Counseling services are offered at most if not all colleges. They are supposed to be there to help those of us suffering from things such as losses, crisis, mental health disorders, and maybe even just someone to talk to. Counseling offers are of a wide variety, and luckily at many colleges, they come with our tuition. The question that this article asks is mainly, do these services help us and are they worth giving a try?
As of recent, I had a communicated with a friend who is a college student, and she felt she was done disservice from the counseling system at her college. She was struggling with anxiety about graduating and other personal problems and needed someone to talk to. When she went to the counseling service at her college, they turned her away saying that they don't deal with those sort of issues.
Her main complaint to me was, if it is supposed to be a means of help for students, what exactly are they there for? They are supposed to be an extra set of ears to help students sort out their problems, and the service rejected her need for help.
My freshman year I visited the college counseling office myself. I was told that anxiety and panic disorders weren't something they specialized with, so I was given a few "anxiety" pamphlets and suggested therapists for me. At the time, it was upsetting to me because I needed someone to just listen...and what good is a counseling service if they can't do just that? I didn't need a therapist at that time, and it made me feel as if I was being stigmatized for my normal college issues.
The question remains if we as students are paying for these services inside our tuition, why aren't we getting what we need out of them? Many of us are struggling with personal mental issues and need someone to help us counsel and sort our problems out. We need clarity, a safe place as students to feel like someone cares when our world is crashing down around us.
I personally believe that colleges as a whole could really benefit their students in working to make us feel we have someone to talk to or a place to go when we are dealing with insane amounts of issues or stress. We should feel like our colleges are there for us, and not turning us away because they can't handle what is going on with us.
It is something that I have heard multiple people speak on recently and I thought that this article would possibly help raise awareness for college counseling because those of us who are struggling with something might need a little extra support.
