college services--are they any good

The college at which I work offers short term counseling; 5-6 sessions. Is it worth it to go? What gets accomplished in such a short period of time? Is it more to evaluate and refer out for longer term counseling or can certain types of issues be resolved?

I've sent an inquiry, but am impatient for an answer and also wondered if anyone had experience with this type of set-up.

FYI--I've been considering counseling for about 2 years but am not sure my issues are all that important, ie I should be able to deal with it on my own.

Thanks.

From my experiences; yes! They are also great at signposting after sessions. I would encourage you to be brave and approach them again.

What is 'signposting?'

My university does something like 9 sessions, and then they refer you out. The T I saw at the university was very good, and they referred me out to someone even better. I also saw a pdoc at the university and was referred to another very good pdoc. It made my life a lot easier, not having to shop around for a T. But university counseling & medical centers vary in how good their providers and services are, of course.

I came in thinking that I wouldn't need many sessions. There was a lot of denial and minimizing involved there... I'm still seeing my (outside) T twice a week now, a year-and-a-half later. Your mileage may vary, though. I had always thought that my problems weren't important and that I could handle things on my own, but when I finally did go to counseling, I was really at the end of my rope.

It's another word for referring or putting you in touch for additional support.

My experience has been that college counselling centres have more of a problem-fixing mentality than giving you therapy mentality. My school, for example, they wanted to give me like support like paper extensions or to write my exams in a separate classroom. I wasn't there for that type of support. I didn't need extensions or help getting a different placement. I needed support while I was away from my regular T.

The school therapist was basically at a loss. She asked what I wanted from her and it was so awkward. She even talked to my home T. It was so messed up.

She definitely wasn't able to support me in the way that I needed. I assume because that wasn't her or the office's focus. It was to discuss/deal with school issues and my issues were life issues, if that makes sense.

They vary widely. I had a great experience and switched to my T's private practice when I was no longer eligible as a student. But mine was a Big Ten Univ and all the medical services had the highest possible accreditations; smaller colleges may or may not have such a professional service. It sounds like you are staff and a few visits is included in your benefits package. You really have nothing to lose to use it to evaluate your needs and maybe get a referral.

Things to look for to determine quality are whether the Service offers APA accredited internships for pre/post docs; do they have an in-house pdoc; how big is the staff; is a variety of credentials represented on staff; read the staff profiles to assess breadth of issues treated; and is it incorporated as part of a medical services center, and is that center accredited?

If all the staff is part-time, I think that's not going to offer you the best stability should you choose to continue therapy. If there's no supervisory psychologist, that's not a great sign. If the majority of staff are interns and the service is provided as a "lab" for in-house psych students, that's not great.

Review the staff profiles and request someone specific to see (the most senior person if you have no other preference); they can't always honor your request, but they will usually try to.

The ones at my university were good. It was also meant to be short term, but they kept seeing me for way longer.

I've been talking to friends about their experience at the college counseling center. The counseling center seemed geared towards fixing immediate problems the same way unlockingsanity described. Here's the presenting concerns of some of my friends who had good experiences:

- I can't decide between a high-paying job at Google or a low-paying job as a teacher, which i think i would enjoy more.
- I am having difficulties with my senior thesis, and now I'm so paralysed with fear that I can't get myself to do any school work at all.
- My mom insists on coming to my graduation party, which really stresses me out because we are not on good terms at all.
- How do I deal with in-class presentations when I am terrified of speaking on front of a group?

Students with more complex problems were referred out to a therapist in the community after their first session. Other students were helped to manage an immediate situation at the counseling center and then referred out for long-term treatment if they wanted to work deeper. (e.g. as a hypothetical scenario, student #3 above might work out a way to deal with her mother at her graduation with the college counseling people, and then decide to seek longer-term treatment to clarify her relationship with her family and deal with unresolved childhood issues)

feralkittymom brought up a good point too, that college counseling centers vary widely in how they are being staffed. Some are staffed by a few full-time counselors. Some are staffed by part-time counselors who work in the college counseling center just one or two days a week. (They might have a private practice in the area or a part-time teaching job.) Some are internship sites for counselors-in-training.

Something else to remember is that services are under tremendous pressure now because of an increase nationally in students entering with diagnoses in addition to more students with adjustment problems. Some centers with solid Univ support/funding are expanding to accommodate, but others are scaling back by either limiting number of sessions, or turning to outside referrals for non adjustment issues. I was very lucky because my center had a large, very well qualified staff, and long-term therapy was not only offerred but subsidized. They had the highest accreditation and always had several APA sponsored interns in addition to the permanent staff. This allowed the less complex cases to be seen while leaving the permanent staff available for more complex and long-term work. I don't know that this is true now (also my T directed the center and he's since retired).