Mental Health Counseling Services Available at Center for Counseling and Transfer
The Center for Counseling and Transfer (CCT) is best known for offering help to students intending to transfer to another school. However, the CCT is actually a much broader counseling service that also offers free personal and psychological counseling to all students. “We have staff who are licensed mental health counselors or working towards licensure and who are trained to provide that type of individualized counseling,” said Dr. Kelly Sweener, director of the CCT.
According to Sweener, there is no problem too big or too small for a student to seek counseling services. The CCT has an open door policy and the counselors are prepared to deal with a very wide variety of issues that may be causing a student distress. “It could be interpersonal stressors, like problems with their family or friends, it could be psychological stress associated with conditions like anxiety, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders… a range of issues,” said Sweener. The personal counseling services have a strict level of confidentiality, so students can be assured that any personal issues discussed with a CCT counselor will remain private. “If [students] meet with a counselor to discuss personal issues, that information is kept private, it’s confidential, [and] it’s not a part of any other academic record,” said Sweener.
She said that the range of services the CCT provides also acts to students’ advantage. “What’s nice about us providing both [types of counseling] is that for students who are coming in for personal counseling, there’s no stigma associated with it because students could be coming in for any number of issues,” said Sweener. In addition to Sweener, the members of the CCT staff that administer psychological and personal counseling include Larry Ellis, Sara Donnelly, and Carrie Zurenko.
Students can choose to come in to talk to a counselor for just a one-time counseling session or meet with a counselor on a weekly or biweekly basis for as long as they need help while attending HVCC. The counselors are also available during the summer, in addition to the fall and spring semesters. Although these counselors are all trained to provide help with any mental health problems interfering with a student’s life, the CCT also makes referrals if students require a greater level of care and treatment. Students can meet with a CCT counselor and later seek a referral to an outside service provider if they feel they need more help. They can also simply go the CCT and directly ask for a referral. Sweener said, “We always treat students within our area of expertise or scope of practice… but really any problem that a student’s struggling with, we would be a good resource.”
With regard to outside referrals, the CCT counselors also provide assistance with finding outside providers that will accept a student’s insurance. Every full-time student at HVCC also has student health insurance that is accepted by many mental health care providers, and the CCT can help a student find those providers. The benefits of student health insurance particularly come into play if a student is need of psychiatric medications such as antidepressants. The CCT, while unable to provide them directly, also makes referrals to places that can prescribe them. “Student health insurance will cover that; it’ll at least cover a good portion of the cost of that. That’s really important to make treatment accessible to our students. We know that we don’t want cost to be the barrier,” said Sweener.
The mental health services offered by the CCT also include free online mental health screenings, presentations in college forum and other classes, Project Aware, which is a peer education and community awareness program, and awareness outreach during Counseling Awareness Month every April. In addition to mental health services, the CCT provides transfer counseling, which includes absolutely anything related to transferring to another school. “We have what we call adviser-in-residence, [in which] four year college reps come to our campus and students get to meet with a four year college rep right here on our campus. We also coordinate two transfer fairs a year, one in the fall and one in the spring,” said Sweener. The CCT is also responsible for administering CLEP and DSST, which are programs for getting college credit by exam only, for certain academic courses.
Helping students apply for and obtain an academic waiver is yet another service offered by the CCT.
“If a student needs to do a complete withdrawal due to medical reasons or a death in the family, or winds up not passing courses because of circumstances beyond his or her control and it impacts their federal financial aid, they could be eligible for this one-time waiver,” Sweeney said. The CCT staff encourages all students to take advantage of the various services they offer, whether for transfer counseling or personal counseling.
Sweener said, “I want [students] to know that we have an open door policy and I want them to feel welcome here. We’re here to support them so that ultimately they can be successful.”
For more information on the CCT and the services they offer, visit www.hvcc.edu/cct/ or stop by their office in CTR 260.