Our minds can become unwell, mental health difficulties can range from the worries and anxieties we all experience as part of everyday life, to long term more difficult problems that affect our daily functioning. These feelings often pass, but sometimes they are hard to cope with. When things become too difficult you need to think about getting professional help.

School life can be stressful and challenging, academically, socially and emotionally.  Many students feel anxious, depressed, overwhelmed, or homesick at some point during their school experience, and need help dealing with their feelings or problems. Common concerns are roommate difficulties, family stress, concerns about alcohol and substance misuse, struggles in relationships, confusion in deciding on a major or career path, difficulties in making friends, academic challenges, among others.

Student Counselling: Is it right for you?

There are many benefits to working in a therapeutic relationship with a professional counsellor. It can be a relief to tell someone who is impartial about difficulties you are struggling with on your own. You may have a worrying concern, be experiencing new difficulties, or have a sense that something isn’t right.

What to expect from counselling:

Psychotherapy can help you to normalise your experience and place it in context, bring objectivity, critical distance, and experience of dealing with problems of all kinds. This often leads to seeing a problem in a new way, and feeling more able to get to grips with it. The experience of counselling will begin with an assessment session in which we will work together to make sense of your experience, to conceptualise your problems in new ways, and to think together about how you might move forward. Some problems are of a more complex and/or long standing kind, further sessions may be appropriate, the aim will be to always keep counselling as efficient and focussed as possible. The average time spent in therapy is 6-8 sessions.