In the last 30 years, universities and colleges have been strongly encouraged to consider the impact these systems have on health promoting behaviors for students, staff, faculty, and surrounding communities. Higher Education Institutions are prime settings to promote prevention and outreach efforts for positive mental health. University and…

There is a great deal of attention, in professional communities and the lay public, to a college mental health crisis. This article will review the dominant narrative of this situation, identifying and challenging the common elements of the narrative. The author will locate this college mental health crisis narrative in historical context,…

College and university counseling centers have maintained core practices of advanced scheduling, thorough psychosocial assessment before treatment, and traditional 50-minute psychotherapy sessions since their inception in the mid-late 1900s. This approach has become challenged in the current university mental health landscape, which has seen a…

One of the most significant changes to college mental health is the growing use of telehealth vendors to provide, extend, or augment mental health services provided by college and university counseling centers. In a time of sharply increased demand for services, new investments in the mental health marketplace, and the perception that mental…

This article describes the design and implementation of an embedded therapy dog program through the counseling center at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. This program involves having a certified therapy dog present in the counseling center, in the waiting area, during counseling appointments, and during group therapy. It is discussed the…

Directors of color at college counseling centers face many challenges. In this article, three directors of color will describe the issues they face on a daily basis working in predominantly white institutions to illustrate how racial identities intersect with leadership. Included among the dynamics explored are the external pressures of…

When determining how best to help reduce the distress that exists among today's college students, it is believed that proactive, on-campus programming is a beneficial supplement to on-campus resources that are often utilized after concerns already exist. Helping students develop resiliency skills is one proactive measure that is believed to…

College counseling centers are experiencing a surging in demand for services that is unaccompanied by an equivalent growth in resources. A possible solution to this disparity is the adoption of a service paradigm founded on ultra-brief therapies, episodic treatments, and the walk-in model of mental health delivery. These models fit both the…

The Center for Collegiate Mental Health found that between 2009 and 2015, colleges saw an increase in counseling center use by up to 40 percent, despite only a 5 percent increase in enrollment. The most common concerns among college students are anxiety and depression. Experts point out that this increase could be attributed to students being more…

The authors outline a four-factor model and philosophy for college mental health services that addresses the loss of comprehensiveness in some centers due to changes in organizational structure. Given research on demand for services and retention of those seen in centers, emphasis is placed in particular upon the value of consultation, outreach,…

Administrative writing is a crucial skill needed for the counseling center professional to be able to transmit knowledge and values for the rest of the campus community. This article highlights both conceptual and technical aspects of effective writing.

In this article, Georgetown University Counseling and Psychiatric Service director Philip Meilman discusses two distinct emerging pressures faced by directors of college and university counseling centers. The first of these is the pressure to provide more of, and an increasing range of, counseling and psychiatric services. The second is related:…

University Counseling Centers (UCCs) experience high clinical demands and severe client presentations leaving counselors with limited time and resources to evaluate delivery of services. In this article, we present clinician-friendly quality improvement (QI) strategies used at a large Midwestern university and provide recommendations for…

As one of the 30 community college presidents taking part in the American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC) Pathways Project, El Paso Community College (EPCC) President William Serrata is learning from coaches and national experts at each of six Pathways Institutes run by AACC. He also has a key state-level resource that allows him to…

College students may be misdiagnosed as personality disordered when in fact their problems are better explained by their upbringing. Growing up with a personality disordered parent may cause them to initially present with what appear to be personality disordered traits due to issues such as not learning adequate coping skills. Accurate diagnosis…