INDIVIDUAL COUNSELINGPLU's Counseling Center offers short-term confidential counseling for
individual students. Counselors can make referrals for long-term
therapy, specialized therapy, and medication. |
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A NOTE REGARDING CONFIDENTIALITY
Scheduling a First Appointment Please call
or stop by the center to make an intake
appointment. Intake appointments are generally scheduled within a
few days of making contact with our office, depending
on the time of the semester. If you feel that your concerns are
urgent or life threatening, please express these feelings to the person
scheduling your appointment.We will need to gather a bit of information from you at the time of scheduling therefore, we ask that you call or stop by rather than e-mailing, so that we can have that dialogue with you. However we do welcome your e-mailed correspondence for any other reason. When scheduling a first appointment, we will ask if you prefer a male or female counselor, and then schedule with whoever has an opening first. If you would like to request a specific counselor, please let us know. At this time, we do not provide reminder calls for first time appointments, so please be sure to write down your appointment time in a prominent place. If you need to cancel or reschedule for any reason, kindly give 24 hours of notice to our office so that another student may utilize the appointment time. We ask that you arrive 15 minutes before your first appointment to complete the necessary paperwork. Simply check in at the front desk, and our administrative assistant will hand you the forms needed. After completing the intake paperwork, your counselor will meet you in the lobby and show you to his/her office. Counseling sessions are generally 50-60 minutes per session, so when you make your appointment please be sure to plan your schedule accordingly. During the Intake AppointmentAfter
a few brief formalities, you and the counselor will explore the
concern(s) that caused you to come for a visit. Often, the counselor
will want to learn about the overall context of your life, as it's
easier to help you if we know this. Finally, you and the counselor
will discuss the next step in terms of counseling but also other
resources that may be helpful.Referring Someone Else to Counseling ServicesWe
encourage parents, faculty, staff and peers to refer students whom they
feel could benefit from our services. However, please be aware that
due to confidentiality laws, we cannot schedule an appointment for the
student through a third party, the student will need to contact us
directly. To learn more about recognizing when it is appropriate or
necessary to refer someone to counseling services, please visit our
page for Concerned Others.
If you would like to help a student schedule an appointment, you are
welcome to walk them to our office, or be with them when they make the
intial phone call to our office. |
Psychiatric ServicesDr. Mary Simonson is the psychiatrist for the
Counseling Center at PLU. She is on campus on Thursdays to provide
medication management and psychiatric care to PLU students. Students interested in meeting with a Dr. Simonson will need to first schedule an intake appointment with one of the counselors or psychologists on our staffs. If you have been seeing a mental health professional outside PLU, Dr. Simonson may request for you to send a copy of those medical records to ensure continuity of care. |
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Communication
with your counselor will be kept confidential and will not be shared
with anyone outside of the Counseling Center unless you give us written
authorization to do so. Your counseling records are not a part of your
academic record, and which means no one other than the counseling staff
will have access to your records. There are a few rare times when
exceptions to confidentiality are mandated or permitted by law. For
more information you can download and read our