Today's lesson for college students: Lighten up

It has been more than a decade since colleges became mindful of the new generation of students arriving on campus with serious mental health illnesses. But these days, as they respond to the rising number of students seeking help for stress-related conditions on campus and the expectations of consumer-minded parents, many colleges are extending the therapeutic culture far beyond treatment for clinical depression and bipolar disorders.

Private and public colleges alike have begun offering a wide range of services and activities intended to help students negotiate what used to be considered the ordinary rites of passage: homesickness, sophomore existential angst, romantic relationships. There are now free massages and dogs to cuddle in exam seasons, biofeedback workshops and therapists available to help students work through their first C.

At Harvard, the training given to graduate students who live in the undergraduate houses has in recent years expanded to include ways to help students fight perfectionism -- a theme on many campuses -- as well as negotiate matters involving race, class and sexual identity.

At Amherst College in Massachusetts, students can have unlimited sessions with the counseling center's therapists. They are free to discuss more mundane concerns like their futures and their relationships -- with family members, roommates, boyfriends and girlfriends -- as well as more serious issues like depression and eating disorders.

Washington University in St. Louis has established stress-free zones during finals, where students can get chair massages and listen to New Age music. Addressing the notoriously poor sleeping habits of undergraduates, the university recently celebrated Sleep Awareness Week by handing out sleep quizzes and reminding residential advisers not to brag about how little sleep they can get by on.

•	Today's lesson for college students: Lighten up The New York Times, Tuesday, April 6, 2004 Byline: Sara Rimer