#70: Hope for the Hurting Student: Mental Health and Connection in College

In this episode, we’re talking about one of the biggest challenges facing students today: mental health during the college years. Between academic pressure, anxiety about the future, loneliness, relationships, social media, and the constant pressure to succeed, many students are struggling quietly and wondering how to navigate it all faithfully and wisely.

My guest is Brooke Wesley, a licensed clinical social worker, Certified Eating Disorders Specialist, and co-founder of Bellatore Recovery in the Kansas City area, where she has spent more than two decades helping teens and adults pursue healing and emotional health.

Brooke’s passion for this work is deeply personal, growing out of her own recovery journey from an eating disorder. Along the way, she has worked in hospitals, schools, recovery programs, and private practice, and she also helped launch Kansas City’s first transitional living program for women recovering from eating disorders. She’s also the author of Hungry To Be Whole: A Therapist’s Story of Healing from Anorexia, where she shares both her personal story and professional insights into recovery and hope.

In this podcast we discuss:

• How overcoming her own eating disorder led Brooke to want to help others.
• Factors that contribute to students’ mental health challenges.
• Signs of good mental health, and how this relates to success in college (and life).
• Why students can still be lonely while around so many people, and what to do about it.
• Signs of unhealthy relational dynamics.
• How a biblical worldview should help frame our understanding of mental health.
• Correcting common misunderstandings about mental health.
• How to recognize when it is time to find a mental health professional.
• How to find a good mental health professional by asking the right questions.
• The value of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
• The distinction between anxiety and stress.
• Specific advice for how parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends can help a student who may be struggling: signs to watch for and how to be helpful.
• How churches can help students who are struggling.
• Examples of those who have experienced healing and wholeness as a result of this journey.
• Proper and improper ways to use AI.

Resources mentioned during our conversation:

• Brooke Wesley and Maureen Rank, Hungry To Be Whole: A Therapist’s Story of Healing from Anorexia
• College Faith podcast conversations about finding Christian community on campus
• Aundi Kolber, Try Softer: A Fresh Approach to Move Us out of Anxiety, Stress, and Survival Mode–and into a Life of Connection and Joy