Counseling Center

Derham steps and Chapel belltower on the St. Paul, MN campus

While we have moved all of our services to a remote format for Fall 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Counseling Center remains open and committed to continuing to provide support to St. Kate’s students. This fall, our regular counseling schedule will run between Wednesday, September 9, and Tuesday, December 15. Details about services for Fall 2020 and how to access care are outlined below.

If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please see the Crisis Counseling section (below) for after-hours and crisis counseling resources.

About the Counseling Center

Our caring staff offers a variety of services to support student mental health, at no cost to students. We provide confidential services including time-limited individual counseling for students, a weekday 2 p.m. crisis hour, phone crisis counseling through a collaboration with ProtoCall, referrals to campus and community resources, and consultation to students, faculty, and staff.

We provide quality counseling services to students coping with emotional, social, and behavioral difficulties common to the college population. Each therapist brings expertise in mental and emotional health and views students’ concerns in the context of human development and cultural identity. Our counseling staff brings a professional and personal commitment to providing services within a multicultural framework.

You are welcome here. We are deeply committed to creating a welcoming, emotionally safe space in which you can be seen and valued in your entirety, including your intersecting identities and unique cultural background. Our counseling center strives to be a system that is attuned and responsive to how students may be affected by both current social-political circumstances and historical marginalization. We want to support you in whatever you are facing and invite you to connect with us. 

Please scroll down for more information related to our services, supports for students during the COVID-19 pandemic, and our commitment to racial justice.

Current Services for Students (Fall 2020)

While we have moved all of our services to a remote format for Fall 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Counseling Center remains open and committed to continuing to provide support to St. Kate’s students. This fall, our regular counseling schedule will run between Wednesday, September 9 and Tuesday, December 15. Counseling sessions will be offered to currently enrolled students by secure video platform or phone.

Our remote counseling sessions focus on stress management and well-being. Sessions typically last 45 minutes. The first session typically focuses on gathering basic background and information about your current experience and needs. Any ongoing sessions aim to increase functioning levels, emotional wellness, and resilience through emotional support and skills for well-being. If more intensive counseling support or treatment is needed, or if circumstances or location* require alternative options, your counselor may support you in identifying additional resources and referrals in your community. Please scroll down for more information regarding referrals in the Referral Support section.

**Please note that we may be unable to provide ongoing counseling services to students located out of state due to licensing guidelines for psychologists in Minnesota. These guidelines vary by state during the COVID-19 pandemic. We welcome you to contact us at counselingcenter@stkate.edu with any questions about this or if you need help identifying resources and referrals in your area.

How do I make an appointment?

To be contacted with appointment options compatible with your class schedule, please submit an appointment request form here. If you prefer to discuss your availability and scheduling over the phone, please call 651-690-6805 between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 12 p.m. or 1–5 p.m.

Shortly before a scheduled appointment, you will receive a calendar invitation for a secure Google Meet session, which you will be able to join at the appointed time by either video or phone.

What if I need to cancel?

If you are unable to keep an appointment, please send an email to counselingcenter@stkate.edu to let us know as soon as possible, preferably at least 24 hours in advance. This allows us to use the appointment time for another student who is waiting to see a counselor.

How many sessions are available to me?

The Counseling Center operates within a time-limited framework in order to meet the needs of many students. On average, students use 5 sessions per academic year. Appointments are typically scheduled weekly or bi-weekly; decisions about frequency and length of counseling are discussed with your counselor. If you need long-term counseling (more than 8 sessions per academic semester), we can help identify therapists in the community who can provide this. We also offer referral assistance to specialized counseling programs, such as eating disorder or chemical dependency treatment. (Scroll down for more information regarding referral support.)

Who will know?

Counseling center staff maintain professional standards as defined by state law, including regarding confidentiality and safety. This means that we will not share information from your counseling sessions with other people unless we have your written permission or need to ensure your safety or someone else's safety. You will receive our written privacy and confidentiality policy when you make your first appointment, and your counselor will be happy to discuss any questions or concerns you might have.

View the Client Bill of Rights

If you are experiencing a life-threatening emergency, please call 911 or seek help from a local mental health crisis resource. For students in Ramsey County, contact the Ramsey County Urgent Care for Adult Mental Health (Crisis Phone and Information Line: 651-266-7900). Additional crisis resources include the National Crisis Text Line, available 24/7/365 by texting HOME to 741741.

If this isn’t a life-threatening emergency, but you feel an urgent need to talk with a crisis counselor, the St. Kate's Crisis Counseling line (in partnership with ProtoCall) can be reached by dialing 651-690-6805 and pressing 1 at the prompt (evenings, weekends, holidays, or anytime support from the counseling center can’t be reached in a timely way).

The Counseling Center offers a Crisis Counseling Hour with counseling center staff from 2-3 p.m. on weekdays that the university is open. To connect with a counselor during this time, please email counselingcenter@stkate.edu or call 651-690-6805, and a counselor will connect with you via a confidential Google Meet appointment during the crisis hour. Appointments for the crisis counseling hour typically run ~20-25 minutes and are arranged on a first-come, first-served basis.

Let's Talk is a free and confidential service for St. Kate's students meant to provide easy access to consultation and support. Students are able to meet with counseling staff from the St. Kate's Counseling Center for 15-minute informal consultations available on a first-come, first-served basis. The counselor will listen to your concerns and provide support, perspective, and suggestions for resources. Let’s Talk is accessible virtually Monday through Thursday from 1–2 p.m. By completing the brief request form at the link below, you can learn more about Let’s Talk and request a Let’s Talk consultation with a counselor.

Let's Talk Request Form

Let's Talk is for brief consultation; it is not counseling. Let’s Talk may be a good fit for topics like these: You have a question about counseling and what it’s like to be in counseling; you'd like to briefly explore options for addressing a challenge; you want ideas about how to support a friend, or you'd like to briefly get the perspective of a counselor.

If you are in crisis and need urgent assistance, Let's Talk is not the best option to meet your needs. Please scroll up for more information on crisis counseling options.

If you anticipate needing a longer conversation or are seeking ongoing counseling, please scroll up to request a remote counseling session instead.

At times, a student’s counseling needs or interests may be best served by referrals to off-campus resources, such as a therapist with a particular specialization or treatment within a longer-term model than our center can offer, or a therapist who holds a particular identity. We are happy to meet with students to explore and assess their counseling needs and interests, in order to make recommendations and offer assistance about referrals to mental health resources in the surrounding community. This might include private practitioners, intensive outpatient programs, or specialty treatment centers.

If you prefer to search for an off-campus therapist independently, without individual referral support from our center, you can search for a local therapist (whether in St. Paul or out of state) through Psychology Today's database or TherapyDen. Simply put in your zip code to find therapists within a certain radius of where you live, and you can include other search criteria such as health insurance accepted. The St. Kate’s Counseling Center is not able to make recommendations using these therapist directories, since we do not have personal knowledge of their skills. For this reason, we encourage you to also look through APA's tips for choosing a therapist to help you determine whether any given therapist might be a good fit for you.

Please note: Our center does not provide assessment or documentation for ADHD or emotional support animals. Feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss referral ideas for off-campus resources.

Well-Being During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has been stressful and unsettling for everyone. While reactions can vary and people are affected in different ways, everyone is feeling the impact in some way.

Whatever your emotions are — afraid, sad, hopeful, angry — your feelings are valid. When we tune in to our experience and emotions, we can then better recognize what we may need in any given moment and take steps to care for ourselves during these challenging times. We would be glad to talk with you about your thoughts and reactions to this time, and invite you to make a counseling appointment.

The following resources, for both students and parents, offer some good ideas of key ways to support mental health and general well-being at this time. These offer an important starting point for reflection and self-care strategies.

Racial Justice

We are deeply saddened and angered by the tragic murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and countless others throughout the country. These recent tragedies reflect a long and entrenched history of structural and systemic injustice and violence that we condemn. We acknowledge the pain, anger, and suffering within our Black and African American community, and we stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and countless victims of systemic racism and police brutality. In addition, we recognize that overt prejudice and racial injustices have increased in our communities since the COVID-19 crisis began, and that this pandemic has increased anti-Asian racism and xenophobia and has disproportionately impacted the Black community and many communities of color.

As mental health professionals, we recognize the impact of racialized and historical trauma on psychological, emotional, and physical distress. As the majority of our staff members identify as white, we are deepening our commitment to more effectively support those who have experienced individual discrimination and structural acts of aggression and racism. This includes examining ourselves and our work to ensure we are doing what we can to act and provide services within an anti-racist framework. As part of our commitment, we are also strengthening intentional collaboration with campus and community partners. Please consider us a resource and support, whether you are facing anger, grief, exhaustion, or other reactions to these patterns of violence and systemic racism, or working to better understand your privilege and move toward anti-racism and allyship.

At times, students seek to connect with a counselor with a specific shared aspect of identity or lived experience that may or may not be currently represented among our small counseling staff. Each of our counselors would welcome talking directly with you about any questions or concerns about lived experience, shared identity, or areas of expertise. Whenever a student prefers, know that our counselors can also offer assistance in referrals to BIPOC-identified therapists and mental health resources in the community that might best fit your needs and interests.

Additional Services

We offer access to the SMH Online Screening Program, a free and confidential online screening for depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Take a screening

The Counseling Center provides outreach to the campus community through presentations, workshops, and other means to share information about mental health, coping, and well-being. When schedules allow, we collaborate with you on your events to add a counseling perspective, provide psychoeducational information, share our expertise on mental health topics and/or simply be there to talk about our services and support your event. To explore the possibility of our collaboration or participation in an event, feel free to email counselingcenter@stkate.edu.

We provide consultations for faculty and staff who have questions about interacting with students who are coping with emotional and mental health issues. Specific ways we can help include providing information about specific mental health issues, identifying possible resources in the community, or suggestions regarding how to talk to the individual about seeking help from a mental health professional. Please call our main office to inquire about a phone or in-person consultation.

For students who are interested in exploring psychiatric medication options, psychiatry services are available at the St. Kate's Health and Wellness Center.

Hours

Monday–Friday,  8:30 a.m.–12 p.m. and 1–5 p.m.