googley, it it were me, I would not go want to go for treatment to the site that my grad program used for practicums. I would want to keep my own mental health care separate from my professional program. I would worry about conflicts of interest, dual roles, etc. Like maybe you would get one of your fellow students assigned to you as your therapist or something like that. It might be worth a call to the director of the student health center (not the director of your grad program) explaining your concerns. Maybe he/she would have advice or say, yes, they've had students in a similar situation and we came up with this solution that worked.... For example, maybe you could go to a community health clinic for low cost therapy (because your insurance covers very little and your income is apt to be low since you are a fulltime student).

The $300 for mental health medication--is that for the cost of the prescriptions? Or does it include also the cost of seeing a pdoc for prescribing? One way to save on the cost of a prescriber is to see a GP for your prescriptions. They are less expensive than a pdoc, and if you already have your meds established and they are working, then the GP could just follow suit, and consult with your former pdoc if need be. If you feel a GP cannot handle your meds, another less expensive alternative is a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. I see a PNP right now for meds and am very satisfied. She has much more training in this area than my GP (who made an attempt at prescribing for me but didn't do very well). My PNP costs about as much as a therapist per visit rather than a pdoc's fees. And if I go to her for the 20 minute appointment, it is even less expensive. I think for the 20 minute appointment, the cost is only $70; for an hour, the charge is closer to $130-$150--I can't remember.

An even more economical idea is to go to the PNP for both meds and therapy--then you can kill 2 birds with one stone. My PNP is a licensed mental health therapist so can give therapy if her clients need it. Some PNPs are trained therapists and some are not--so this is a question to ask before beginning with a practitioner.

So I think you have other options besides student health center and COBRA--the community health clinic, paying out of pocket for a less expensive practitioner such as a PNP, etc. I am facing losing my job soon and I looked into COBRA. It is $425/month to cover just myself. You could keep that $425 in hand instead of paying it to COBRA, and sign up for what is presumably a low-cost student health plan to cover your basic medical needs, and you could afford a few sessions of therapy a month with a non-health center therapist with the money saved from not doing COBRA.

Good luck.