Pressures build for everyone,
campus counselor explains
By Brittany Utley
reporter

   “Life is life. It is real, but how are you dealing with it?” a South Campus counselor said during her seminar Stress: Coping with the Pressures of School, Work, and Family last week.
   Sandra Johnson has been conducting these seminars for 10 years.
   Johnson said she started making presentations when she worked at the Transition Center for laid-off workers.
   At that time, Johnson said, people were killing themselves, shooting their former bosses and having their marriages fall apart.
   Because of all the problems, Tarrant County College implemented a stress program.
   Johnson started last week’s presentation by having students do some exercises where they interacted with each other.
   “It has to do with experiencing what they are learning. Most people are visual learners, so it gives them a chance to see things their way,” she said.
   Johnson described different levels of stress and discussed how to deal with it and how to separate the good stress from the bad.
   “You never know what kind of stress you are going through till someone points it out to you. It could be good or bad, but you are under so much stress that you don’t realize what it might be,” she said.
   Johnson said stress is not just emotional, but physical as well.
   She gave students handouts on how to control the physical aspect by changing some of the things they eat.
   For example, Johnson said, matching the right foods to one’s blood type helps lower stress levels physically, which can help balance a person emotionally.
   In addition, she said, having a regular exercise program will help relieve tension in a constructive way.
   While some students said they attended to get points for a class they were taking, some just went to find out ways to lower their stress level or at least learn how to deal with it.
   “There are so many different levels of stress, it is good when you have a chance to learn about them,” Julie McLaughlin, a participant, said.
Even though Johnson had only one hour to present what she described as a three-hour presentation, she said she believes the students left with enough information to help them deal with stress in the future.
   Johnson said she was very glad about all the feedback she got, and students like Vanessa Chapman were pleased with the information they gained.
   Chapman said she found it interesting that she was able to get so much soaked in her system in such a short time.
   Anyone who wants to talk about stress or find out about other seminars can visit Johnson in her office on South Campus.
   “I always get responses from students. They will come to my office, see me around campus or even see me randomly around town,” she said.
   “They will tell me how much the seminars meant to them or helped them. It is a great feeling to know that you have really helped someone make their life better,” she said.