Counselling

Welcome to the Counselling Service at UCLan which is staffed by a team of professionally trained and experienced therapists. We offer a free, confidential service to all registered UCLan students, which is open throughout the year, except during short periods over the Christmas and Easter Breaks.

Sessions

1. Following referral, you will be offered an Initial Assessment appointment with a therapist to establish if therapy is the most appropriate form of support for you.

2. If, following your initial assessment, 1-2-1 therapy is deemed as being appropriate for you, you will be entitled to receive up to a further five sessions.

3. In exceptional cases, additional sessions may be offered, but this is at the discretion of the Service Manager.

4. Therapy sessions are usually up to one hour. Appointments are subject to availability and can be negotiated with the Counsellor.

Appointments are available in Foster Building 119 (first floor) and in The Library. Appointments are available during the following times:

Term Time:

Monday  08:30 - 19:15
Tuesday  08:30 - 16:30
Wednesday  08:30 - 19:15
Thursday  08:30 - 16:45
Friday  08:30 - 16:30
Saturday  09:15 - 17:15

Outside of Term Time:

Monday  08:30 - 16:00
Tuesday  08:30 - 16:00
Wednesday 08:30 - 16:00

What can counselling help with?

Students come for counselling with a broad range of issues and difficulties including:

Whatever your difficulty, you are welcome and you will be treated with respect. Please visit our Self help with common issues page for more information.

Students with disabilities

The counselling team is accustomed to working with people from diverse backgrounds and with a wide range of issues.

Deaf Students

If you are a deaf student, currently we do not have a counsellor who can use sign language (BSL) however, we can arrange for either an interpreter or a counsellor who can work with you using BSL.

An Induction Loop System has been installed within our service.

Whatever your difficulty you are welcome and you will be treated with respect.

Many thanks to the University of Dundee for allowing us access to their website.

Useful Contacts

Headroom
Multi-Faith Centre
Medical Centre - 01772 892598
Samaritans - 116 123
It's Good to Talk

Cancellations and Lateness

1. Should we need to make any changes to your counselling appointment, we will contact you as soon as possible using the details you have provided.

2. If you cannot attend a session, please telephone Reception on 01772 892572 or email CoRecep@uclan.ac.uk as soon as you are able, giving as much notice as possible so that the time may be offered to other students.

3. If you are late for an appointment, this time will be lost from your sessions. If you are more than 15 minutes late the Counsellor will assume you are not attending. This will count as a missed appointment.

Cancelled Appointments (less than 48 hours before the appointment)

1. The first time you cancel an appointment you will be booked into the next available appointment

2. Further cancellations will result in you losing a week from your allocation of six sessions. There will be the opportunity to extend in exceptional circumstances however, this would need to be authorised.

3. If you cancel sessions more than twice in a block of six, we may need to discuss with you whether the therapy sessions will continue.

Non-Attendance (without notification)

1. If you do not attend a session without letting us know in advance, we will attempt to contact you as soon as possible afterwards.

• If we do not hear from you within 5 working days, we will assume that you no longer wish to attend. should you wish to book further appointments, your name will be put on the waiting list.

• If we are successful in contacting you and you can provide a reasonable explanations for non-attendance, you will be able to continue to access therapy. The time lost will be deducted from you allocation of six sessions.

2. Should you not attend for any subsequent sessions without notifying us, we will assume that you no longer with to attend. Should you later wish to book further appointments, your name will be put on the waiting list.

Other Agencies

There may come a time when it becomes clear that you may want or need further help from an outside source, for whatever reason. In this instance we will discuss what you feel you may find beneficial from this source, and how it may be achieved.

Records

1. Your attendance at any appointment with the Counselling Service is on the understanding that we will retain and use information regarding your engagement with the service

2. We keep records of personal details i.e. name, address, telephone number and a record of appointments. We also keep records of your initial assessment, monitoring questionnaire(s) and a brief summary of the main issues discussed in the therapeutic process.

3. We use the information for the following purposes:

   • Supervision of case work

   • Conferring between Counsellors and other members of the wider Student Services team on a need to know basis

   • The collection of anonymised data for the purposes of monitoring our service

   • Discharge of our statutory duties under the law, especially in relation to the safe guarding concerns or prevention of terrorism

4. Confidentiality will be broken, beyond the boundaries set above, only if required by law, it is deemed to be in the public interest, or if requested and agreed by you

5. Your records are kept for a further six years after the end of the year of our last appointment. Following this they will be destroyed

6. For further information please read the Student Services Privacy Statement