Our Clinical Approach
Brief Interventions, Psychoeducation, and Wellness Promotion Designed to Help School Communities Overcome Challenges, Manage Stress, and Achieve Their Goals


Pillars of Care
Reducing Stress, Building Resiliency, and Developing Grit
By using evidence-based communication skills and a structured approach, we assist students, faculty, and staff in managing their stress while enhancing their ability to face challenges and achieve their goals.
Reducing Stress
In the initial stage of our Support Counseling Model, we assess each student’s level of stress and its emotional impact and intensity.
Our goal is to help students, faculty, and staff recognize and manage the sources of stress in their lives, such as academic pressure, relationship issues, or financial concerns.
By utilizing strong evidence-based communication skills, we assist students, faculty, and staff in reducing stress, paving the way for a smoother transition to building resilience.
- Identifying stressors: Helping students, faculty, and staff recognize the specific sources of stress in their lives.
- Developing coping strategies: Teaching students, faculty, and staff evidence-based stress reduction techniques, including mindfulness, relaxation exercises, and time management skills, which can be integrated into their daily routines.


Building Resilience
As students, faculty, and staff experience reduced stress levels, the Support Counseling Model naturally transitions to focus on building resilience.
By fostering protective factors and enhancing adaptive skills, students, faculty, and staff become better equipped to adapt and recover from adversity, ultimately feeling more understood, confident, and capable.
- Fostering protective factors: Encouraging the development of strong social support networks, problem-solving skills, and a sense of purpose that can buffer against stress and promote well-being.
- Enhancing adaptive skills: Teaching students, faculty, and staff how to develop emotional intelligence, self-efficacy, and optimism, which can contribute to greater resilience in the face of adversity.
Cultivating Grit
The final component of our Support Counseling Model revolves around cultivating grit in students, faculty, and staff. With a solid foundation of reduced stress and increased resilience, individuals are better positioned to develop determination and persistence in achieving their long-term goals despite obstacles and setbacks.
- Goal-setting and commitment: Guiding students, faculty, and staff in setting specific, challenging, and achievable goals that align with their values, passions, and purpose, and encouraging them to maintain a strong commitment to these objectives.
- Developing perseverance: Teaching students, faculty, and staff strategies to persist in the face of obstacles, setbacks, and failures, emphasizing the importance of learning from these experiences and adapting their approach when necessary.

Domains and Subdomains of Resiliency & Grit
Oasis conceptualizes resiliency and grit under five key domains that can help users to foster adaptability, flexibility, and stress tolerance.

Our Model of Care
We take a holistic approach to mental health and wellbeing.
The Oasis Support Counseling Team
Qualifications, Training & Modality
Support Counselors
Licensed Support Supervisors
Our Support Modality is Grounded in Motivational Interviewing
Motivational interviewing is a well-known, scientifically tested method for counseling and is viewed as an intervention strategy to respond to a person in crisis, treat lifestyle problems, and address unhealthy substance use and other risky behaviors.
Our chat specialists receive extensive training in Motivational Interviewing facilitated by members of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). Our clinical model, grounded in humanistic philosophy and Motivational Interviewing, is observed and coached through a continuous quality improvement process that ensures fidelity to our model that supports the students, faculty, and staff we serve.
Our Support Counseling Training Includes:
Foundational Knowledge
These modules provide an overview of Oasis Support Counseling, the role of support counselors, and ethical principles in support counseling. Counselors learn the importance of process versus outcome and how to establish a focus with partnership.
Communication and Cultural Sensitivity
This set of modules focuses on developing essential communication skills such as focused listening, using open-ended questions, and exploring and focusing the conversation. We also emphasize the importance of cultural sensitivity and inclusivity in support counseling.
Stress, Health, and Coping Strategies
In these modules, counselors gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between stress and health and learn to identify adaptive coping strategies and pathways to relieve stress for students, faculty, and staff.
Strengths, Resilience, and Self-Efficacy
This theme covers techniques for identifying strengths and resources in students, faculty, and staff, nurturing a growth mindset, and building self-efficacy. Counselors learn to develop resilience and establish the next steps in action planning.
Trauma-Informed Care and Supporting Special Populations
These modules focus on the principles of trauma-informed care and guide on how to support special populations, including LGBTQIA+ affirmative support.