CAPS offers scheduled and urgent hour individual counseling sessions to enrolled students. These sessions are an opportunity for students to sit down with a CAPS clinician and discuss their concerns. CAPS staff are trained to address a wide variety of issues. Find more information on commons issues addressed at CAPS, Individual Counseling, and Urgent Hours Counseling below.
The CAPS staff assists students in making a plan of action to address a wide variety of concerns. Depending on the concern, individual counseling or urgent hours may be the most appropriate service. The concerns CAPS staff have addressed include but are not limited to:
Individual therapy provides students with the opportunity to identify, explore, and work through problems with a licensed clinician. A therapist can help students enhance general coping skills and enable students to deal more effectively with personal problems and the normal challenges of life during undergraduate, graduate, or professional school.
CAPS therapists work within a short-term model; the number of sessions you have is based on clinical need determined by the therapist and the individual student. In order to provide counseling and psychological services to as many students as possible, we are not able to accommodate those who need or desire more frequent or ongoing psychotherapy. We can help you identify appropriate therapists and mental health professionals in the community. Visit our Referrals Page to learn more.
Occasionally the caseloads for CAPS clinicians become filled and we are temporarily unable to take on new scheduled individual counseling clients. When this happens, and a student requests a scheduled counseling session, the student will be offered an opportunity to join the waitlist.
When joining the waitlist, the student will be asked to schedule a time for a short screening phone call, and to provide their name, Student ID #, and phone #.
The screening phone call is a 10-15 minute call, and an opportunity for a CAPS clinician to discuss with the student what mental health concerns they are having and to make a plan for the student's care. As these conversations include discussion of the personal concerns of the student they should be taken in private.
When a student is contacted from the waitlist for an available appointment, they will receive a phone call, followed by an email if there was no answer. The student will have 24-hours after the email is sent to respond, otherwise the appointment will be offered to the next student on the list. If a student does not respond within 24-hours they will remain on the list and be contacted for the next available appointment. However, after being offered a second appointment and providing no response a student will be removed from the waitlist.
If a student is in psychological distress, or is considering harm to themselves or others, they are likely experiencing a mental health crisis and would benefit from urgent counseling hours.
CAPS provides urgent hours to students seeking brief services in times of crisis, and to help students identify next steps such as individual or group therapy, or connection to on and off-campus resources. The goal of urgent hours is to help students ensure their safety and create an individualized plan of action in collaboration with CAPS staff.
No appointments are necessary and urgent hours are first come, first serve.
Urgent Hours are offered at the CAPS office in PAVL 120, Mondays through Fridays, 11am - 1pm PST.
Contact our office if you have any additional questions.
If you or someone around you is experiencing an emergency or are in a crisis, please call one of the numbers below to get in touch with someone right away: