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Common Stressors To International Students Essay

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Nowadays, a great many of international students come to universities and clolleges in United States (U.S). Growing in a different culture, they tend to have distinct problems compared with local American students. College counselors often need to make some adjustment of the theories and approaches they use to help international students. The article selected discussed the common stressors and the coping strategies of international students, as well as the implication to college counselors when working with international students. One of the common stressors to international students is the adjustment difficulty. Immersed in a different culture and a new environment, it is normal for international students to feel more stressful to adapt …show more content…

This tendency may be due to the heterogeneous nature of this special population. Some of the international students may assume that college counselors may not understand their experiences and feelings because of the differences, while some other international students are not familiar with the professional counseling services and are reluctant to make use of them. Considering international students’ less active participation in traditional counseling, colleges counselor could develop some program to facilitate international students’ understanding of counseling services and reduce their apprehension. In addition, college counselors should also make use of other non-traditional counseling approaches to help international students achieve a higher level of adjustment. For example, college counselors can implement some psycho-educational programs, mentoring programs, prevention services and some support groups. The new student orientations are a good opportunities for counselors to help international students get familiar with the helping services available on campus. Counselors can also use this platform to explain some cultural and educational differences to international students. In this way, they would be better prepared and not attribute themselves as the sources of adjustment

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