The health center will be hosting several workshops specifically on the topic of test anxiety, one of which will be held Oct. 12 at 3p.m.

The clinical psychologist, Dr. Ruth Taylor, will lead the workshop. She has a 25-year-long history with the health center, Debbie Conover, health center coordinator of student health services, said.

“Basically at the workshop you come in five to 15 minutes before the workshop on the day of the workshop and sign in. We never know how many are going to be in the groups, its not a group therapy session, but what it is a workshop to help students understand if they have anxiety with testing and then hopefully give then some tools to help them move ahead, evaluate themselves, and then move forward with some new test taking skills,” Conover said.

Conover coordinates all the activities in the health center and all workshops as well. She is indirectly involved with the workshops although one of her jobs is to make sure that the word gets out to the students so that they understand the service is available to them, Conover said.

“Well hopefully (it’s easy to find out about the workshops) through the student newspaper that we have our workshops all listed in, I know last year they were in the front of the paper that came out each Thursday, which was good because students could see that. Students could also go on live to our Website and it will have all our services and workshops listed,” Conover said.

Conover also attempts to get out to the classrooms to pass the word along to students about the services found in the health center including the workshops. She even

goes as far as to send e-mails out to instructors, throughout the week, with the intention

that they will spread the word in the classroom where it will reach their students. Some instructors even give extra-credit for the students’ time spent in the health center workshops, Conover said.

“99.9 percent of students have some kind of anxiety or some kind of stressors going on in their lives and the thing with anxiety and stress, everyone handles it in differently and it comes out in different ways. Some people with anxiety and stress overeat, some people take drugs and some people will possibly exercise; people deal with it in different ways. We almost can not be alive and not experience some kind of anxiety. I think it’s important to know that those feelings are normal but there is healthy ways to deal with those feelings,” Conover said.