Second in a series of OSUM staff interviews

Jessica Shultz Sidelinger
OSUM Counselor
*This interview was done in March 2012
Jessica recently left OSUM for another position

Jessica Sidelinger is our Personal Counselor at The Ohio State University at Marion.  Jessica received a Bachelor of Arts Degree with a Major in Psychology and a Minor in Creative Writing from Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. 

Jessica received her Master’s Degree in Social Work from The Ohio State University in 2003.  I asked Jessica what some of her favorite classes were while she was in graduate school and she replied

Clinical track therapy:  group psycho therapy, individual psycho therapy and social policy. (Psycho therapy if another term for mental health therapy)

Jessica has been at the Marion Campus as a Personal Counselor for the past two and one half years.  Jessica has met with individuals and couples.  I asked Jessica what are the most general topics individuals schedule appointments for and she said the most common are feelings of stress, feelings of being overwhelmed, depression, lack of motivation, and relationship issues.

During finals week for winter quarter Jessica held a stress reduction period for students.  This was held for 15 minutes in the Meditation Room in Morrill Hall.  The 15 minutes were held with relaxing music, instructions for meditation and in a calming environment.

Jessica plans to reach out more to students to bring awareness of the counseling services offered on our campus that students may not be aware of.  She has plans to promote the counseling services available so students feel free to stop in to see her.  She wants to get the word out that students don’t have to be majorly depressed to come in to see her they can just stop to talk.  Students can stop in to see her even if it’s about positive issues and looking for ways to handle them.   Some positive issues can cause stress when a person is deciding how to deal with the positive situation or how to tell news of a positive event that may bring a negative reaction.  Positive events can cause stress, such as starting a new job, health issues, getting engaged, moving, deciding on majors or applying for graduate school, to name a few.  Jessica is here for students to reach out to.

Since we are a university campus there are lots of students and others on our campus who may have questions regarding relationships.

Jessica has made arrangements for a speaker on relationship issues to speak on campus Thursday, April 19^th, 2012 in Morrill Hall Room 290.  The speaker is Annette Franks, M.Ed., LPC and is a Certified Gestalt Psychotherapist and Licensed Professional Counselor.  She has over 30 years counseling experience working with individuals, couples and families.  Annette has been featured as a guest on numerous TV talk shows and is a keynote speaker among corporate America, including Fortune 500 Companies.  Annette will be on our campus to talk about “The Art of Dating and Creating Healthy Relationships”.  Jessica is encouraging everyone on campus to attend and wants to highlight that you don’t necessarily need to have a problem to listen to what Annette has to say.  She wants to have people attend who will simply leave feeling that they may have more insight into their personal relationships and can move forward with them, whether they are new relationships or five, ten, twenty year relationships.  Someone may leave with a better understanding of some things they may not have thought of before.  Jessica encourages everyone to attend this talk on April 19^th. (This event was very successful)

*The Office of Student Life encourages people on campus to make an appointment with the new counselor, when position is filled, if they need to talk, feel depressed, overwhelmed, or have any other problem they need to share in confidence.  People can do individual and couples counseling and IT’S FREE and CONFIDENTIAL.