While many college students may want mental health support, not everyone needs professional counseling.

For some students, confiding in peers is easier than speaking with an adult.

Georgetown College students can get the best of both worlds through the new peer counseling program.

The peer counseling program was developed out of this understanding that students on campus were needing extra mental health support.

The stats in the number of students who we saw in 2015 are very different than the number of students who we have seen even this semester.

We have a solid group of professional counselors in our counseling center, but sometimes there's not space for those counselors to see all those students.

The purpose of peer counseling is to provide a resource for students whose needs are at the level that requires mental health support but not professional counseling.

A lot of students are just very overwhelmed, and I think a lot of students really struggle with navigating social situations that they've never encountered before.

And so we talk a lot about healthy boundary setting, how to respectfully enforce those boundaries, how to balance work time, manage how to navigate new relationships.

It's a really nice middle zone.

I'm nervous about it, but the.

Training for the peer counselors entails several things one being primary counseling skills, eye contact, active listening, mirroring.

Can we also want to make sure that the student is aware of language that would allude to this person may be experiencing suicidal thoughts or suicidal ideation, and also making sure that the peer counselors are knowledgeable about the support resources on campus.

I am on wrestling staff here, and so we do lots of training about crisis management, what resources to call and when, how to go about approaching a conversation with somebody you might think is in distress.

And those are actually trainings we're going to be implementing with the incoming peer counselors as well, because I found them so beneficial.

It's just absolutely insane.

I would absolutely support other institutions doing similar things.

It's one of the ways that we can deal with the rising mental health needs of college students.

As lead counselor, I'm always trying to understand what are these barriers that are preventing people from coming to counseling.

In some of the research that we have looked at when it comes to peer counseling, some of those barriers are removed.

Sometimes people are nervous about going to a professional counselor, and it feels easier to talk to a peer.

It's nice to have a peer who is only there to listen to you, and they're only there to support you and they're not going to expect you to then comfort them.

I think that's just a wonderful service to be able to provide.

And so I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to do that.

Jennifer Price says they've received several applications from students wanting to be peer counselors next year.

Those applications are currently being reviewed.