YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – If a Youngstown State University student feels stressed, down or overwhelmed, staff and services on DeBartolo Hall’s third floor offer help – from traditional counseling to holistic options.
In 2023, the YSU Student Counseling Department secured a $500,000 state grant that funded a move from Kilcawley Center to DeBartolo and additional resources for students, including a nap pod, salt cabin, light box therapy and sensory room. Those services became available to students beginning this fall.
“We were able to move to a space that’s at least four times bigger than what it originally was in 2023, so with that we were able to expand the number of clinical therapists that we have,” said Francine Packard, YSU’s director of student counseling services.
The grant also allowed the incorporation of the complementary services, and those services have been well used.
“It might be for a student that maybe had something unexpected happen and they just need an opportunity to kind of reset and kind of collect themselves,” Packard said of the services. “It could be self-care for a student.”
A student may use the nap pod for up to 20 minutes. LoFi music that attunes to the brain’s electrical activity helps lead a student into an alpha or theta brain state, the director explained. She likened it to the feeling when you wake up, before the day’s worries set in.
Francine Packard
Lightbox therapy is a device that emits a bright light, mimicking sunlight and reducing the effects of seasonal affective disorder. And massage chairs in the lightbox therapy room promote relaxation.
Sessions in the salt cabin run from five to 10 minutes, during which microscopic particles of Himalayan salt are released into the air. It creates a meditative environment and aids stress reduction.
The sensory room is for those who have difficulty with emotional regulation and sensory processing issues.
The department is tracking the number of uses and expects to have totals by the end of the semester and year.
“But they’re used on a daily basis,” Packard said.
Use of student counseling’s complementary resources is open to faculty and staff, but so far few have taken advantage of them. Faculty and staff are touring the area though and asking questions, Packard added.
Joy Polkabla Byers
Joy Polkabla Byers, interim vice president for student affairs and dean of students, said the department may schedule an open house after exam week, inviting faculty and staff to visit and learn about the services.
That would encourage them to take advantage of the resources. But also, the more they understand it, the more likely they are to be advocates for the services while talking to students, she said.
Some students, though, are regulars. Others come to the department when they’re stressed and need to decompress but may not know which service to choose.
“If they’ve got a high stress level, I’m going to put them in the nap pod,” Packard said, explaining that she would determine a student’s comfort level first.
For a student experiencing sadness, depression or low energy, she would suggest the lightbox therapy room.
In 2023, the YSU Student Counseling Department secured a $500,000 state grant that funded a move from Kilcawley Center to DeBartolo Hall and additional resources for students.
To get the word out, the department hosted first-year students earlier this semester. Packard teaches students emotional management skills.
“I tell them about our services. I promote the importance of social support and how that buffers stress and adversity, and then I take them on a mini tour of our complimentary services,” she said.
That gets students familiar with Packard and helps break down barriers of entering a new space.
Byers appreciates that Packard invites classes to DeBartolo’s third floor because more than student counseling is located there.
“On that same floor is our dean of students office, as well as our Career Closet and our Penguin Pantry, our accessibilities office and even our student security,” she said.
Massage chairs in the lightbox therapy room promote relaxation.
The pantry stocks nonperishable, fresh and frozen food items, hygiene products and cleaning supplies. The Career Closet provides professional attire for job interviews or other engagements.
“So it’s very much this wraparound approach of really helping the whole student and helping to knock down any barriers that they may have to prevent them from being academically successful,” Byers said.
Pictured at top: A nap pod in the YSU Student Counseling Department.
