The Counseling Center: An Overview
The Counseling Center is a unit of the Division of Student Life, and the Director reports to the Vice President of Student Life. The Counseling Center’s mission is to provide services and programs that promote the personal development and psychological well-being of students. The Center also seeks to encourage a University atmosphere that is conducive to growth and that maximizes students’ educational attainments. The Counseling Center is the full-range mental health service on campus providing individual, couples, and group psychotherapy from a variety of theoretical orientations. Other services include personal /social counseling, career and academic counseling, crisis intervention, and referral support for counseling or psychiatric care. The Center also offers outreach and education programs to student groups, as well as consultation to and collaboration with campus agencies and departments. We are proud to have been one of the first Counseling Centers in the US to have an APA-accredited Doctoral Internship.
A wide range of clients of different ages and background present not only with developmental issues typical in a college setting, but also with significant psychopathology (e.g., PTSD, anxiety disorders, major depression, personality disorders, psychosis, eating disorders). In dealing with psychiatric emergencies and more seriously disturbed students, the Counseling Center works in close conjunction with the Dean of Students Office, Residence Life, UMaine Police Department, and staff at Cutler Health Services. Clinicians at the Counseling Center spend approximately half of their time providing direct clinical services. Remaining hours are devoted to collaboration, consultation, outreach and education programming, staff development, and training.
Services at the Counseling Center are provided by a multi-disciplinary staff comprised of three licensed psychologists, three licensed clinical social workers, two psychology doctoral interns, a masters of social work clinical interns, and an extern from the UMaine Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program. We are supported by an amazing administrative support staff member. The Counseling Center staff offices are located on one side of the Cutler Health Building. The other side of the building contains UMaine’s on-campus medical health-related services for students, staff & faculty (Cutler Health Center, operated by Northern Light Health). Our offices are quite spacious and comfortable (with windows!). Our staff functions in a highly integrated way, both in the planning and the delivery of services. There is a weekly staff meeting devoted to administrative, operational, and programmatic issues, as well as clinical disposition. Interns will have an opportunity to work conjointly with professionals from various physical and mental health disciplines and with other student life professionals, thus expanding their skills professional interdisciplinary skills and perspectives.