Student Counseling Services
Purpose
The Student Counseling Services is a caring group of professionals, committed to helping USC students overcome obstacles and realize their academic, professional and personal goals. Services are provided to help enhance students' skills and attitudes in adapting to college life; creatively handle stresses and challenges; relate to new and different people; and make their USC experience satisfying and productive.
Staff
The professional staff of the Student Counseling Services is an ethnically and educationally diverse group, which includes licensed psychologists, social workers and psychiatrists. They are highly trained and experienced in helping students successfully cope with a variety of issues and concerns that are common during their college experience. Additionally, advanced graduate interns in psychology and social work provide a variety of services to students.
Services
Counseling
Each year almost 2,000 students utilize the Student Counseling Services to increase their ability to reach academic and personal goals. Students may need help with coping with stress, relationships, fears about possible failure, dissatisfactions about themselves, or the discomfort of depression, guilt, anger or anxiety. Eligible students are those who pay the University Park student health fee. These students are evaluated to determine what services would best assist them at Student Counseling Services, on-campus or off-campus. Clinical services at Student Counseling Services include group counseling and short-term individual, couples, or psychiatric treatment. All personal information discussed in counseling is kept confidential. Sessions are free of charge.
Each semester a number of different counseling groups provide a unique opportunity to increase self-awareness and self-acceptance. In a supportive atmosphere with peers, there is a chance to experiment with new behaviors and exchange ideas with others. The counselor you see for your initial appointment will help you decide which group best fits your needs.
To initiate counseling, please call us at 740-7711 or come in to make an initial assessment appointment. At that time, you and the counselor will evaluate what your needs are and what type of help makes sense at this time.
Crisis Services
Crisis services are intended for use by students who genuinely require immediate assistance. Please call the center at 740-7711 and ask to speak with a crisis counselor. After hours, please call the center and press “0” at any time during the message and you will be connected with the triage nurse. In life-threatening emergencies, always call 911.
Referral Services
Many of our clients need services such as long-term individual psychotherapy, frequent or intensive individual counseling, family counseling, psychoeducational testing or another type of treatment not offered at Student Counseling Services. In addition, there are some students who prefer to be seen by a provider in the off-campus community. In these cases, we have a coordinator of referral services who can help find a practitioner to meet your needs. The coordinator can also explain how to use insurance to pay for these services.Consultation and Training
In addition to counseling students, the professional staff provides training to university personnel. This includes consultation to faculty or staff concerned about a distressed student, presentations to classes and training residence hall personnel.
The staff also provides workshops and consultation on stress management, assertiveness, communication skills and conflict resolution techniques as well as many other programs for staff, faculty and student organizations to enhance their work with students on campus.
Questions & Answers
Question: "Aren’t most people who seek counseling 'sick' or 'crazy'?"
Answer: Certainly not! Most students who come to Student Counseling Services are seeking personal growth and are responding to changes in their lives. For those few students with severe problems, Student Counseling Services is the place for them to come for help with distress.
Question: "What kinds of problems do students have?"
Answer: To name just a few: loneliness, depression, dating and sexual concerns, parental pressures, academic and study problems and pressures, tension, eating disorders, shyness, test anxiety and general worries or feelings of inferiority.
If you have other questions, please call (213) 740-7711 or visit usc.edu/student-affairs/Health_Center/cs.index.shtml.