Personal Counseling Services
Brooklyn College offers free, confidential counseling and support services to help students navigate personal, academic, and life challenges. Services include individual and group counseling, workshops, couples and family counseling, substance use support, housing referrals, and consultation services. Professional staff are available to provide guidance, crisis support, and referrals when needed.
Individual Counseling Group Counseling Services Additional Support About Mental Health Services Contact Us
Individual Counseling
Personal counseling can help you to recognize what is upsetting you, clarify your goals, focus on your studies, and find ways of dealing with difficult situations. These can range from conflict with parents, death of a family member or friend, breakup of a relationship, or feelings of stress, depression, or anxiety. Brief individual or group counseling is available.
Free and Confidential
Personal counseling services at the center are free to students at the college. All services are confidential—no information about clients is provided to anyone, either outside or within the college, so your counseling is completely private (except for rare instances involving serious danger to self or others).
Client Information Form
When you make your first appointment, you will be asked to complete a client information form. The information you provide on this form is used only for our counseling records. It is never provided to any other office or person. We are required to keep these records by standards of professional counseling practice.
These records help us to know whether we have your permission to contact you if we need to reschedule an appointment, to have basic information on file if your counselor is unavailable or if you come back in the future and cannot remember with whom you spoke, to help us evaluate our services, to know how many students are being served, and so forth.
Intake Assessment
The first step in helping you is to determine exactly what kind of counseling you need. Everyone who seeks counseling receives an intake assessment interview. You will be asked about what brings you here for assistance, your background and so forth.
Some people have a preference to work with a counselor of a particular age, gender or ethnicity. You will have an opportunity to express your preferences, if any, during your assessment session. While we may not always be able to accommodate your preferences, we will try to do so.
Based on the information you provide, specific recommendations will be made. Often a counseling group at the center is recommended. Sometimes individual counseling is indicated; some individual counseling is available here. Usually, students who need more than a few sessions of individual counseling or who need specialized services are referred to low-cost, local counseling clinics or individual professionals.
A referral file for services is maintained based on qualifications, service specialties, fee range, location, etc. Your counselor may suggest specific services for you. You are also encouraged to consult the referral file yourself if you wish.
See the receptionist in 0203 James Hall for help.
Do Normal People Need Counseling?
It is a common misconception to think that only seriously ill or “crazy” people need counseling help. Studies show that more than 80% of people can benefit from counseling at some time in their lives. So, it is normal to need counseling when special concerns or difficult feelings arise. Most people have a problem with anxiety, depression, stress, relationships, etc., at some point.
What Happens in Counseling?
Generally, you will meet with a professional counselor regularly for about 45 minutes (90 minutes for groups) at the same time once each week. At these meetings, you will discuss your concerns with the counselor.
The goal of counseling is to learn about our habits and patterns of feeling and behavior and how they cause us problems. We can then learn new habits and patterns that will be more successful for us. Although it seems strange to think that we might not know ourselves completely, experience has shown that many of the problem-causing habits and patterns are things we have done all our life and are so automatic that we don’t even think about them as learned or optional behavior.
Counseling provides a special setting in which we can learn about ourselves. This can help us to be more effective in our relationships with others and with ourselves. It takes time, helpful observations and support to recognize and change our ways of living.
WHAT HAPPENS IF I MISS A MEETING?
It is important to attend each meeting from beginning to end. Regular meetings are important to the effectiveness of counseling. If you become ill or have a conflicting obligation and must miss an appointment, you should call your counselor as far in advance as possible to reschedule.
HOW CAN I CONTACT MY COUNSELOR?
Call the center receptionist at 718.951.5363. The receptionist will connect you or take a message or reschedule your appointment if the counselor is not available. Usually, counselors cannot be interrupted while they are working with someone, but your counselor will return your call. Make note of your counselor’s name.
RECORDING OF COUNSELING MEETINGS
Some counselors may ask your permission to record your meetings with them. Usually, this is so that they may review the meeting later in order to understand how to improve their counseling skills and how to help you better. Sometimes they may review the meeting with other members of the staff in order to get their advice about their work with you. We have found that service is improved by counselors being able to learn from their work here in this way.
All recordings are destroyed within a month. No recording is ever used for any other purpose. No recording is ever made without your written permission, including an explanation of the specific purpose for which it is made. You are not required to give your permission for recordings, but we hope that you will do so in the interest of receiving the best possible service and improving service for others. If you do not give your permission, no change will be made in the service you receive.
Group Counseling
Personal counseling services are often provided in counseling groups. Each group is conducted by a psychologist or other counseling professional. Some are focused on special themes such as test anxiety or stress management. Most are general counseling groups that assist participants in resolving a broad range of personal issues, including feelings of depression, excessive anxiety and worry, self-esteem problems, and relationship problems.
What Happens in a Counseling Group?
Generally, groups consist of four to eight participants and meet regularly for about 90 minutes at the same time once each week. It is important to attend each meeting from beginning to end. At group meetings, participants discuss their concerns. In some groups, the counselor will work with each participant individually with comments from other participants. Other groups rely more on observations and discussion from participants, with the counselor providing consultation as necessary to facilitate the work.
HOW CAN I BE HELPED IN A GROUP WHEN EVERYONE’S PROBLEMS ARE DIFFERENT?
Each individual is unique, as are their concerns. Still, as people we have a great deal in common. (We all grow up in families. We all react to hurt in similar ways. We all have the same basic capacity to grow and change.) Our experience has shown that while the problems people bring to counseling can be quite different, the underlying issues that produce these problems are often similar.
These root causes of our problems have to do with patterns and habits that we have learned during our formative years that are not working well for us now in our current life circumstances or are holding us back. (For example, our families may have taught us that certain kinds of emotional expression are to be avoided, but now as we deal with the normal stress of adult life the pent-up feelings that result from this avoidance produce such symptoms as depression, worry, or overreaction.)
The goal of counseling is to learn about our habits and patterns of feeling and behavior and how they cause us problems. We can then learn new habits and patterns that will be more successful for us. Although it seems strange to think that we might not know ourselves completely, experience has shown that many of the problem-causing habits and patterns are things we have done all our life and are so automatic that we don’t even think about them as learned or optional behavior.
Groups provide a special setting in which we can learn about ourselves, others, and ourselves in relation to others. This can help us to be more effective in our relationships with others and with ourselves outside the group. It takes time, helpful observations, and support from others to recognize and change our ways of living.
SHOULDN’T I GET INDIVIDUAL HELP?
While individual counseling can be important for some more severe problems of certain types, experience has shown that group counseling can often be even more effective for most issues. Perhaps it is the opportunity to see that some of what we regard as our most terrible secrets or distasteful aspects of ourselves are really only common human experiences that is so helpful.
Embarrassment or shame keeps many people from taking advantage of group counseling. Overcoming these feelings about aspects of ourselves is an important part of living our lives more successfully. Group counseling is very helpful in this respect.
CONFIDENTIALITY AND PRIVACY
Everything that is discussed in counseling groups is considered confidential. It is not to be discussed outside the group, even with other group participants. Each member signs an agreement to observe this rule.
Additional Support
Drug and Alcohol Counseling
Drug and alcohol counseling is available for all members of the college community who have drug or alcohol-related problems or who are affected by the substance use of friends or family members.
Family Counseling
Family counseling is available for couples and families experiencing difficulties such as couple or marital conflict; parental disagreements over disciplining children; stresses associated with the presence of adolescents, young adults, elderly parents, or a chronically ill family member in the home; family violence and/or abuse; and coping with losses associated with separation, divorce, or death.
Workshops, Video Showings, and Discussion Groups
Workshops, video showings, and discussion groups led by professionals at the center are offered each semester. They are listed in a calendar, advertised in the campus papers, and announced on hallway bulletin boards outside the center. Topics of previous workshops include: Academic Achievement, Assertiveness, Families of Alcoholics, Procrastination, Self Growth, Stress Reduction, Test Anxiety, and Time Management.
Housing Referrals
Housing referrals are posted on the bulletin board outside 0203 James Hall. Apartments, furnished rooms, and shares are available in the college neighborhood. If housing needs are due to personal or family problems, come in to speak with a counselor.
Free Information Handouts
Free information handouts are available on a wide range of topics, including:
- AIDS
- Depression
- Drugs and Alcohol
- Eating Disorders
- How to Study
- How to Take Tests
- Sleep Problems
- Stress Management
- Time Management
Contact Us
Personal Counseling
0203 James Hall
Brooklyn College
2900 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11210-2889
E:
P: 718.951.5363
F: 718.951.5734
Staff Directory
In Case of Emergency
- If your situation is an emergency, call, or come to the office during business hours.
- Otherwise, call or go to the nearest hospital emergency room. (Kings County Hospital Psychiatric Emergency Room is at 606 Winthrop Street, 718.245.2310.)
- You can also call 911 in an emergency.
- 988 is a 24-hour hotline for emergency mental health assistance and referral information.