Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a significant issue among college students but few resources are available to college mental health professionals. This article consolidates extant knowledge on NSSI from the empirical and clinical literature, including common NSSI characteristics (rates, methods, demographics, and concomitants), intrapersonal and…

Answering the question "What occurs in an academic advising interaction?" is not as easy as one might think. Many factors contribute to the academic advising process, and no two advising interactions are the same. This article discusses the different factors involved in an academic advising interaction, emphasizing the need for psychological…

Ideally, students requesting services should be seen quickly at their university counseling center to increase the likelihood of a successful treatment outcome. However, in these times of ever-increasing demand for university counseling services and the challenges of securing resources to keep up with that demand, the reality of prompt…

This article reviews important trends in college counseling work over the past 30 years revealed through an annual survey of college counseling center directors. The article also focuses on questions raised in the survey that generated important professional discussions and on other contributions the survey has made to the counseling profession.…

College career centers provide a valuable resource to students faced with choosing a major, learning about different career fields, and securing internships and jobs. Career centers must provide an increasingly sophisticated array of one-on-one and virtual services in order to meet the needs of students and recruiters. Collaborations between the…

We surveyed undergraduate college students from the psychology subject pool (N = 73) about where they would refer a depressed friend for help. Students from this sample were most likely to refer friends to the counseling center followed by social support options. Students were comparatively least likely to refer to other professionals, indicating…

Preventing suicide is a commonly shared priority among college administrators, faculty, staff, students, and family members. Coalitions are popular health promotion mechanisms for solving community-wide problems and are valuable in campus-wide suicide prevention efforts. This article provides an example of an effective suicide prevention…

About one in four college students report grieving the death of a family member or close friend within the past year. Although grief may be difficult at any time, there are several factors unique to the college age and environment that can make it particularly difficult. These factors include geographic distance from home and usual support…

In this article, the author shares her thoughts about the need to maintain certain philosophical foundations of counseling center theory and practice taught to her by her mentors and rooted in what was once the "radical" thinking of the mid-1970s. She feels compelled to speak about this because she is noticing that fewer and fewer of her peers…

Self-reported reasons for concealing suicidal ideation were explored using data from a national survey of undergraduate and graduate students: 558 students indicated that they seriously considered attempting suicide during the previous year and did not tell anyone about their suicidal thoughts. Content analysis of students' qualitative responses…

The number of students with Asperger's Syndrome enrolled at tertiary institutions in the United States continues to increase. This can be attributed to: (a) the passage of legislations such as the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA); (b) revisions to the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual"…

Mental health practitioners' exposure to threats and acts of nonfatal violence are among the highest of all professions. Implementing a comprehensive workplace violence prevention program specific to the clinical setting is paramount to decreasing these risks. However, generic security recommendations at times come in conflict with the…

This article identifies what student mental health professionals need to know about legal issues of relevance to threat assessment and management. The article summarizes the common law duties and the common law and statutory standards of care that are likely to apply to the work of college and university threat assessment and management teams. The…

This article provides a brief history of the development of behavioral threat assessment within colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, from the original Secret Service model used to evaluate threats against the U.S. president, to its adaptations for workplace settings and United States and Canadian secondary schools, to its…

Campus police officers are often among the initial contacts for behavioral incidents involving people with mental illness. Their training and access to resources influence decisions to direct the individual to support services and/or through campus disciplinary processes and/or the criminal justice system. Over the past decade, there has been an…