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Rutgers Health ServicesCounseling and Psychological Services(CAPS) Counseling Services
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| Undergraduate and graduate students experience a great many stresses in their lives - sorting out one's identity, establishing and maintaining important relationships, coping with anxiety and depression, working on changing relationships with parents and other family members, dealing with losses, handling new academic demands, and dealing with reactions to one's differentness. To help with these tasks, Counseling and Psychological Services provides a variety of psychological counseling services for all students of Rutgers University in New Brunswick/Piscataway, undergraduate and graduate. Services are free, and confidentiality is guaranteed within legal and ethical guidelines. Counseling and Psychological Services was created in September, 2006, by joining the major mental health services on campus into one organization, as part of the Rutgers Health Service. Besides the College Avenue offices (formerly Rutgers College Counseling Center), counseling offices of Counseling and Psychological Services are located on the Cook/Douglass, and Livingston campuses. Psychiatric Services and the Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Program for Students (ADAPS) are also part of CAPS now.
Who can use Counseling and Psychological Services?Counseling and Psychological Services provides services for all students at Rutgers in New Brunswick.In order to be seen for couples counseling, both members of the couple must be Rutgers University students. If one of the members of the couple is not a Rutgers University student, they will be offered off-campus referrals for the couples counseling or for thier own individual work. We do not provide counseling or other services by e-mail or other electronic media. People not affiliated with Rutgers should seek help from a local university or community service.
Why do students come for counseling?Most people come to CAPS when their usual ways of handling problems aren't working well for some reason. They may have found, for instance, that talking to friends or family about their problem is impossible or unsatisfying. Many students who come feel upset in some way - depressed, angry, scared, or confused. These upsetting feelings may have been set off by a number of situations:
How do you make an appointment for counseling?You can make an appointment for counseling by calling the main counseling office at 732-932-7884. You can also stop in at the Senior Street counseling office during office hours. We will offer you an initial telephone screening appointment, usually on the same day. This first screening appointment will last approximatley 15 minutes and help us to determine the most appropriate kind of help to offer you. This initial contact will give you a chance to say what has been bothering you and to talk with a counselor about what options are available for further counseling. When you call for an appointment, we will ask you for your name, phone number, and Rutgers ID number. The phone number will be used only to call to confirm an appointment, or to change it if necessary. When we call, if you aren't there we would usually leave a neutral message saying, "Please call about our meeting," or something like that, instead of saying Counseling and Psychological Services called.Keeping appointments is very important. If an emergency arises, please notify us as soon as possible that you will not be able to make your appointment. This allows us to offer the time to another student. As you may have experienced, there are times when the demand for services means that clients have to wait (longer than any of us would like) to be seen.
What happens during the first contact with Counseling and Psychological Services?The first thing you will do is speak to a staff counselor on the telephone for about 15 minutes. During this initial contact with the counselor, several things will be accomplished. First, you will have a chance to describe why you are seeking counseling, and why you chose this particular time to do so. Also of interest will be things like how long you have been troubled by this problem, what you have tried in the past to solve it, whether it resembles problems you have had in the past, something about your family background, and other possible areas of interest like a history of abuse, substance use, and general health. At the end of the initial contact the counselor will review with you the various choices available. These usually include:
Group counseling: The best choice for you?Counseling groups are often the best way to work on problems, especially when the problems deal with issues about your relationship with other people. A group gives you contact with a few of your peers, along with a counselor, who are not part of your everyday life and so can give you more useful feedback. It is also a safe environment where you can test out different ways of acting with others. The specific groups available each semester vary in theme and time, but in recent semesters we have offered groups for: students with eating disorders, students with general interpersonal issues, women over 30, graduate students in helping professions, and general graduate student interpersonal groups. For more information, see Group Therapy: Often the ideal assistance. You can also connect to a list of groups currently being offered.
Other common questions about counseling
For comments on this web-site, contact Mark J. Forest, Ph.D. or call 732-932-3966.
This page last updated: June 27, 2007 Rutgers, the State University is an equal opportunity affirmative action institution.
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