellor.
Counselling can help by offering the opportunity to explore the difficulties you are experiencing, uncover how you are attempting to solve the problems you face and assist you to think about other options available to you. Student counselling is accessible at Treforest, Glyntaff and at Atrium in Cardiff.
Visit our website www.glam.ac.uk/counselling to find out further information or
Telephone: 01443 482080
If you're suffering from homesickness, don't feel alone - many new university students experience it too
Shaky Start?
If you’ve just come to Glamorgan in the couple of weeks as a new student and are disconcerted to find yourself feeling a bit 'wobbly’, you might be surprised to realise this is quite normal and that many Freshers have a similar experience.
Homesickness is one thing, but many first years, even when everything is going really well – making new friends, appreciating the change of location, enjoying the partying, revelling in new-found freedoms, looking forward to their course etc, are confused to find themselves feeling upset and anxious, or experiencing low mood.
What makes it worse is that it might not seem to make sense. After all you’ve probably planned and worked towards this, and excitedly looked forward to being here, embarking on this new stage in your life.
Yet when you think about it, what you are in the middle of is the psychological equivalent of having had the rug pulled out from under your feet!
Most of us like a certain amount of predictability in our lives, and the familiarity of our comfort zones. So when everything is new it is not surprising we can feel a bit shaky. Think of all the new things you are trying to assimilate at once! These include trying to find your way around the campus, as well as a new geographical location, and this may be turning out to be disconcertingly different from where you used to live, and require adjustment to a new culture. You will have been engaged in the quite demanding task of meeting large numbers of new people; being in new social spaces, choosing to get to know some people better, and with others having to negotiate sharing living space even before you know them well. You have had many practical things to sort out; enrollment, inductions, bank accounts, accommodation issues, cooking for yourself etc, and a huge amount of new information to absorb in a short time. It can seem a bit bewildering just because there is so much that is new all at once, and you may also be feeling apprehensive about things like keeping up with your coursework, and managing your finances.
It seems to be a human trait to find change challenging, and most people need time to adjust to it. It is quite normal to feel emotionally overwhelmed when the scale of change is so big, but for most people as it all becomes more familiar it will feel more comfortable.
You may find it helpful to look at tips from 'Lifetracks’ for Student Survival – especially relevant just now might be Surviving Freshers Week and Surviving Your First Term at Uni
You may also like to look at the Counselling Service Self-Help Useful Links or, if you would like to talk about how you are feeling, and explore strategies for adjusting to your new life, you can Contact Us
