Brandeis Counseling Center

The Brandeis Counseling Center (BCC) is staffed by psychologists, social workers and psychiatrists under the direction of Addie Wyman, Director.  Approximately 20 clinicians work full or part time at the center. 

We are committed to multicultural awareness as essential to understanding the dilemmas that bring students to counseling.  Our theoretical frameworks are informed by developmental, relational and family systems, CBT-DBT and biological approaches.

The BCC serves the undergraduate and graduate students of Brandeis University, a medium-sized private research university. We see over 700 of our students per year.

Our clients range in diagnoses from mild to severe affective disorders, substance use, eating disorders, and character pathology, to adjustment to the developmental challenges of emerging adulthood. The majority of clients, despite serious life concerns, are able to engage usefully in either group or individual psychotherapy collaboration. Students represent a wide range of ethnic, racial, religious, national and economic backgrounds.

The Counseling Center operates from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, with three late evenings each week. Trainees’ individual schedules are determined by the days and times of required meetings and seminars which vary from year to year as well as the number of hours required by their home institutions. Usually required meetings take place on three days of the work week which will be determined in the summer before the training year begins. We try to accommodate the needs of trainees to attend classes at their graduate institutions.

Half-time trainees carry from 10-14 contact hours, comprised of group, individual, intake, and urgent care appointments.  It is likely that an intern will have several cases that span the entire training year. There are opportunities for consultation and outreach to the larger University community. Trainees may participate in any staff development activities and the work of our Multi-Cultural Committee.

Each trainee receives two hours of supervision from supervisors who are experienced members of the Counseling Center staff.  All supervisors are licensed psychologists or social workers. The focus of supervision varies somewhat among supervisors, but all attend to careful assessment of the patient’s treatment needs and the importance of the therapist’s own contributions to the therapeutic relationship.

Group supervision with the Director of Training and senior Social Worker meets for one hour per week. The focus of this meeting is the group work all trainees will be doing. The group serves as a place for those in training to listen to group cases in a focused way, to learn about responding helpfully to another therapist’s clinical dilemmas and also as a troubleshooting opportunity between individual supervision meetings.

Required and optional seminars and meetings may vary somewhat from year to year. Post-doctoral fellows attend these with pre-doctoral trainees.

The typical list includes:

• Continuing Case Conference

• Group Supervision

• Peer Support Group

• Psychiatry Seminar

• Central Concepts

• Eating Disorders (Fall)

• CBT (Spring)

Applications are due January 8th for the following training year. For Massachusetts programs, we adhere to the February 14th notification date. We require a one page cover letter, CV and three letters of reference. Please submit as many references as possible from supervisors with direct knowledge of your clinical experience.

In order to give all materials thorough reading and attention, ideally electronic applications can be sent to dtyrell@brandeis.edu, although if electronic applications are a challenge we will accept paper applications.

Please address paper applications to:

Dennis Tyrell, PhD
Brandeis Counseling Center
MS 061
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA 02454

or Faxed:781-736-3731