Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) announced on April 17 that they would once again be offering single counseling sessions. Single counseling sessions are hour-long sessions, which give students the opportunity to meet with a CPS counselor for an extended period of time without the standard expectation of consultation or follow-up appointments.
In a statement to the ‘Prince,’ Director of Counseling and Psychological Services Calvin Chin noted that the end of spring semester is “a time of transition for students; they may be graduating, or about to travel out of the area for an extended period.” As a result, he thinks that students might find it more difficult to schedule follow-up appointments, making long, single sessions a more efficient choice for many.
Typically, students who wish to have a CPS session must do a 20-minute initial consultation with a CPS counselor in which they review their concerns and begin developing a plan that will address the student’s concerns and connect them with relevant resources.
Toru Obunge ’24, a Peer Health Advisor at Yeh College, wrote in a statement sent to the ‘Prince’ that “extended sessions at this time of the academic year especially make sense for struggling students who may not feel that ‘therapy’ — in terms of consistent counseling support — is something they need or have the time for.”
According to Obunge, “CPS has recently started to offer more ‘bite-sized’ versions of therapy, which is a good move towards making professional mental health support less stigmatized.”
Chin highlighted important decisions, anxiety from schoolwork, and stress about summer or returning home as some potential reasons why students might prefer single sessions.
Chin also wrote that “the sessions could also be of interest to students who have never tried counseling before and would like to see how a full session feels.”
Obunge further commented on this benefit of the program: “a surprising amount [of students] acknowledge their mental health struggles but feel that professional help is extreme or unnecessary.” Obunge believes that single counseling sessions may seem less daunting to students who are less comfortable with the idea of counseling.
While these are stand-alone, singular sessions, students do have the option at the end of their single counseling session to discuss if they would benefit from further counseling.
CPS will continue to offer 25 minute initial consultations as they have in the past. Obunge wrote that regular therapy sessions can be helpful because “an amazing one-off counseling session is hard to come by … finding the right person and taking the time to feel comfortable sharing with them is key to reaping long-term benefits of counseling.”
In September 2022, a mental health working group organized in a collaboration between the Undergraduate Student Government (USG), the Office of Campus Life, and University Health Services (UHS) published a final report regarding campus mental health resources, calling on CPS to increase counseling availability.
The report found that while CPS clients generally described being satisfied with the services provided, students experience long wait times when seeking CPS services. As a result, the report recommended decreasing wait times at CPS and expanding drop-in counseling hours, among other recommendations.
Last week, a check-in on the status of changes recommended by the report found that many of the goals are on track — including decreasing CPS wait times.
In a recent interview with the ‘Prince,’ Vice President for Campus Life Rochelle Calhoun said, “the average wait time for an initial consultation this past semester has been 3 days, and the average wait time for an intake after the initial consultation has been a week.”
This is a decrease from the initial report, which found that the average wait time for an initial CPS consultation was 5.22 days, with the average wait between initial consultation and intake being 14.75 days.
Students can now make appointments for single counseling sessions, which are offered both in-person and online through Telehealth, on their MyUHS portals. According to Director Chin, they will be available on a limited basis from April 24 through May 12.
Jeannie Kim is a Features and News staff writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please direct any corrections requests to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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