Talking Mental Health: services available

For many students September is a time of optimism and great ambition.

“This is the year that I will not procrastinate! This is the year that I will be organized. This is the year…,”they usually say. Despite your best intentions, barriers to academic success can creep into your lives and create unexpected difficulties. A relationship end, unexpected feelings of loneliness, overwhelming anxiety and family struggles are just a few of the situations, which can impede your ability to focus and do well in school.

Added to this is the constant juggling of school work, friends, family, jobs and extra-curricular activities. At times university can be exhausting and overwhelming. Students often feel alone in these struggles. To help reduce these feelings of isolation, Counselling Services is here to assist you with the issues that may be impacting your ability to reach your personal and academic goals.

Taking care of your mental health, your emotional well-being, is extremely imperative to maximizing your academic and social success.

At Counselling Services, we assist students in addressing the areas of your life that may be holding you back from reaching your potential.

For those new to WLU, Counselling Services is located on the second floor of the Student Services building, above the Dining Hall. During the fall we are open Monday, Thursday and Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., and Tuesdays and Wednesdays from  8:30 a.m.- 8 p.m..

We provide free personal counselling to all interested, registered students. The information you share with your counsellor is completely confidential and we will not give out any personal information without written consent.

To access Counselling Services, a student needs to attend a Walk-In Intake appointment which is available daily on a first come first serve basis. These are held each morning from 9 – 11:30 a.m., with registration beginning at 8:30 a.m.             For returning students who were previous clients of Counselling Services, the same process is used with the exception that students will complete an intake update, a shorter version of the full intake process.

At an intake appointment, a plan to help you meet your needs will be discussed. This may include being scheduled with a counselor for further counseling sessions, being referred to a different WLU resource, or being referred to an appropriate agency in the community.

Daily crisis appointments are available in the afternoons and evenings for students who feel they cannot keep themselves safe, have experienced a recent traumatic event, or feel they cannot emotionally manage until the next day.

Last year, Counselling Services launched the Radio Laurier version of Talking Mental Health.  This year, we hope to continue the conversation about mental health and help students realize that talking openly about their concerns is important.

Each week, we will be discussing various mental health topics. Throughout the next few weeks, we will be discussing some of the common concerns students bring to Counselling Services including: transitioning to university, perfectionism, exam anxiety and procrastination.

Talking Mental Health airs on Friday and Saturday nights at 11 pm, and Saturdays and Sundays at 1 a.m. If you have questions or topic ideas for our show, please email us at talkingmentalhealth@radiolaurier.com. Previously aired shows and other valuable resources can be found at www.mylaurier.ca/counselling. Check out our new blog: talkingmentalheath.tumblr.com.

We appreciate your feedback and wish you a healthy, successful fall term.

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