TWU partners with TAO Connect
Online mental health and wellness support services
Sept. 23, 2021 — DENTON — In an effort to bring students better access to mental health and wellness support options, Texas Woman’s is working with TAO Connect to bring a new online program to campus.
TAO Connect provides online educational modules, practical exercises, journals and more. The program also has an app that allows students to access the materials from their phones.
TAO Connect is free for all TWU students and just requires a simple sign up using a TWU email. Whether someone is seeking self-help resources or currently or previously working with a therapist, TAO offers short modules and mini-courses based on each person’s specific needs to help them become more emotionally resilient and to cope more effectively.
A TAO Connect spokesperson said TAO Connect was created to be suited to college students and is completely self-paced, self-guided and personalized with a platform that is both educational and skills-based. The online platform aims to provide support for issues like stress reduction, anxiety management, family issues, depression, substance use, life transitions and relationships.
Dr. Stephanie Brown, AVP of Student Enrichment, Health and Support at TWU said that the university decided to make the investment in the program because they recognized that while the pandemic has negatively impacted the mental health of many people, research suggests that it has taken a particular toll on college students.
“TAO Connect provides an additional layer of support to help students navigate the gradual and sometimes frustrating transition back to in-person life,” said Brown. “We are also striving to offer different levels of support that are appropriate for different types of emotional needs, not all of which require or are even best suited to be addressed by traditional, individual psychotherapy.”
Brown emphasizes that TAO Connect is not therapy and is not a substitute for it. Instead the program is something that can supplement services offered by university counseling centers, like CAPS at TWU, that in recent years have addressed a growing demand.
“Most students need access to some sort of support resource at some point in their education and particularly during high stress periods of the semester. That need simply exceeds the capacity of most college counseling centers,” said Brown.
While it has been well-documented that being isolated brought on its own set of mental health challenges, resuming some semblance of normalcy brings forward new concerns and issues for some students. Brown hopes that students will take advantage of TAO Connect and will view it as another possible tool in their proverbial toolbox—like individual and group therapy, pet therapy and peer support—to help cope with problems of daily living, as well as ongoing issues like anxiety, grief and depression.
“Making TAO Connect available to TWU students is just one way we are striving to support our students through these unprecedented times,” she said.
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Page last updated 11:02 AM, October 30, 2023