As part of its aims to enhance the campus experience, SNU has established a variety of institutions that ensure students feel welcomed and safe on campus. One institution at the heart of such efforts is the Seoul National University’s Center for Campus Life and Culture (CCLC). Founded in 1962 and renamed to SNU CCLC in 1975, the center was the first university counseling center in Korea, focused on providing psychological help to students. Today, the SNU CCLC continues supporting SNU students through a range of programs and services including a 24-hour hot-line service and mentoring programs for adjusting to campus life. Among these, the SNU Friend program is one that aims to create a more understanding and empathetic campus community.
Open to both undergraduate and graduate students, SNU Friend is a semestral program focused on cultivating peer counselors within the SNU community. For eight weeks, participants learn foundational counseling methods, drawing from psychologists such as Carl Rogers and Virginia Satir. Although peer counselors are not qualified professionals, by the end of the program, they will be equipped with basic empathetic communication techniques that will allow them to better understand and help their peers when they face difficulties or have concerns. The program also teaches participants ways to identify when any friends may need professional support during conversations and helps them reach out to the appropriate organizations. This semester, the SNU Friend ran between March 19 and May 14 with a total of 15 participants.
Learning the Basics of Counseling: Empathetic and Open Communication
SNU Friend is structured into three parts based on three key components to empathetic understanding and communication. To ensure that participants can freely be open about their own experiences and emotions throughout, all participants used nicknames and signed a written agreement during the first session that prohibited disclosing any information shared during the program.
In the next two weeks after the first introductory meeting, the sessions focused on how to actively listen during conversations. Active listening involves using verbal and non-verbal methods to more deeply comprehend the feelings and experiences of the person you are having a conversation with. As part of Roger’s person-centered therapy, it attempts to grasp not only the explicit meanings but also the implicit attitudes and thoughts regarding an experience a person holds through capturing their non-verbal cues. The three core components of active listening are empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard. In the SNU Friend sessions, after learning the theory behind how to show these elements during conversations, participants were given the opportunity to try applying them through practical exercises. These exercises were conducted in smaller groups of three or four to ensure that everyone got the opportunity to practice the techniques and had adequate time to get feedback from their group members and a mentor assigned to each group. The practical workshops during each session were an essential part of the program that was favored by many participants as it allowed them to test whether they had understood the concepts and carried them out properly. The confidentiality of the SNU Friend program also allowed the exercises to serve both as a mini-counseling session and a more accurate opportunity to practice the techniques learned as participants were more open about any concerns or challenges that they have.
In the following weeks, the program covered empathetic communication and techniques for asking questions. Empathetic communication sessions focused on training participants to observe and capture the subtle feelings and desires of others in conversations and reflecting these emotions to them when responding in ways that show acceptance and understanding. The 6th and 7th sessions on question-asking skills revolved around different types of questions and the appropriate contexts for each type. There was a focus on motivational interviewing techniques that emphasized asking open questions and affirming responses that help create a conversation setting that encourages feelings of safety and honesty.
The final session served as a wrap-up of the semester’s program where participants shared their thoughts with each other over a small dinner. Some reflected that the program encouraged them to consider their everyday conversations and manner of speaking more thoroughly to try and incorporate any changes so they may become more empathetic to others. Although most skills learned were based on professional counseling, many noted that they hoped to use them in everyday settings to help them build stronger relationships with their friends and peers.
The SNU Friend program is one of the many initiatives by the SNU Center for Campus Life and Culture (CCLC) that work to foster a more welcoming and safe campus. The center also offers group and individual counseling programs and psychoeducational workshops that aim to promote the well-being of all members of the SNU community. For more information on the services available, please visit the CCLC website (https://snucounsel.snu.ac.kr/en/main.do).
Written by Lee Yeryoung, SNU English Editor, yeryounglee@snu.ac.kr