Solution-Focused Mentoring with College Students Diagnosed with a Learning Disability

College students with learning disabilities face a number of challenges in postsecondary education and a lower graduation rate when compared with their peers who do not have a learning disability (Fernandez & Santi, 2016; Kreider, 2020). In response to this discrepancy, we designed a peer mentoring program utilizing mentors who are enrolled in a graduate counseling program that emphasizes a solution-focused (SF) approach. Two students, both women and diagnosed with dyslexia, engaged in six meetings with their respective mentors. These meetings involved solution-focused conversations about their strengths, goals, and successes, as well as academic coaching in the form of study skills psychoeducation for areas that they had identified. The LASSI was used both for goal exploration and assessment of executive functioning. Both participants showed increases on the Anxiety, Concentration, and Time Management scales on the LASSI, and they reported benefits to their study strategies, personal insights on their self-efficacy, and improvements to their mental health.