For Students
Counseling Services
The Counseling Center provides free and confidential consultation, assessment, individual,
group, couple's and family therapy to Defiance College students. The service that
will best fit each student's need will be determined after an initial meeting with
a therapist.
Not sure you need counseling? Think about coming in for a one time consultation.
How Do I Get Started?
Any student wanting to engage in services at the Counseling Center must schedule an
initial assessment appointment and complete intake paperwork. That can be done by
calling (x. 2562 on campus; 419-783-2562 off campus) or coming to the Center (Defiance
Hall, Suite 201). Our front desk is open for scheduling Monday through Friday 9 am
to 4 pm. Appointment times are available during the day, Monday through Friday, with
a few evening appointments also available.
New Client Paperwork
If you have scheduled a first appointment at the Counseling Center, please click on
each of the three documents below and fill in the appropriate information. Please
be sure to hit the "submit" button once you've completed all questions on each document.
If you have difficulty, for whatever reason, completing the forms online, call the
Counseling Center (x. 2562) and someone will be glad to help you. It should take
approximately thirty minutes to complete all three forms.
What to expect from counseling
Many people are unsure of what will happen when they come to counseling for the first
time. During the first 1-2 sessions, the professional you meet with will get an understanding
of the concerns that brought you to the Counseling Center, your goals for ongoing
treatment, as well as gathering information to help them better understand you and
the world view that you come from . The therapist will then talk with you about your
counseling options including the areas of your life they feel it would be helpful
for you to focus on and the ways in which they feel they can be helpful to you. You
will then have to decide what, if any, of those options you want to pursue in order
to address your concerns.
Consultation Service
Even if you're not sure that counseling is right for you, feel free to come in for
a one time consultation to see if there's a way that we can be helpful. When you call
just let the person answering know that you want to come in for a consultation only.
Your appointment will still be about fifty minutes but you will fill out only a limited
part of the intake paperwork until you determine if continued counseling is right
for you.
How To Get the Most Out of Counseling
- Identify your goals - Think about what you would like to get out of counseling. It would be helpful
to think about your expectations for counseling and how you will know when you are
ready to end therapy. Many of us want to see things happen differently in our lives
but it's hard to commit to doing the work necessary to make the change. This is often
because we are uncomfortable thinking, talking about, and experiencing things that
have happened in our lives. It's important that you talk to your counselor about the
areas that you're hesitant to discuss. Change and healing can be a difficult, sometimes
painful process but your counselor is equipped to help you navigate those difficulties
to get to the change you'd like to see in your life.
- Participate actively - You're coming to counseling because you have things in your life that you'd like
to see be different. It's important to remember that the counseling sessions are yours
and it's our job to help you accomplish your treatment goals. We will regularly check-in
with you to determine if you feel like your sessions are helpful and getting you closer
to your goals. We also encourage you to actively give us feedback if you feel that
sessions aren't going in a way that would be the most helpful. Please have these conversations
instead of just not coming back. Most of the time we can make changes that will feel
good to you but we can't if we don't know you're unhappy. Our mission is to help you
reach your goals in the way that works best for you.
- Understand that change takes time - Reaching our goals takes time, effort, and patience. The ways that you think, feel,
react, cope and deal with your life have been reinforced for a significant period
of time. It can take time for you to learn how to re-write those patterns and create
new ones. Though not always easy, there's no reason why you can't make it happen if
you're willing to work at it on a regular basis.
- Don't be afraid to ask for what you need - Again, be sure to give feedback to your counselor so that we may best serve your
needs.
- Try to follow through on what you're working on between sessions - Because change can be difficult and takes commitment and practice, it's important that you decide during each session what you're going to work on between sessions. The real work of counseling happens when you go out into the real world and start to practice what we work on in session.
Online Screening
The DC Counseling Center offers FREE, CONFIDENTIAL, online mental health screenings for a variety of mental health issues including: depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic
stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, eating disorders, and alcohol use disorders.
The screenings are provided so that you may find out, in just a few minutes, whether
or not professional consultation would be helpful to you.
All screenings are completely confidential. The DC Counseling Center does not get access to your personal information and will not know if you've completed a screening. Counseling Center staff are able to access how many people are visiting the site and completing screenings, not who is completing them.
Please know that NO COUNSELING CENTER STAFF WILL CONTACT YOU AFTER TAKING A SCREENING. If you want to speak to a someone after completing a screening, please call the Counseling Center at 419-783-2562.
