Your Role

Most Counseling Center clients are self-referred, but many others come at the suggestion of faculty members, fellow students and administrators. Faculty members may be the first to become aware of students' psychological concerns because they participate directly in daily aspects of student life.

Faculty and staff members frequently serve as idealized versions of adults for students, an idealization that helps them differentiate him/herself from the family. This creates a unique opportunity for you to be helpful and to guide students at times when personal problems interfere with educational goals.

However, it is important for you to recognize that students may be vulnerable to unrealistic expectations of your power to solve complex or long-standing personal issues. In assisting students with personal concerns at a time when they are negotiating their entrance to the adult world, it is important for you to keep in mind the gap between your own wish to be helpful and the limited ability to alter personal problems quickly.

Assisting Students with Personal Issues

You may help the student by:

  • Being clear in your relationship with the student about your academic/professional role and boundaries. Demonstrate your willingness to help. At the same time, be clear about the limits of your ability to help.
  • Creating an atmosphere in which the student can discuss his/her situation with the aim of reaching a decision jointly on the best steps to take.
  • Demonstrating your familiarity with support services on campus. Make the student aware of these options, helping him/her to decide which is the most appropriate to the situation.
  • Being aware that your own areas of personal vulnerability may cloud your objectivity or disrupt the maintenance of professional boundaries.
  • Respecting that students may feel unrealistically vulnerable to the power that they imagine you have over their lives and futures.
  • Appreciating that you may have a special meaning to the student as the only person or only adult in whom he/she has confided. The alliance you establish can be the foundation of the student's confidence in being able to change things for the better.
  • The Counseling Center staff are available for consultation about any aspect of the role of faculty and staff in assisting students with personal issues.