Our Services
The Brandeis Counseling Center's (BCC's) service model offers and supports students on campus through short-term individual therapy, group therapy and community therapy.
When students are interested in longer term, exploratory individual therapy, we offer referrals to off-campus resources. When needed, a BCC case manager can help find appropriate referrals off campus.
We also offer BCC psychiatry consultation, when needed, for students already established at the BCC for individual therapy. All services delivered at the BCC will be billed to insurance with no out-of-pocket expense for students.
Students do not need to bring cash to access services. Co-payments are covered by Brandeis and will be paid out of student fees. We do not balance bill for the care received at the Brandeis Counseling Center. However, if a student is referred to a provider off campus, they will be responsible for any balance due to that provider.
Click here for more information on health insurance or the cost of health care.
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The first visit is called an Initial Consult. You will meet with a counselor who, together with your input will help to determine the best treatment recommendations for you. This plan is tailored specifically to your unique needs.
Individual therapy appointments are scheduled after your first-time appointment (Initial Consult). In your Individual Therapy appointment you will work one-on-one with a trained mental health clinician in a safe, caring, and confidential environment.
Individual Therapy Appointments are generally 30 or 45 minutes. Therapists will help you with symptom reduction, as well as life skills and coping skills.
Urgent Care services are available by appointment Monday-Friday. Urgent care services are for students who have an immediate concern or emergency that can not wait for a regularly scheduled appointment. Urgent care appointments can by made by calling the front desk at 781-736-3730.
For an emergency after business hours, call 781-736-3730 to speak with an on-call clinician.
Driven by the counseling center’s mission and inspired by Brandeis’ value of community transformation, BCC Community Therapists provide free, confidential mental health services at several locations around campus. Community Therapists can offer strategies to strengthen life and coping skills, insight and support, as well as information and connection to additional resources.
Services include:
Group therapy increases a sense of social integration, a student’s sense of belonging, a sense of “mattering” to others on campus and allows for the establishment of skills to create meaningful social relationships. The more someone has a sense of belonging, the less stressed and depressed they may be. A sense of belonging has also been shown to increase student retention and positive mental health.
Finally, the more one feels they matter to others, that others rely on them and are concerned about them, the more successful they will be. This is especially true of immigrant and first-generation students and these students are also more likely to rely on peers for support than staff or faculty (Stebleton, Soria, and Huesman, 2011).
Case management is a collaborative process to help navigate systems and access services. Students looking for longer term care or specialty care are able to work with our case manager, Vanessa Mena-Gibson, MSW, LCSW. She will facilitate referrals to community therapists, partial hospital programs, and specialty care.
Students who are engaged in individual therapy at the BCC are eligible for BCC psychiatry consultation. After consideration by a student and their therapist, a request for consultation is initiated by the individual therapist.
Psychiatry consultation involves discussion of potential diagnoses, and collaborative consideration of treatment options, which may include medication. The student’s BCC individual therapist and psychiatrist then continue to work as a team with the student. In concert with the short-term model, when students have stabilized, their individual therapist serves as a care manager to ensure a smooth transition of care from the BCC to providers off-campus.
If a student is already seeing an individual therapist off-campus locally, or if they are not in need of both individual therapy and psychiatry, our care manager can help facilitate a referral to a psychiatrist off-campus.
