COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Thanks to a partnership between Texas A&M University and several local county jails, inmates have access to professional therapy services.
Dr. Isaac Saldivar with the Texas A&M Telebehavioral Care Program leads the program in jails.
“This is a group of men being able to sit down, sit with each other and share some knowledge,” Dr. Saldivar said to his students.
He checks in with his students in the Washington County and Robertson County jails every week. The classes include options in anger management, trauma response, mindfulness and substance abuse.
They learn behavioral tools that they can then put into daily practice.
“Whether that's creating healthy boundaries and improving your relationships, whether that's learning about you know, the cognitive triad, how thoughts lead to behaviors lead to consequences,” Dr. Saldivar says these are life lessons that can get overlooked.
But that's exactly what student Shaquille Owens says he's learned from the program.
“Not to show my emotions but like to talk, talk to somebody let them know how I really, really feel,” Owens said.