The Student Counseling Center is the university’s primary facility for mental health services for students. From individualized services to group and couples therapy, the Student Counseling Center exists to help you. Staff members provide a variety of short-term services for students, faculty, and staff, to address problems ranging from mild situational stresses to acute mental health conditions.
Good mental health is key to ensuring that you are holistically well. It’s important to know where your stress or anxiety comes from in order to know how to manage those emotions.
Type of Appointments
Brief Assessment
When you call our office, we will schedule a brief assessment appointment with you via telehealth. Once you are scheduled for a brief assessment, we will send a link to our forms that you must complete online prior to your assessment. This brief assessment is a quick access appointment that is your starting point at the center, not a therapy session. During this session, you and a therapist will discuss your treatment needs and options, including if you wish to be seen in person or via telehealth. You may be referred to skills or group therapy, brief individual or couples therapy, or psychiatry. We can also discuss treatment options outside the Student Counseling Center such as longer-term therapy or specialty treatment.
Individual Therapy
At your first individual therapy appointment, you will be able to describe your concerns, and you and your clinician will establish one or two goals for therapy. It is important that you approach individual therapy with a frame of reference that is ready to work, as change is a process that takes active involvement from you! Individual sessions may start weekly or every other week and then be less frequent as you are improving. Many students get their needs met in just a few sessions.
Group Therapy
In group therapy, a small number of students meet weekly with one or two group therapists. Groups are often the best way for people to receive counseling services. In group therapy, members share concerns, listen to each other, give, and receive feedback, offer support to one another, express feelings, and learn more about how they interact with others.
We offer different types of groups that fall into two broader categories: skills groups that focus on teaching you tools for change or symptom management and process groups which are more focused on helping group members examine their issues in a therapeutic group setting.
Community Referrals
There are times when a student’s mental health needs require a referral to a community provider. Substance dependency or active eating disorders are examples of problems that cannot be adequately addressed at the Student Counseling Center. Other times a student may need more urgent, intensive, or longer-term care than what we can provide. In such cases, we will assist the student in finding an appropriate provider in the community.