Students with personal or career problems can get help from a counselor at NIU’s Counseling and Student Development Center.

“We assist students in development. People here are psychologists,” counselor Barbara Zuber said. The counseling and student development center has “workshops and programs for personal and career concerns,” director Kathy Hotelling said. It offers both group and individual counseling for students.

“We are more than just therapy,” Zuber said, “We serve 800 to 900 students and only a small percentage are actually seen for therapy.”

Five group workshops offered at the center this fall can assist students. The purpose of the groups is to help students feel more comfortable in a group situation because it makes more sense to discuss concerns with people in the same situation Zuber said.

Adults who were children of alcoholics comprise one group, which is held 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Monday. It is a program in which students can talk in a group setting about alcoholism and family members who are alcoholics.

A group designed especially for women is the women’s relationship group. It meets Tuesday from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and focuses on women with problems in peer, romantic or family relationships. The goal of the program is to find out how people feel about themselves when they are involved in certain relationships.

The incest survivors group has had only women members in the past, but it is open to both men and women, Zuber said. It is available to students with a history of sexual abuse by a family member. It meets from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.

The self-esteem group focuses on people who don’t feel comfortable with themselves. It is designed to help group members feel better about themselves and also help them interact with others productively. It is held from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

The bulimia therapy group convenes at 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday and it assists people in discovering better ways of coping with feelings of stress. The purpose of the program is to understand binging and purging and ways to cope with it.

Most of the groups meet in the counseling and student development center office in Swen Parson Hall 220.