Counselling?
Counselling is free, confidential, and available to all enrolled NEW COLLEGE students. You can talk about personal or academic issues, whether large or small, and it’s okay to be upset, uncertain, anxious or angry.
Counselling aims to help you explore and clarify problems and issues that matter to you. It may help develop resources and skills to cope with difficulties. It may help you get through a distressing time in your life.
We the Counsellors, try to listen to what you are really saying, to accept you and respect your feelings. We will not tell you what to do, but we can help you make your own decisions.
Counselling also offers the opportunity for you to get to know yourself better and to develop your potential as a person. You may want to take this opportunity to explore and work through unresolved issues in your earlier life. It is your time.
Who is it for?
You can tell the Counsellor about anything that is bothering you, however large or small you think the problem is, and whether it is related to your studies or your personal life. Experience shows that it’s often best to catch a difficulty early on, before it has the chance to grow. But counselling can help even if you have reached crisis point and everything seems impossible.
Your counsellor won’t be judgemental, or shocked by what you tell them. They won’t trivilalise anything important to you. It is okay if your concern is about something that happened years ago, such as child abuse, parental break-up or bereavement. You may feel worried, depressed, confused or anxious, because of work or exams, difficulties at home, a broken relationship, money problems… or no reason at all.
Some typical questions and concerns:
- My parents are getting a divorce..
- I’m panicking about my presentation..
- I’ve just split up with my girlfriend..
- I can’t cope – I think I’m going mad
- I feel really low and anxious..
- I’m behind with my work and can’t get motivated
- My friends are worried that I have an eating disorder
- I’m pregnant and I don’t know what to do
- Sometimes I feel so desperate I want to hurt myself
- My Mum died and no one understands
- I’m worried about telling my friends that I’m gay
Is it confidential?
Your counsellor will not normally give information to anyone else without your permission. The only time a counsellor might break confidentiality is if there is a serious risk of harm to you or others, or in the rare cases where required by law.
The Service collects statistics about numbers of students attending and the types of problems they bring:
The Counsellors also keep their own records of work with individual students. All counselling records are strictly confidential and are kept securely, in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act (1998).
How long does it last?
Counselling sessions will normally last 45 minutes. Even if you are late the appointment will end on time. If you are delayed, however, we still suggest that you attend for your appointment.
At the end of the first meeting it will be discussed if counselling will continue on a weekly basis or maybe no further appointments are needed. Or there may be another way of resolving your problem which the Counsellor can help with you with.
You will typically receive six counselling sessions.
Would you like to speak to someone?
The service is staffed by professionally trained and experienced counsellors. We also provide placements for students who are furthering their training. There are currently 3 counsellors available: Fiona Moores, Paulette Snudden, and Carole Horton.
You can request an appointment by filling out the short form below. You will need to sign-in with your Office 365 account if asked.
What else can I do?
If you do not want formal counselling, we also offer a ‘Drop-in‘ service. This runs between 12-1pm, Monday to Friday in rooms BG23 & 24 in Queens Drive. This does not require an appointment and can be utilised as and when you feel you need some support. Alternatively New College subscribes to:
Alternatively, New College subscribes to Togetherall.com. It is FREE to all students, providing safe, confidential support and community 24/7.
In addition, we have a number of self-help guide‘s for common problems: