Fall semester topics

• Week 36. Benefits of volunteer work
• Week 37. Living with learning disabilities
• Week 38. Personality disorders
• Week 39. Setting up healthy boundaries
• Week 40. Learning to improve concentration
• Week 41. Suicide prevention – learning to help
• Week 42. Phobias – dealing with fears
• Week 43. Sleep disorders
• Week 44. Sexuality – the biochemistry
• Week 45. Addictive relationships
• Week 46. UNESCO day of tolerance
• Week 47. Improving self-confidence
• Week 48. Helping friends or others in distress
• Week 49. World AIDS day – living with illness
• Week 50. Value based decision making
• Week 51. Being assertive in a diverse world
• Week 52. Spirituality – spiritual growth

Spring semester topics

• Week 1. Dynamics of intro- & extraverts
• Week 2. Orientation – a career that fits!
• Week 3. Living in a foreign country
• Week 4. Overcoming test anxiety
• Week 5. Understanding dysfunction in a family
• Week 6. Smoking – giving up methods
• Week 7. Valentine’s day – commitment
• Week 8. Communication – focusing on skills
• Week 9. Domestic violence
• Week 10. Work-life balance – expectations
• Week 11. Loneliness and feeling alone
• Week 12. Understanding of joy and happiness
• Week 13. Racial discrimination
• Week 14. PTSD
• Week 15. World health day
• Week 16. Panic disorders
• Week 17. Academic honesty – authenticity
• Week 18. Death and dying
• Week 19. Job interviews – good impression
• Week 20. Characteristic of sound families
• Week 21. Celebrating cultural diversity
• Week 22. Growing up in a single parent home
• Week 23. Act of love (self and others)
• Week 24. Focusing on personality tests
• Week 25. Childhood traumas
• Week 26. Relating to the elderly
• Week 27. Grief – dealing with loss
• Week 28. Drug and substance abuse
• Week 29. Dealing with depression
• Week 30. Procrastination
• Week 31. Recovering from shame and guilt
• Week 32. Perfectionism
• Week 33. First generation university students
• Week 34. Compulsive obsessive behaviors
• Week 35. Body image – eating disorders
• Week 36. School bullying – mobbing concerns

Communication – focusing on skills

There are so many books published on this topic, that it is hard to choose one specific one that fits all aspects soundly. However when it comes to communication skills we often overlook the significance of listening which is a corner stone of good communication.

In this noise infected world – we need to learn and re-learn how to listen and develop internal skills on how to select what we listen to or pay attention to.

Recommended books

James W. Pennebaker: Opening up – The healing power of expressing emotions,1997.
Richard Rohr: Simplicity: The Freedom of Letting Go, 2004.

Additional web resources