Mental Health Support

Mental Health Support

Counseling Services

Counseling at LAU helps you power through your university years. Starting with the school-to-college transition and all its emotional baggage, to dealing with anxiety such as that associated with remote learning, university counselors equip you with essential tools to effectively manage current and future problems.

Sessions are strictly confidential and free of charge for all students. They are typically scheduled once a week and may expand over several weeks depending on the objectives identified by the counselor. 

When Should I Seek Help from a Counselor?

If you are experiencing one or more of the following concerns:

• Test anxiety
• Sleeping problems
• Low self-esteem
• Alcohol or drug abuse
• Concentration problems
• Decision making problems
• Dramatic mood swings
• Hopelessness or helplessness
• Exposure to sexual, physical, or emotional abuse
• Anxiety, fear, or anger that affects everyday life
• Eating disorders
• Suicidal thoughts
• Loneliness and/or homesickness
• Procrastination
• Relationship issues (family, friends, romantic)
• Loss of a family member or loved one
• Poor academic performance.

What Types of Counseling Services Are Offered at LAU?

• Short-term individual counseling
• General consultation
• Group counseling
• Academic skills guidance
• Career/vocational counseling
• Crisis interventions
• On/Off campus referrals
  If the counselors believe that the student’s concerns are beyond the scope of the services provided at LAU, they will provide the student with a list of off-campus professionals (i.e., psychotherapists and/or psychiatrists) from which to choose.

How will a Counselor at LAU Help Me?

Counseling at LAU offers you the chance to:

• Disclose and discuss sensitive issues in a safe environment
• Confide in someone who can be trusted for their open-mindedness and professional help
• Receive support and aid in overcoming distress

While knowing that all the information discussed during counseling sessions:

• Will not go on your official record, nor on your transcripts
• Are strictly confidential – unless the counselor identifies that there is potential for self-harm, or harm to others.

Tips During these Challenging Time

Guidelines and Tips 

Mindfulness Benefits

Counseling in a nutshell (video)

For a smooth transition to university

Dealing with anxiety and online learning

Dealing with Beirut explosion aftermath

Learning Challenges and Support (video)

Managing Anxiety Through a Holistic Balance of Mind and Body

LAU Medical Center-Rizk Hospital hosts a cross-departmental initiative to increase awareness of the relationship between the physical and mental impacts of anxiety.

The event was attended by students and staff, in addition to residents and physicians as part of their continuing medical education.

With 14 types of anxiety disorders affecting more than 300 million people globally, the condition can have a profound impact on the mental, physical, and overall wellbeing of individuals across age groups. However, due to the prevalent siloed approach toward patient care, the medical community faces challenges in early screening, diagnosis, and treatment of one of the most common psychological disorders.

To tackle this significant issue, the Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine, in collaboration with the Psychology Program at the School of Arts and Sciences, organized a symposium titled Mind-Body Harmony: Navigating Anxiety in Medicine at the LAU Medical Center-Rizk Hospital on November 4, 2023.

Managing Anger During Uncertainty

LAU Clinical Psychologist Wissam Kheir addresses common concerns on anger management and psychological uncertainty.

In light of distressing events, LAU clinical psychologists took the initiative to organize four sessions in October 2023, that addressed timely common concerns that faculty, staff and students across the LAU community are facing, and dedicated two in-person sessions for LAU students to learn directly from the experts.

Across the sessions, the clinical psychologists underscored that there is no “right” or “wrong” when facing emotional stress amid uncertainty. Typically, people initially react with a “fight, flight or freeze” response, which is not unhealthy initially, but which could lead to burnout if left unchecked.

Check In With Your Children

LAU Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychologist Pia Tohme answers parents’ questions on handling their children’s concerns in uncertain times.

A Students’ Guide for Maintaining Mental Health During Uncertainty

LAU Clinical Psychologists Rudy Abi Habib and Tony Sawma answer students’ pressing questions on striking a balance in their day-to-day life.

Spilled Ink and Tears: Healing Through Writing

LAU’s 11th Creative Writing Competition helps students find catharsis in relaying health-related memoirs through poetry and prose.

Ms. Paula Habre and Dr. Sleiman El-Hajj organized, hosted and juried the event.

When American essayist, philosopher and transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau withdrew into the woods around the shores of Walden Pond for two years, he went on a voyage of spiritual discovery which he documented in a book.

Years later, as the world shakes off the shackles of the pandemic, the need for a medium to channel one’s stories of hardship and endurance has never been greater. Similar to Thoreau’s retreat from civil society, the solitude and contemplation imposed by the lockdown, albeit unintended, fueled a need to share narratives and find solace in collective understanding. This need has been all the more acute in Lebanon in the aftermath of the August 4 Beirut Explosion.

To that end, the Department of Communication, Arts and Languages at the School of Arts and Sciences dedicated its 11th Annual Creative Writing Competition (CWC) to Illness Writing and Health Memoirs, providing participants with the opportunity to present a candid narrative on a physical or mental illness. The event, as in the past four years, was organized, hosted and juried by Senior Instructor of English and former Director of the LAU Writing Center Paula Abboud Habre and Assistant Professor of Creative and Journalistic Writing Sleiman El Hajj.

Nursing Students Tell their Stories with Drama Therapy

The Alice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing organized a drama therapy workshop in collaboration with renowned actress Zeina Daccache for nursing students. They used drama therapy as a tool to express their feelings and bolster their social and team skills. The workshop is another example of the university’s commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 3: Ensure Healthy Lives and Promote Wellbeing.

Write to Remember Project Commemorates August 4 Explosion

LAU faculty launch creative writing initiative to help students impacted by the blast and document oral history.

Participants in the workshop explored the use of sensory perceptions to navigate through and reimagine/(re)write trauma.

The workshop run by Dr. Sleiman El Hajj focused on sensory detail.

The aftershocks of the massive August 4 explosion at the Port of Beirut were of such magnitude that they could not be swept under the rubble. Fear, disbelief and grief are only a few of the tangled emotions that will continue to fester if suppressed.

And what better way to release them than through self-expression? Believers in the cathartic power of words, faculty at LAU’s School of Arts and Sciences (SoAS) took the initiative to help the youth come to terms with the after-effects of the blast through a web-memoir where they could voice and preserve their memories.

The Write to Remember project was launched on the first anniversary of the blast, after Senior Instructor of English Paula Habre and Instructor of English Hala Daouk secured a $10,000 grant from the US Embassy, based on a proposal submitted with Haigazian University colleagues – former LAU faculty and Writing Center tutors – Anita Moutchoyan and Serine Jaafar. 

The outreach project targets youth who had been directly or indirectly affected by the blast with the grant specifying an age range between 16-22.

“We felt this would be a good coverage of high school/secondary level and university students who can write about their trauma,” Habre said. “The project creates a safe platform and a safe space for them to share their feelings and deal with it collectively.”

The one-year initiative serves as an archive of stories, reflections, photos, and oral history related to the explosion and its aftermath through six virtual workshops.

The most recent workshop in November was presented by LAU Assistant Professor of Creative and Journalistic Writing Sleiman El Hajj, who had written about the blast in his widely-cited collective memoir “Writing (from) the Rubble: Reflections on the August 4, 2020 Explosion in Beirut, Lebanon.”

Dr. El Hajj focused on having participants in the workshop explore the use of sensory perceptions to navigate through and reimagine/(re)write trauma.

“Food and trauma have become interrelated for many survivors of August 4 since the sights, smells, sounds, texture, even taste of food, and food in preparation, are ones that now trigger PTSD recollections of the calamity,” Dr. El Hajj explained about the use of sensory details as an embodiment of trauma. “They are therefore no longer the comforting or pleasurable activities they once were.”

“If a concrete object can so easily, and so painfully swiftly, become an embodiment of trauma,” he added, “then thinking of ways of revoking – or at least helping to process – this reality is essential, especially in climates of perpetual tension, such as Lebanon.”

The participants shared short pieces they wrote during the workshop and gave each other support and feedback.

“I was impressed by their eagerness to share their lived narratives, however painful, and also by their alacrity in embracing the reimagined narrative approach, which I suggested as a way of reclaiming a semblance of agency over an otherwise slippery slope into inchoate trauma,” said Dr. El Hajj.

“By concentrating their experiences and/or perceptions of trauma into concrete objects, they managed, in part, to rethink and make sense of at least one aspect of all that we lost on that day,” he added.

The first workshop was led by the Regional English Language Officer at the US Embassy Eran Williams, and the second was presented by Zeina Daccache, the founder of Catharsis. Three open mic sessions will be held in venues that were damaged by the blast to allow the participants to share their pieces with a wider audience.

“We have officially completed half the workshops for this project and have three to go,” Habre said. “We look forward to the upcoming open mic event on December 11, which the participants are very excited to attend.”

“The team plans to recruit more local and foreign specialists for future workshops to help the youth come to terms with their trauma through writing,” she added.  

Browse the Write to Remember website to learn about upcoming workshops and open mics, participants, oral narratives, and more.

Someone to Talk To

LAU counselors help students overcome – and even better, preempt – all sorts of challenges.

The counselors aim to empower students by giving them the tools they would need to overcome immediate as well as future difficulties.

Every day, LAU’s counselors help students make the most of university life by empowering them to manage their workload, extracurricular activities and personal concerns. 

For second-year communications major Carly Aziz, the service “is not only important, but a must, especially during these hard times.”

Counseling is helpful for resolving a full range of challenges, no matter how “small” or serious they may seem (see the list below for examples).

“We have assisted students in getting to know their campus, getting involved, staying active on campus, and taking advantage of new opportunities,” said Joumana Haddad, principal counselor on Byblos campus.

 “This has helped them meet new people with similar interests and alleviated their feelings of homesickness and loneliness,” she added.

The past three years have been particularly taxing on students, who have borne their fair share of financial hardship, a pandemic and disruptions to their campus life. 

According to Nathalie Medlege, lead counselor on Beirut campus, “a lot of students are noticing that they are having difficulties and are aware of the importance of their mental health. Even if they have enough support from their surroundings, they know they need to supplement it, so they come to us and talk about it.”

Faculty, too, have become increasingly aware of students’ need for support, adds Medlege, and take it into consideration. 

Free and Confidential

Counseling services are free of charge and strictly confidential. They provide a safe environment for students experiencing difficulties, whether on the personal or academic level. The counselors’ offices are easily accessible and conveniently located close to the student lounge.

“I think all institutions should consider adding this to their offering, as it normalizes seeking help and goes to show that the university is invested in students’ wellbeing, and not just their academic achievements,” said Aziz.

Mission: Empowerment

The counselors aim to empower students by giving them the tools they would need to overcome immediate as well as future difficulties. 

Second-year multimedia journalism student Lyne Samury finds counseling very helpful. “My counselor provides tactics and tools to help me solve problems on my own,” she noted. 

Both counselors agreed that “it is important to seek help when needed, especially when it is available,” for there is no health without mental health.

Get some tips and more information on LAU’s counseling services here.

15 Things You Can Discuss with a Counselor: 

• Test anxiety
• Depression
• Suicidal ideation
• Eating disorders
• Sleeping disorders
• Study skills
• Sexual health
• Attention deficit disorder
• Family conflicts
• Relational concerns
• Stress
• Major confusion
• Self-confidence
• Learning difficulties

Work-Life Balance: Are You Doing It Right?

Faculty from the Psychology Program at the School of Arts and Sciences highlight the application of psychology in the professional world, its benefits and ways to address common workplace challenges.

Since childhood, before we even get the chance to think for ourselves, we are asked what we want to be when we grow up. These aspirations may subconsciously become inseparable from our identity. Instead of wanting to work as something, we grow up believing that we must be our profession.

In the work environment, as the lines between professional and personal life often blur, navigating the demands of career and personal wellbeing is necessary to achieving harmony between work and life. But how easy can that balance be found in today’s fast-paced world?

This was the catalyst for debate in a workshop titled The Art Of Living: Strategies For Work-Life Harmony held on September 1 at the Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury Health Sciences Center, LAU Byblos campus.

Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology Pia Tohme and Assistant Professor of Psychology Myriam El Khoury-Malhame took center stage to clarify several misconceptions related to the professional realm, mostly those associated with the myth of maintaining an unbending and constant work-life equilibrium.

What are the challenges of maintaining a work-life balance?

There is no concrete or straightforward answer to this question, as multiple factors come into play. Based on a poll conducted during the workshop, faculty, staff and medical doctors indicated that understaffing, poor time management and a heavy workload, to name a few, make it difficult for individuals to achieve equilibrium between their professional and personal lives.

“We’ve glamorized business to make it seem as if it’s what defines us,” said Dr. El-Khoury Malhame. Being busy, nonetheless, leads us to develop multiple identities varying from breadwinners to caregivers, with each having to prioritize a host of things at once.

This situation was exacerbated by our dependence on online mediums during the COVID-19 era, which effectively erased the demarcation between our personal and office lives. Consequently, work-related expectations became such that we were expected to be available at all times.

“This also affects our relationships,” said Dr. Tohme, given that it raises questions related to “how well we are managing ourselves as people, as partners, as parents and also as employees.”

These factors create a real hurdle where individuals feel pushed not just to aim for a balance between work and home life, but also to consider dealing with each part separately when managing personal relationships. Instead of trying to find one-size-fits-all solutions to merge work and home life, employees may need to figure out how to adjust their priorities for each area in order to recharge and effectively manage their commitments and time.

How does this impact us as individuals?

Most days, we bring the weight of our professional responsibilities into our personal lives and vice versa, which disrupts this delicate equilibrium. Excessive demands in the workplace tend to foster a heightened sense of tension and unease in our personal lives, impacting the quality of our relationships at home.

This, in turn, can cultivate a sense of guilt for reacting excessively, which further obstructs our ability to find solace and tranquility in our homes. The audience gave the example of having to work on weekends or check emails after hours.

Given these intricate dynamics, it is not surprising that we find ourselves caught “in a vicious cycle,” as Dr. Tohme called it, where the demands at work encroach upon our personal lives, and the demands in our personal lives affect our work. This cycle, if left unchecked, can ultimately lead to burnout.

It’s easy to overlook the fact that we are the same individuals navigating both spheres in this narrative. When we compartmentalize work as the medium of reason and life as the domain of emotion, we set ourselves on a course where the efficacy of our work diminishes. Consequently, we compromise our ability to process information cohesively and holistically.

“To improve this work-life balance is to reintegrate both mediums,” noted Dr. El Khoury-Malhame.

What can be done to achieve a work-life balance?

“There’s no magical solution,” stated the assistant professors. According to them, an employee often gets lost in trying to achieve this balance, but it’s not a one-person job. The effort has to come from both ends of the spectrum: the employer and the employee.

A few strategies for doing so, as suggested by Dr. Tohme and Dr. El Khoury-Malhame, revolve around perceiving the faculty and staff as individuals rather than commodities, promoting and setting boundaries and increasing self-reflection at work. According to the audience, this is done by fostering a supportive working environment in which conversations around mental health and consideration of basic needs are appraised, such as investing in healthcare, transportation, flexible/hybrid schedules, training, childcare areas, and showing appreciation, among others.

Assessing how one processes information is also essential among colleagues. Employers model their boundaries to their employees; thus, seeing how the latter is receiving certain types of tasks and instructions helps them implement such boundaries constructively.

“Our predictors of happiness mostly fall within the relationships we have with others,” said Dr. Tohme and Dr. El Khoury-Malhame. “Being aware of our boundaries and reflecting upon them allows us to control, influence and accept our dynamics with each other.”

At the end of the workshop, focus was placed on self-reflection, and taking the time to consider how one’s personal attitudes, actions and emotional reactions might help identify one’s difficulties and capacities as well as influence individuals’ experiences in their professional lives. By reflecting on and understanding their behaviors and reactions, both employees and employers can better navigate and manage the challenges and demands of their work.

“Always remember that behind every title, there’s a person, and behind every person, there’s also a journey,” said Dr. Tohme. “There’s everything that you have gone through in order to become who you are.”

Engaging LAU Faculty & Staff as Associates in the Mental Health Support System

University students often experience high levels of stress. Any number of potential events- leaving home and moving into the dormitory, academic failure, the loss of loved one, job termination of close relatives, and so on- may require students to make adjustments in the patterns of their daily living. Not all life transitions are negative, but even positive events, when accompanied by significant changes and demands, have the potential to be distressing. 

Many students weather the “stormy periods” of their lives without professional assistance; others may find that the distress of being a student provides an occasion to consult a mental health professional. Thus, every year, the University Counseling Office sees students seeking help with different concerns such as depression, anxiety, relationship problems, family issues, academic difficulties, just to name a few.

You, Faculty and Staff, play an important role in detecting and helping distressed students. However, identifying and responding to students in distress is not an easy job; it can be confusing and overwhelming. Hence, the University Counseling Office has prepared this guide that sheds some lights on the different signs and symptoms of distress; its purpose is to guide you in handling a problem until a referral to the counseling office can be arranged. If you wish to consult with professionals or believe that a student should do so, we welcome the opportunity to help.

We appreciate the role you play as associates in the Mental Health Support System at LAU, and hope that this guide will be useful to you in your efforts.

Sources of Trouble/Distress 

• Family problems
• Grief and loss
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Loneliness
• Relationship problems/break-ups
• Low self-esteem
• Financial problems
• Academic pressure or failure
• Conflict with classmates/Professors
• Difficulty adjusting to university life
• Trouble adjusting to different culture
• Career indecision
• Athletes (pressure/ expectations)
• Eating disorders
• Drug/alcohol abuse
• Sexual or physical abuse or assault
• Identity/sexual confusion

Salaam Halila Launches Her First Campaign in Campus to Raise Awareness on Mental Health

Salaam Halila, an LAU MEPI TL Student in Communication Arts, started implementing acquired communication and message conveying skills along with her colleagues within the campus by launching: “Bil Hawa Sawa” (we are all in the same boat), an awareness campaign with the objective to raise awareness about mental health among LAU students and to remind them about the counseling services that LAU offers.

Before starting crafting the campaign tactics, Halila along with the team members conducted a qualitative survey across students in campus to help them identify the key messages that they need to tackle in their campaign.

“Bil Hawa Sawa” Campaign lasted for two consecutive days (March 20 and 21, 2019) during the LAU yearly festival “NEXT” at LAU Beirut Campus.

Halila together with her colleagues planned, organized and executed the campaign that covered online, offline and in-campus activation media to ensure conveying the message to a wider audience. Planning the campaign on a low budget was not an obstacle, on the contrary, it has triggered Halila’s creativity to deliver the campaign’s messages at minimal cost; one of the ideas was to use “chalk advertising” were they wrote teasing messages about mental health on the campus’ floor and stairs as a way to attract the students’ attention. During the campaign, students were encouraged to share their suggestions about the counseling services at LAU by writing their ideas on a big black board, in addition to distributing stickers to passerby and hanging posters for bigger exposure.

The campaign gained wide acceptance and brought expected results: 158 followers on the Instagram page with 626 profile visits and 344 accounts reached, during the campaign ; 107 students responded to the online survey ; Almost 100 students visited the awareness booth and projected their input about mental health in general and LAU counseling services in particular.

At the end of the campaign, Halila and the team members gathered all students’ feedback and suggestions and submitted a detailed report to the counseling panel at LAU for their reference and consideration

The LAU MEPI TL Program enabled Halila pursue her education in Communication Arts and to be life-long learner, critical thinker and gain persuading and influencing skills.

“Shabaket el Meem”: LGBTQ Youth Support Platform

In 2018, The AiW began working on a new project with a funding from the Embassy of Netherlands in Lebanon that aims to promote issues related to the LGBTQ community in Lebanon. The project focuses on the dearth of reliable information and support available to the LGBTQ community, and strives to promote a strong civil society network of organizations and actors that can fill this gap. The AiW, together with a number of local subject-matter experts, produced an online platform “Shabaket el Meem” for LGBTQ youth in Lebanon that features short animations, a podcast series, a Q&A section, and a glossary with LGBTQ terms in English and Arabic. The platform also includes a map where visitors can share their own experiences.

Visit www.shabaketelmeem.com for more information and follow them on Instagram (@shabaketelmeem) and on Facebook (Shabaket el Meem).