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

Oasis Support Counselors are unlicensed professionals who have strong communication skills and 5 years of experience in the helping field. All Support Counselors complete an extensive 25-part training curriculum and are always overseen by Support Supervisors.

Licensed Support Supervisors

Oasis Support Supervisors are licensed mental health professionals who oversee the Support Counselor's work. Supervisors have a minimum of a master's degree in social work, counseling, or psychology and 2 years of experience in supervising and supporting staff in the helping field.

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.