Individual Counseling

Students can receive individual counseling for up to 12 sessions per semester, at a maximum rate of 1 session per week.   We need to introduce this session limit to ensure that we can serve as many students as possible.  However, this session limit also helps students be more intentional and focused with their sessions, and this can make the overall counseling experience more effective.  Students also have access to additional counseling via TimelyCare, provided free as long as you use your Emory email to sign up for those services.  For students that are facing issues that require longer-term counseling or more intensive outpatient services, our counselors can help you identify a provider in the private practice sector or students can access Thriving Campus for Emory students to identify a provider. 

Counseling is a collaborative process which is supported by the unique, confidential, helping relationship that develops between the counselor and the client. In this relationship, the counselor acts as a facilitator in helping the client achieve either greater self-understanding and/or find solutions to the problems the client hopes to resolve.

Why Do Students Seek Counseling?

The term “mental-health” is one that, perhaps, is too narrow to describe the range of issues and experiences that counselors at CCW help students address. The list, below, offers only a small sample of the kinds of things that students address in counseling sessions.

• I feel so tired all the time and cannot seem to get my energy back this semester.
• I think I may be struggling with depression.
• I need help sorting out some conflicts or tension with family members.
• All the time on Zoom allows me to see others but I still feel pretty alone most of the time.
• I'm struggling with a loss of motivation for things that usually are very important to me.
• I'm overwhelmed by the explicit violence and microaggressions that this oppressive world inflicts on us.
• I seem to be worrying all the time or feel disrupted by too much anxiety.
• I need skills and tools to best pursue academic and professional goals.
• I'm feeling lonely, like I don't belong here.
• I'm feeling excessive worry about performance, success, or the future.
• I'm going through an experience of loss and would benefit from help navigating this grieving.
• I'm experiencing confusion about evolving values and personal priorities.
• I feel like I am not respected for who I am, and it's hard to be myself here.
• I'm overwhelmed by all the things I need to do to reach my goals.
• I'm realizing there are aspects of my identity that I need to explore more and I would like some help in understanding myself better.
• I'm having a difficult time managing or navigating my emotions and/or my moods.
• I'm having a hard time dealing with everything going on these days (on campus and/or beyond) and I want some help processing and putting things into a perspective that doesn't leave me feeling distressed most of the time.
• I'm still impacted by things that happened to me (or that I was a part of) at some point in the past, and I need help healing from and/or navigating the harmful impacts of this on my life.
• I keep trying to change this particular behavior and, in spite of my intentions, have not made those changes.

Some of the students that seek our services suffer from a diagnosable mental illness or some significant psychological impairment, and they are able to successfully navigate their college careers. However, whether students meet the criteria for a psychological disorder or not, our clients are typically dealing with the life issues that are expected during this period of life and in the particular setting of a highly competitive college, such as ours.

You may find that some of the examples listed above fit what you're experiencing, or you may have some struggle not included in that list. Regardless, it's important to remember that you're more likely to grow, heal, and learn when you're able to share your experiences with someone you trust. We encourage you to consider what family members, friends, or even faculty or staff might be among those that you can open up to, as you become part of a supportive and caring community. If you feel that, at this point, speaking with a counselor at CCW that has expertise in the experiences of college students, consider scheduling an appointment with us.