Counseling is an opportunity to talk about your concerns with someone who listens and is prepared to help.
The atmosphere is one in which you can freely express your thoughts, feelings, and questions. The Counselor will help you to sort things out and perhaps find new ways of looking at your situation and develop more comfortable ways of performing.
We know that pursuing a university education is a demanding venture. To do so in the context of the many pressures of our society, family expectations, conflicting social messages, independence, relationships, etc. can become burdensome and confusing.
Yet this is a time of great challenge and potential growth. Counseling often helps people to unlock that potential. Most people come for counseling when they find their usual ways of managing problems aren’t working, or when they find themselves confronted with new or complicated situations.
Some Reasons for Counseling Include
- Feeling lonely, and out of it socially
- Breaking up with your girlfriend (boyfriend) and not knowing what to do next
- Feeling extremely anxious or having panic attacks
- Trouble concentrating, studying, and taking tests
- Feeling angry with your roommate and not knowing how to express it
- Feeling sad for a long time and not being able to feel any different
- Going on binges and not knowing what to do to control your behavior
Who Goes to Counseling/Therapy?
Counseling is for personal concerns, relationship concerns, marriage and family concerns, and academic and educational concerns. Meeting with a trained therapist is different than simply talking to friends, and is especially useful if you are having trouble coping or simply feeling stuck. These meetings provide an opportunity to understand and respond to feelings, behavior, and situations that are causing distress, to make decisions, or to solve problems. The therapist does not “fix you” or tell you what to do, rather, you work together to develop solutions that work for you.
Some people feel that they shouldn’t come in to therapy because it’s an indication that they are “weak” or “crazy”. To the contrary, coming to counseling is often about taking charge of your life and feelings. In any given year, almost a quarter of undergraduate students at Drew will come in to see a therapist.
Counseling services are strictly confidential. Counseling and Psychological Services adheres to the ethical guidelines of the American Psychological Association. No information concerning a client is released without the client’s expressed and written permission. We cannot tell anyone (your parents, professors, or school staff) anything about your treatment, even that you came in for an appointment without that written permission, except in life or death emergencies.
The McClintock Center for Counseling and Psychological Services is a member of the Association for University Counseling and College Counseling Center Directors (AUCCCD) and supports their declaration on the Violence in Charlottesville which includes the statement, “As college mental health professionals, we have long known that hatred and bigotry and the perpetration of racial and bias-motivated violence are harmful to EVERYONE’S mental and physical health, including those who espouse it and those who are hurt by it.”
Read the full text of the statement.
