Counseling Services

Anyone experiencing academic or personal difficulties such as (but not limited to) these:

• thoughts of hurting oneself or someone else
• depression
• anxiety
• anger
• relational problems
• drug or alcohol problems
• pornography
• panic
• hearing/seeing things that others don’t
• feeling out of touch with reality
• marriage and family problems
• unmanageable stress
• eating disorders
• sleep problems
• slipping grades
• other issues you would like to talk about to someone!

Absolutely not. Many people use the services of a counselor, whether a pastor, psychologist, professional counselor or social worker, when life becomes difficult. Some people have issues they need to talk about. Other people may have serious mental health problems that require professional treatment. There is nothing wrong or crazy about asking for help when you are dealing with a difficult situation.

Your meeting with your counselor is strictly confidential – however, there are some limitations. Your counselor will discuss those limitations with you when you meet. 

If you make an appointment ahead of time, you and your counselor will meet for approximately 50 minutes. You will fill out some paperwork, then sit down and talk about the problem you are dealing with. Your counselor will get some history, possibly create some goals, and maybe even give you some homework! Counseling is brief, usually lasting no more than 9 sessions.

It depends on you and your situation. We will assess it as we go along, but normally we don’t go more than 10 sessions. This is considered brief therapy. We may meet weekly, biweekly, or monthly – depending on your needs and scheduling. Counseling sessions last approximately 50 minutes.

It is the practice of Emmanuel University Counseling Services staff not to have clients as students in a class the counselor is teaching. This is done to protect both the counselor and the student from any unethical “dual relationship” roles.

Emmanuel University counselors generally exercise a rule of thumb called, “You first, every time.” This means your counselor will not initiate interaction with you outside the office. If you are comfortable speaking to your counselor in public, he or she will respond, just not initiate any contact.

The reason is that some clients do not want others to know they are seeing a counselor – it is a private matter. For others, it is okay. Since your counselor sees many people and will probably not be able to remember whom to speak to and whom not to speak to first, the general rule is that he or she will not initiate contact.

No. Counseling Services are free for Emmanuel University students.

It is the practice of Emmanuel University Counseling Services staff not to have clients as friends on any social networking site. This is done to protect both the counselor and the student from any unethical “dual relationship” roles.

Counselors will work with the EU student, a spouse or other friends or family members (if they are involved in the issue), but the student will always be the “identified patient.” In other words, the student must always be the person with whom we are directly working.

The Counseling Services Department is an internship training site for some graduate programs. All interns are supervised by the Director of Counseling and fully capable of providing counseling services to you. The intern and supervisor are bound by the same confidentiality rules that your counseling intern explained to you. Your information will not be shared outside of the counseling/supervisor relationship.

On your initial meeting and maybe the second, we will go over some paperwork, and you may possibly be asked to do an assessment or two. We will get to know each other and talk about some of your history.

From that point, it depends on your situation. We will talk a lot about specific things you can do and skills you can practice to help create positive change in your life.

Please understand – counseling is not a passive activity. If you sit in a counselor’s office for an hour a week and do nothing outside of that, you can probably expect little change. If you are willing to be honest with yourself and your counselor, work hard and practice outside the counseling office, you will find success.