Staff referring students
When should you refer a student for counselling?
Some students will approach and entrust you with their difficulties; others cope by avoiding, escaping or communicating them indirectly e.g. through deteriorating attendance and academic performance.
You may notice changes in appearance, manner, behaviour or attidudes indicative of underlying difficulties. If so, take the initiative to contact the students and follow up missed appointments. Encourage them to talk by asking open-ended supportive questions that aid thinking and feeling; maintain role and confidentiality boundaries; take all difficulties seriously, especially suicidal concerns; provide the student with information about counselling help.
Referrals are advisable when the relationship with the student is either inadequate or too intense and overwhelming; when your support is not addressing the problem effectively or when the latter is beyond pastoral concerns and competences.
However do bear in mind that counselling is a cooperative venture and it is important therefore that students take responsibility for the decision to seek counselling once you have suggested that that they might consider this form of help. You can always consult the Counsellors about problematic referrals within the constraints of confidentiality on both sides.
How does the Counselling Service operate?
Students can access the service by completing the Student Assessment Form and sending it to counsellingassessmentform@gold.ac.uk or through collecting a paper copy from the service administrator and posting this back to us. Students needing assistance to complete the from should contact the service administrator who will arrange this. The assessment form is comprehensive inculding a number of personal questions offering the student to reflect upon their reasons for accessing counselling and the clinical team to identify appropriate support.
The student will then be offered an assessment appointment with a counsellor as soon as a space becomes available. The purpose of the assessment session is to explore the nature of their problems and decide together the best way forwards. A number of options will be considered such as individual counselling, group therapy or referral to an external psychotherapist if long term therapy is indicated.
Students who undertake individual counselling will be offered a contract normally for a maximum of 6 sesssions usually on a weekly basis. Each session lasts 50 minutes.
Students come to Counselling for a variety of reasons and at different stages of experiencing difficulties. There is no 'list' of acceptable issues to bring to Counselling.
As well as offering individual counselling, the Counsellors facilitate groups and workshops (e.g. a "stress and anxiety management" group, a workshop on "managing exams", and one on "finding your voice in seminars".)
Details of these are publicised around College. You can also contact us on extension 7472 to obtain further details.
The Counselling Service is a confidential service. All the Counsellors abide by British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy's Ethical Framework which means we cannot discuss details of the counselling sessions without the signed consent of the client. The only exception to this would be if we considered the student to pose a danger to him/herself or others.
However, if you are concerned about a particular student and want to discuss your worries, counselling staff are available for this purpose. Equally students sometimes recognize that it would be in their interests for us to liaise with their tutors and give us their consent to do so.
We aim to offer all students an assessment appointment within I to 2 weeks. We also offer a daily emergency appointment.
There is occasionally a waiting list for ongoing counselling but we do our best to ensure that students do not normally have to wait more than 3-4 weeks even at our busiest times.
Staff training and development
The Counsellors provide staff training from time to time. They initiate training schemes but they are also happy to respond to requests for training from individual departments.
Counselling Service publications for staff
- More detailed guidelines about how and when to refer students to the Counselling Service
- How to deal with difficult & disturbing situations
- Post-Traumatic Stress
- Personal Tutoring