Clark University counseling services has been there in times of need for many of us. Yet many people have also faced the discontents of an overburdened mental health service paired with the onslaught of a mental health epidemic. According to the APA, 41.6 percent of college students in America suffer from anxiety, and 36.4 percent suffer from depression. Just putting those numbers in perspective, it is understandable that the counseling center struggles to find time for every student struggling with mental health issues.
Counseling services offered by Clark are short-term, and each student can make 6 appointments in a semester. For a lot of students, this is not enough. Though counseling services does refer you to in-patient services for longer term treatment, this can be expensive due to travel off-campus and co-payments. After struggling to find a therapy that matches my needs, I ran into a leaflet hanging in Jonas Clark that offered something different. Clark University’s psychology department offers psychotherapy services for students free of cost, under Dr. Kathleen Palm Reed. They also offer couples therapy for couples facing relationship problems, or are simply looking to check-up on the health of their relationship. It is part of a program run by the clinical psychology department, and the free therapy services are offered as a practical for graduate level students.
The treatment runs throughout the semester, with an initial hour-long session followed by 50-minute session every week. The therapy sessions take place in Jonas Clark as well, in a comfortable and professional therapy room. The session starts with a check in on your current mental health status by filling in some questionnaires. For me, it progressed into my background and a description of my typical day, which gradually turned into delving deeper into problem solving regarding my anxiety. The sessions focus on mindfulness as a way of coping with anxiety, by practicing how to differentiate harmful thoughts from the reality of a situation. Other exercises included identifying priorities, and ways to keep judgmental imperative thoughts at bay.
Though they sound similar, psychotherapy and counseling have some differences. Counseling is short term, and more focused on problem solving for particular issues. For those with more generalized problems, psychotherapy might be a better alternative. It usually consists of discussing past experiences or traumatic events that might lead to a pattern of behaviors that someone is unhappy with. My personal experience with the service is very satisfactory. I am someone for whom actions work better than discussion, the therapy works as it is focused on sets of exercises as solutions to problems. For those who prioritize privacy, each session is recorded for sharing later with other graduate students in the same program, though strict confidentiality is maintained in every way.
Those who are interested in accessing this service next semester can call 508-793-7269 to set up and appointment and talk about details of the program.
