For several decades, college counseling centers have struggled to meet a steady rise in demand for services. Research suggests that therapeutic advancements, including psychotropic medication, have led to an increase in students with serious mental illnesses who now represent a significant portion of this demand. Current strategies to meet the…

With the rise in demand for mental health services on college and university campuses, counseling centers have engaged in numerous creative methods to expand services to meet these increasing demands. One approach within campus counseling centers, with promise, is embedded therapists. Despite the increasing application of embedded therapists,…

This paper reports on the findings of a study which sought to investigate the impact and efficacy of technology-based counseling offered by the University of South Africa (Unisa), an Open and Distance Learning (ODL) institution. The study focused specifically on student perceptions of the services they had received from professionals based in the…

Counseling centers are part of a national practice environment that arguably encourages expedience rather than thoroughness in working with psychological difficulties. In this landscape, diagnosis is a process where symptom identification is preferred over a more complex understanding of clients. The predominant diagnostic tool used by mental…

The unprecedented magnitude and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have rendered it a highly disruptive and traumatic phenomenon. This paper considers the impact of COVID-19 on South African students and Student Counseling Services in Higher Education. The paper specifically reflects on shifts in student mental health and psycho-social vulnerability…

This explanatory mixed methods study examined the evolutionary process of a college counselor partnering with a dog to practice animal-assisted therapy in counseling. Qualitative data were collected from the counselor while existing quantitative data on depression and anxiety symptoms were collected from clients who engaged with the…

Using data from the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH), the present study examines the role family relationships have in explaining mental health outcomes for transgender and gender nonconforming (TG/GNC) college students who present to university counseling centers. A structural equation model indicates that TG and GNC collegiate clients…

Multiracial individuals have been simultaneously oppressed and neglected in U.S. society. Although the population of Multiracially-identifying individuals in the United States continues to grow, the predominant counseling literature continues to focus primarily on monoracial identity groups. This has significant implications for Multiracial…

Recently, the Association of University and College Counseling Center Directors (AUCCCD) published a White Paper on a multidimensional understanding of organizational structures for counseling centers (Mitchell, Oakley & Dunkle 2019). This article provided a historical overview of such structures, argued that there is no one optimal structure…

Research on sexual minorities' religious experiences largely focuses on faith-based challenges/supports, family dynamics, and identity conflicts -- yet, there is limited research studying how these systems intersect with religious college campus and counseling experiences. This paper explores how 13 gay students at Christian and Jewish colleges…

University counseling centers (UCCs) are tasked with delivering effective mental health interventions amidst increasing enrollment and declining resources. A growing number of UCCs have implemented session limits to meet demand with limited resources. To further understand the impact of this trend, we examined data obtained from a nationwide…

Military members endure a variety of stressors (e.g., transitioning from military culture to college culture), which may be associated with mental health distress. College counselors must be aware of the unique clinical needs of student Veterans. College counselors can increase military cultural competence and adopt effective clinical approaches…

In this article, the authors discuss the pathways to sexual offenses, risk factors, treatment, and unique ethical challenges inherent in working with students who have a history of sexual offending behavior or exhibit risk factors for such behavior. We also address unique clinical competencies and knowledge and provide recommendations for…

Limited psychological research has disaggregated the experiences of Asian American (AA) from international Asian (IA) college students seeking psychotherapy. When combined, important differences between these groups are overlooked. We examined archival data collected from AA, IA, and European American (EA) students at a large, Western, university…

One response to increased service needs at university counseling centers has been community provider referrals. However, certain demographic groups may be more successful in these referrals than others. We hypothesized that students who identify as White, female, sexual minority, and older, would be more likely to be successfully referred.…