Counsellors at the Health and Wellness Centre (HWC) provide confidential counselling to explore and understand challenges that impact personal well-being and mental health while you are enrolled as a student at Mohawk College. Counsellors provides short-term, goal directed psychotherapy to support student academic and personal success.
Common concerns addressed in short-term counselling may include:
- Adjusting to college life or Canadian culture
- Anxiety and depression
- Career and education planning
- Confidence and self-esteem
- Conflicts with family and friends
- Coping with a break up
- Feelings of hopelessness
- Grief
- Stress management
- Study skills
Counselling at the HWC is ideal for recent issues or issues that are expected to resolve relatively quickly. If you are experiencing difficulties of a long-term nature or if you have engaged in ongoing therapy in the past, it is likely staff at the HWC will provide support to help you establish a relationship with a provider in the community to ensure you have access to mental health support that is not limited.
Services provided:
- Short-term individual counselling by drop-in, a limited number of pre-scheduled appointments are available
- Group skills development programs
- Brief crisis support and referral
- Referral to community treatment programs
- Short-term case management
- Wellness checks, as determined by student need
- Outreach & consultation to College faculty, department or groups on mental health and personal well-being topics
Some services are outside of our scope of practice or extend beyond our scope of care. Examples include:
- Intensive outpatient therapy (ie regular scheduled individual sessions occurring weekly for an extended period of time)
- Counselling for the purpose of formal documentation (including but not limited to proof of mandated treatment or psychological readiness/stability for medical procedures)
- Counselling to students who are not currently enrolled in classes due to graduation, withdrawal, or dismissal from the college.
While we do provide brief crisis intervention services, we do not provide intensive services for students experiencing ongoing suicidal, homicidal or chronic psychiatric, eating disordered or addiction issues. These concerns need to be addressed by a mental health agency, hospital (in or out patient) or other professionals in the community. As the HWC is not staffed or designated a crisis care setting, students experiencing a mental health crisis are referred to St. Joseph’s Health Centre Emergency Department or COAST. Services are available from Monday to Friday from 8:30-4:00. The Wellness Care Coordinator, as part of their role, may be available during business hours to provide support and follow-up in the case of student crisis.
The HWC team does not regularly contact students who are not clients with the intention of encouraging them to seek services.
Community Referrals:
When your needs fall outside the scope of practice of the counsellors at the HWC or when community resources best fit your current needs, the HWC will support you through the process of getting connected. We will help to identify referral options selected specifically for your personal situation.
Eligibility:
Eligibility for services is dependent upon available resources and student enrollment status. Through Connect to Wellness, the HWC offers a wide-range of programs to meet the needs of all students. Individual counselling is limited to Mohawk College students enrolled in a full time post-secondary program from day one through date of program completion.