The counseling center at Wayne State College will host art therapist Jennifer Jackson on Feb. 27 at the first he(art) therapy session to learn about self-love and self-affirmation.

February is healthy relationships month at WSC and the Counseling Center wanted to focus on women loving themselves. Tabetha Waggoner, a licensed counselor at the WSC Counseling Center, said promoting personal health is just as important as other relationships.

“We wanted to do something that was focused on the most important relationship which is with yourself,” Waggoner said. “So, this is where the idea started coming from of trying to promote wellness with students with their own personal health outside of other romantic relationships, professional relationships.”

Waggoner said students will be participating in a pill bottle activity, using symbolism to promote self-care and self-love. The attendants will be connecting with one another and learn how to love themselves through the use of art.

“It feels like a lot of times people these days tend to go directly to taking a prescription medication to help manage any pain they might be suffering through, which is appropriate, however it’s not necessarily always the most healthy way,” Waggoner said. “So, I think the idea behind this activity is to promote learning how to do that on your own behaviorally, so you don’t just have to rely on taking a prescription medication.”

Jennifer Jackson, the executive director of Heartland Counseling Services in South Sioux City, is one of the few registered, board-certified art therapists around Wayne who has done a few activities similar to this event.

“Whenever I have the opportunity to talk about mental health and self-care and art therapy, I think it’s good to get the word out,” Jackson said.

Jackson said reaching out to college students is important.

“Collaboration and collective impact is very important in rural Nebraska,” Jackson said. “So what that means is, collective impact is we’re all tying to work towards the same goal and so the more we can give back to the community that we serve, because we serve 11 counties in rural Nebraska, and so anybody that is ever in crisis we have a mobile crisis response team.”

This event is still open to students, so if you are interested in attending this event, contact Tabetha Waggoner in the WSC Counseling Center to RSVP.