Area Colleges Discuss Counseling Methods

Representatives from more than 20 Boston-area colleges gathered Saturday in Boylston Hall to discuss ways to improve or establish on-campus peer counseling services for eating problems.

The colloquium--called the Intercollegiate Conference on Peer Counseling for Eating Concerns--was sponsored by Harvard's Eating Problems Outreach (EPO). The peer counseling group hoped to share its experience dealing with students' eating-related problems with visiting concerned students, deans, and health services personnel, said Louisa A. Smith '88, co-director of EPO.

The day's activities were devoted to providing a model of peer counseling for the visiting schools, many of which lack this kind of advising service, Smith said.

The conference included a film on serious eating disorders, lectures by psychiatrists from Harvard's University Health Services (UHS) and workshops on the practical issues faced by Harvard peer counseling groups.

UHS social worker Nadja Gould discussed the rationale behind the 1971 creation of Room 13, Harvard's first peer counseling group. But changes in social attitudes since then and increased social acceptance of serious problems have enabled peer counseling to diversify, Gould said.

Five organizations--Room 13, Peer Contraceptive Counseling, Response, Contact, and EPO--have since been established to advise students on specific issues, including sexual harassment and sexual orientation.

The visitors showed greatest interest in the daily issues peer counseling groups face. "They were interested to see how we deal with a problem often stigmatized," Smith said.

Smith said their greatest concern was "how we keep from becoming therapists." To prevent peer counselors from assuming the roles of therapist and psychiatrist, EPO counselors meet with UHS or the Bureau of Study Counsel weekly, reviewing the week's activity, Smith said.

Peer counseling groups will only listen and give information when asked, and will otherwise refer patients to proper medical attention. "It's not our role to make decisions for people," she said.

Visitors also expressed interest in the difficulties of screening competent student counselors. Students often show interest in counseling because they have dealt with these problems themselves. Group organizers fear that such students may not be sufficiently in control to help others, Smith said.

EPO solves this by placing such students in administrative and organizational positions, which are equally important to the success of peer counseling, she said.

Advising organizations are considering future conferences on the issues of sexual harassment and sexual orientation, Smith said.