What is personal counseling?

People sometime confuse our services with academic advising or career counseling. Personal counseling is focused on emotional, psychological, or interpersonal issues. Counselors listen carefully to your concerns and help you reach specific goals. Reaching those goals sometimes means learning new skills, changing behaviors, or learning to view situations differently.

Why do people come for counseling?

People typically come to counseling because they are experiencing emotional pain or wish to improve their lives in some way. While people seek counseling for many reasons, some of the common issues addressed in counseling include:

• Coping with stress
• Improving mood and overcoming depression
• Enhancing self-esteem
• Managing anxiety
• Surviving grief and loss
• Adjusting to college
• Improving relationships with partners or roommates
• Dealing with emotional trauma (e.g. abuse, assault)
• Understanding sexual orientation and identity
• Coping with family and childhood issues
• Ending substance abuse or eating problems

What is confidentiality?

Due to the sensitive and personal nature of counseling, all counseling services are confidential. This means that nothing you share with your counselor is revealed to anyone outside of the Counseling Center without your consent. We do not disclose names of clients to anyone, including family or college officials, without client consent. There are some situations in which we are required by law to breach confidentiality (e.g. client threatening to harm self or others). For more information about how we handle client information and about the limitations of confidentiality, click here.

How do I make an appointment?

Please click here to find out how to make an appointment with the Counseling Center.