The Gown Student Newspaper at Queen's University Belfast

FEATURE: Counselling at Queen’s

Karen Boyd looks at Queen’s counselling services, and what they can offer students.

Let’s face it, university is a daunting prospect.  For students, the increased responsibility and independence, leaving the security of family and friends, combined with the pressure of graduating in an economically unstable environment can all contribute to overwhelming feelings.  Taking into account the hype of university life to be consistently ‘fun’, students who don’t live up to this generalised standard may be left feeling isolated and secluded.  For students who feel the need to talk to somebody, the Counselling Service at Queen’s strives to help individuals “work towards a more satisfying and resourceful experience of life”.

Approximately 400 Queen’s students a year request counselling support, with key problems affecting students identified as anxiety (28%), followed by depression (18%).  Prevalent issues also include problems associated with academic work, mood, relationships, loss, identity, abuse, eating disorders and alcohol.   However, as Senior Counsellor Dr. Nuala Quiery stresses, any sort of problem which worries students can be discussed- “any difficulty which causes distress is significant”.

So what should a student expect to experience or gain from counselling?

“A first visit to a counsellor is often referred to as an Assessment interview – during which the Counsellor finds out about the person and the particular difficulty or distress they are experiencing, during which both the individual and the counsellor explore whether counselling would be useful for them.” Dr. Quiery said.  Students are reassured that anything discussed is confidential, and kept completely separate from university records.  From sessions here on in, students have a chance to “acknowledge and resolve difficulties in ways best suited to themselves as individuals”.  The counsellors are described as “non-judgmental”, and tend to examine the person as a whole rather than the problem alone in hope of understanding the individual better.  In general, six counselling sessions are offered, but this is completely dependent on the student and can be extended if necessary.

The Counselling Service interlinks with other support services available at Queen’s such as the Disability Service and in particular, the Learning Development Programme, which can liaise with students facing academic difficulties, as a result giving both emotional and practical support.

The service boasts a range of positive feedback through its anonymous surveys- comments such as, “My sense of me as a person has improved and also my belief in myself”, would indeed suggest the positive effects of counselling in an individual’s life.  Further information regarding counselling and all other support services can be found at www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/sgc/counselling/

What do you think? Have you ever experienced the Counseling services at Queen’s? What can be done to help students feel more comfortable at university?

Tags: counselling, counsellor, qub, Queen's, queen's university, service, services, student

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 19th, 2009 at 11:16 pm and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.