Considering Counselling? Your Questions Answered
Student Counselling & Development is a free confidential service to all students. We provide individual counselling and support to students with emotional, psychological, academic or personal development needs. We also provide a range of psycho-educational group initiatives to students.
Reluctant to Approach SCD?
Sometimes students are experiencing difficulties, but find it difficult to approach Student Counselling & Development. There can be a number of reasons for this. Sometimes students feel they should be able to resolve their difficulty themselves, or that their problem is not serious enough to warrant counselling. Other times the problem seems too daunting and avoidance and procrastination prevail, while the difficulty escalates. We encourage all students to come along to the service for an initial meeting with a counsellor in order to make an informed decision as to whether to engage in counselling or not. Ultimately the person who has the difficulty is the one who will resolve it. However, in some instances it is essential to be facilitated by a counsellor in order to achieve this outcome.
As part of your growth and development, SCD offers you the opportunity to develop the personal awareness to be able to recognise your difficulties and resource yourself in identifying and implementing effective coping strategies to deal with them. Your quality of life and overall effectiveness at personal, interpersonal and professional levels will be greatly enhanced.
Do remember, everybody has problems! SCD offers you the opportunity to learn how to gain perspective and cope more effectively.
What Sorts of Problems Can be Addressed in Counselling?
Examples of issues that can be helped through counselling include the following: Anxiety, stress, depression / low mood, self-esteem, academic anxiety, family and relationship difficulties, home-sickness, transition to college/ new culture, identity issues, bereavement, eating difficulties, problems with placements, assertion, presentation anxiety, sexual trauma, or issues related to alcohol or drug use. This list is by no means exhaustive.
Do come along and talk to a counsellor about your particular issue. Sometimes students are feeling distressed and cannot identify or articulate what is distressing them. SCD will work with you to help clarify your difficulty and implement strategies to address it. You may be concerned that the issue of concern is too minor. It is best to address difficulties before they escalate. We would encourage you to attend at the earliest opportunity.
Initial Meeting
This will be a short meeting of 20 minutes duration. It will focus on discussing your needs and on giving you information about what the service can offer. A decision is then made by the student and SCD as to whether counselling will be entered into. This decision can be revised by either party as changing circumstances present. If at the outset, it is established that the Student Counselling & Development Service is not suited to meeting the needs of a particular student, every reasonable effort will be made to support the student in identifying the appropriate support services. Click here for Conditions of Service Use.
Making an Appointment
You can contact us to make an appointment in any of the following ways
- Telephone: 021 4903565
- Text: 087 2152505
- Email: counselling@ucc.ie
- Call to reception: Room 6 Ardpatrick, College Road, Cork.
If you decide to email or leave a message requesting an appointment, please give your name and telephone number. A member of SCD will make contact with you to set up an initial meeting with a counsellor.
