Welcome to the Vassar College Counseling Service (VCCS). We provide individual, couple, and group counseling, assessment, consultation, campus outreach services, as well as referral to local area clinicians.
Services are free of charge and available to currently enrolled students. This document contains information for potential clients. Please read it carefully and discuss any questions you have with your counselor.
Introduction to Counseling
The experience of counseling varies depending on the counselor, the client, and the particular concerns that the client brings. There are a number of different approaches that may be used to address your concerns. In general, the process involves you speaking about your issues openly and honestly, while your counselor listens, asks you questions, and works with you to address your concerns. You should expect to be able to discuss with your counselor any issue you have, whether about the problems you bring or about the process of counseling itself.
Counseling has both benefits and risks. Risks sometimes include experiencing uncomfortable feelings like sadness, guilt, anxiety, anger, frustration, loneliness, and helplessness. Counseling may involve recalling unpleasant aspects of your personal history. In addition, counseling may result in your choosing to make changes in your current relationships. The benefits that can result from engaging in this process include a significant reduction of feelings of distress, improved relationships, resolution of specific problems, increased self-esteem and self-awareness. Although there are no guaranteed outcomes, most students who use our services find that the benefits outweigh the risks.
In one or two sessions, your counselor should be able to offer you some initial impressions of what the work will include, what the process will be, and whether a referral off campus is the most appropriate option. You should use your own judgment to assess your level of comfort working with your counselor. If you have any questions or doubts, you should try to discuss them whenever they arise. If your doubts persist, your counselor will be able to refer you to another counselor at the Counseling Service or in the Poughkeepsie community.
Confidentiality and Professional Records
Students who seek counseling often have questions about the confidentiality of counseling services and professional records. The Counseling Service keeps records as regulated by the New York State Mental Health Code. Maintenance of records is in accordance with professional, legal, and ethical guidelines. Other than authorized VCCS staff, no one will have access to those records unless you release them in writing. They will not become part of your academic file, and even the fact that you have come to the Counseling Service will not be divulged to anyone without your permission. You have the right to have access to your treatment records. Because these records contain information that can be misinterpreted by someone who is not a mental health professional, the policy of the VCCS is to have your counselor review your records with you. If your counselor is no longer at the VCCS when you request your records, another counselor will be available to review them with you. We are willing to release your records to another mental health professional with your written permission.
An exception to confidentiality would be a situation in which you are assessed to be a danger to yourself or others, your records were subpoenaed, or in reporting abuse (e.g., of abuse or neglect to a minor) as required by law. In these cases, you would be informed if possible and no more information than necessary would be released.
There may be times when you and your counselor decide that it would be beneficial for your counselor to communicate with a person outside the Counseling Service. In such instances, the counselor will do so only after you have given permission. Most likely, you will be asked to complete an Authorization for the Release of Information form in order for communication beyond the Counseling Service to take place.
Students seeking off campus mental health treatment who plan to use their health insurance should be aware that an insurance company might require a referral form to be completed by Counseling Service staff. The information provided as part of the referral will become part of the insurance company files. Though all insurance companies claim to keep such information confidential, the Counseling Service has no control over how the information is used once it has left the Counseling Service. Upon your request, we will provide you with a copy of any referral submitted.
Staff
The staff of the Counseling Service consists of experienced licensed clinicians including psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists. Your counselor consults with supervisors and colleagues to provide you with the highest quality services possible. Data are compiled on VCCS activities, and from time to time VCCS staff members make presentations and write articles as part of their work in a college academic and research setting. In these instances, specific identifying information is absent and case material is disguised. All supervision is conducted in a confidential manner, with the purpose of being able to provide you with the highest quality of service.
Counseling Service staff, usually the Director or Assistant Director provides consultation to the Student of Concern Team and the Committee on Student Records. The Student of Concern Team meetings are convened by the Dean of Students to identify and respond to emerging student problems, either academic or personal. The Committee on Student Records meets each semester to review students with unsatisfactory academic records. Counseling Service participation is limited to general consultation except in those instances where a student is at risk of harm to him/herself or others, or where a student has given Counseling Service staff specific permission to work with other support services. If you have any questions about this participation please speak with your counselor.
Meetings
Counseling sessions are scheduled as available and may last 45-50 minutes, though you and your counselor may decide that it is appropriate to meet more or less often. Generally, psychotherapy at the Counseling Service is relatively short-term, proceeding on the basis of weeks and months rather than years.
In the interest of accommodating a maximum number of clients, initial appointments are scheduled with the next available counselor, with special consideration for urgent requests. Subsequent appointments will be offered as available, according to the treatment plan arrived at between therapist and client. Depending upon demand, it is possible that there will be waiting periods before clients can be seen in successive sessions. In a limited number of cases clients will attend sessions at regularly scheduled weekly appointments. Weekly appointments are subject to therapists’ available time in conjunction with considerations of clinical necessity.
It is important for you to arrive to your appointments on time, and call ahead, preferably 24 hours in advance, if you cannot attend a session. If you miss a session without notifying us, the appointment may go unused since the time is reserved exclusively for you. Please bear in mind that there may be others waiting to be seen who could use appointments you do not intend to use. Also, if you are thinking of ending your counseling we suggest that you discuss your decision with your counselor before you stop. Your counselor can help identify possible future options.
Because we are a no-fee agency with limited staff resources, we have to place some restrictions on the amount of services we can offer. Although we do not limit the number of sessions a student can have, we emphasize a short-term counseling focus. If you require services beyond the scope of what we can provide, we will refer you to other resources within the community. Much of our focus is on helping reach educational goals and working to remove blocks to that process.
Psychiatric Services
A consulting psychiatrist is affiliated with the VCCS. It is the policy of the VCCS that any student who wishes to see our consulting psychiatrist must be regularly working with a counselor at the VCCS. Due to high demand for service, generally, students who consult with the psychiatrist will be limited to four visits per academic year. Students who desire or require additional services will be assisted in finding off campus psychiatric care.
Our psychiatrist provides the following services: 1) psychiatric consultation; 2) evaluation for psychotropic medications; 3) monitoring of the use of medications prescribed from the above. The following services are not provided: 1) emergency psychiatric evaluations, 2) emergency prescription services, and 3) evaluation for disability accommodations. Should you need services not available at Metcalf, your counselor can provide a referral to off-campus resources. Emergency psychiatric services are available 24 hours/day at Saint Francis Hospital, Emergency Services, at 845.431.8892.
Getting Help Between Sessions
The Counseling Service is open during the academic year Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM. If you need to speak to your counselor before your next session, you can leave a message during these hours. If it is urgent, please let the front office staff know. If we cannot contact your counselor immediately, another counselor will be available to speak to you. After hours and on weekends a counselor is on-call to respond to urgent calls. The counselor on-call may be contacted through the Campus Response Center (CRC) at 845.437.7333. The Dispatcher will contact an on-call counselor who will return your call. Callers utilizing the CRC should note that such calls are routinely logged as part of the CRC's emergency services and are, thus, inherently not private to the same degree as calls placed directly to the Counseling Service.
Use of Email
The Counseling Service welcomes your communication through email, but considers it imperative that you understand the limitations of our use of e-mail technology. VCCS cannot guarantee that your e-mail will remain confidential. We will do our best to keep your communications private. However, our college administration, like many other employers, reserves the right to monitor our e-mail usage and might therefore see the text of your message. If you are in any way concerned about the contents of your e-mail being read by someone other than the person you are contacting, you should consider alternate ways of contacting us. When we respond to your e-mail, we will respond to the address from which it is sent. If you do not wish others who may have access to the e-mail account you are using to also have access to our response, please consider another means of communication.
While counselors try to check e-mail regularly, you have no way of knowing if one of us is unavailable due to illness, vacation, or other reasons, or if there are problems with the network itself. This means that your message may not be received immediately. If time is of particular concern for you, please call the Counseling Service at 845.437.5700 or, for emergencies, the CRC at 845.437.7333.
Ethics Code and Guidelines
The counseling staff follows the Standards of Professional Conduct of the American Psychological Association. These guidelines are available to you upon request at the front desk.
The Vassar College Counseling Service does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, race or ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, or ability/disability.
The staff of the Counseling Service pledges to uphold legal and ethical codes and institutional requirements. Our focus is on the value and dignity of each student, and our dedication to facilitating a thriving campus community.
We hope that you have a helpful and positive experience at the Counseling Service. If you ever have any questions, concerns, complaints, or feedback of any kind, we invite you to speak to your counselor or to contact Sylvia R. Balderrama, EdD Director of Psychological Services, at 845.437.5700. You may also contact the Dean of Students, DB Brown at 845.437.5315.
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