
At the heart of our service is provision of individual counselling.
- How we work
- Issues brought to counselling
- How counselling can help
- Who we are and confidentiality
How we work
The counselling process begins with a ‘therapeutic consultation’ during which you and your counsellor can develop a clearer understanding of your problem and think together about how you might move forward. Sometimes this can be accomplished in a single session, but it may take two or three. Approximately half of students who come to us find that this is enough to enable them to mobilize their resources and get back on track. The other half go on to further individual counselling, group counselling or issue-focused workshops. Also, where appropriate, we guide students to self-help materials.
If you go on to further individual counselling we will aim to keep this as brief and focused as possible. This is not a ‘resource led’ policy but one that is founded on evidence that for a large number of people, particularly those in the student age-group, it is a very effective way of working.
It is most common to have counselling sessions in consecutive weeks. However, you may find that it is useful to space sessions more widely to enable you to test out new ways of thinking and doing things in between. For example, you might begin with two sessions in consecutive weeks toward the beginning of term and schedule a third and final session at the end of term, or even at the start of the following term.
Issues brought to counselling
You can come to us with any problem getting in the way of having a good experience at UPM, whether specifically related to study or not. You may have a longstanding problem or concern you feel you need to get to grips with, or you may be encountering new difficulties here at UPM- perhaps struggling to establish an identity, to make relationships, or to cope with academic expectations. You may be struggling with a specific, well-defined problem - say, a difficult decision or dilemma. Or you may not have any idea what the problem is, but just have a sense that something isn’t right. Whatever your situation, we encourage you to come to see us.
How counselling can help
Working with a counsellor may help you to see your problem with greater clarity, get some insight into its origins, and think about how to move forward. Counselling may not ‘solve’ your problem but we hope it will equip you with some new ways to think about it while helping you to mobilize your resources and feel more in control. If you need more help than we are able to offer, or a different kind of help, we can help you think about accessing it.
Who we are and confidentiality
Our staff consists of trained counsellors, all of whom are accustomed to helping people from many different backgrounds and cultures, and with a wide range of issues.
All personal details and the content of all counselling sessions are confidential. Under normal circumstances, nothing will be revealed to anyone outside the service without your express permission. We would only break this rule if you were no longer in a position to take responsibility for your own actions. Of course, there may be times when it is to your benefit for us to liaise with others - whether this is with other health professionals or academics. We will only do this if you are in agreement that it would be helpful and you have given us your written consent.