I thought it might be useful to take a few moments to talk about our clinical availability at the UCC, and how we intentionally manage that.  To start, we generally operate under a brief therapy model with an individual counseling “limit” of 12 sessions per academic year.

We have different types of appointments based on the need of the student contacting us.  The most urgent and higher risk issues that are identified to our front desk staff – whether for a brand new client or someone who has utilized our services before –  will either be seen immediately or within the same day.  For new clients who do not identify as having a highly urgent need, they are able to choose our next available “Initial Visit” appointment (check out this page for what to expect from your first visit to the UCC).  Two things I’m most proud of regarding our clinical service:  we never keep a “Wait List”, and our wait times for non-urgent first appointments varies between 6-8 days from the time appointment is made (if you don’t have a frame of reference, that’s really good!).

Thankfully, as I hope is readily apparent across our website, we are also available for urgent mental health concerns after 5:00pm and before 8:30am and on weekends throughout the year.  Just call 336.758.5273.

Regarding session “limits”: I use quotes around “limit” because we are also very flexible.  In the first session or two, both the clinician and the client get to know one another, identify the issues that would be most helpful to be addressed, and then identify the resources that would best be utilized to help meet those needs.  Sometimes out of preference or clinical necessity, that involves finding a clinical specialist in the Winston-Salem community who can best treat the client’s specific needs.  In that case, we will meet with the student to provide support until that first appointment is able to be attended.  If there is a circumstance where a person can’t reasonably travel to appointments or utilizing insurance is contraindicated, we will continue to be available to the student as much as our schedules can support and the clinical issues indicate are needed – so we might go over the 12 sessions.  In sum, we can’t see every student every week, but we will always work to find the best way to meet the needs of each student.

Hope this is a helpful primer to understanding how we approach being available to our beloved students!

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