Any student. If you are experiencing an issue that is affecting your personal happiness, mental health, relationships, and/or academic or work success, you may benefit from counseling. Issues that may be addressed in counseling include (but are not limited to):
- Adjusting to college life
- Difficulties with motivation or decision-making
- Relationship difficulties (with friends, family members, partners, roommates)
- Exam stress and anxiety, concerns about grades, difficulty focusing
- Career uncertainty
- Low self-esteem or self-confidence
- Depression, loneliness, anxiety, grief
- Feeling suicidal and that life is not worth living
- Worries about eating, drinking, or drug use
- Finding it difficult to make friends or communicate effectively with others
- Struggling with a history of traumatic events (childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault, physical abuse, domestic violence, car accident)
- Coping with the illness or death of loved ones or your own illness
Counseling helps you develop an increased awareness of your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and relationships. It can provide you with new skills and help you to recognize and utilize your personal strengths and external resources so that you can make the changes needed to improve your well-being.
Therapy has been shown to have positive benefits for many who undertake it. It often leads to significant reduction of feelings of distress, better relationships, and resolutions of specific problems. There are also some potential risks of therapy; these may include experiencing uncomfortable feelings such as sadness, guilt, anxiety, anger, and frustration, as well as sometimes discussing unpleasant aspects of your life or yourself.
Daemen hires mental health professionals to provide one-on-one individual psychotherapy services. Students may participate in up to fifteen psychotherapy sessions per academic year, and these services are free and confidential. All counselors schedule appointments right on campus for your convenience.
Unfortunately, we are not able to provide emergency walk-in appointments at this time. See the “What do I do in an emergency?” question for guidance in handling a crisis/emergency situation.
You may make an appointment with the counselor of your choice by completing the online support form linked here: daemen.edu/counselingsupport. A counselor will get in touch to schedule an appointment within 3 business days (M-F 8:30am-4:30pm)
All counseling sessions are free of charge for registered Daemen students. Students are permitted up to 15 sessions per academic year.
All appointments are held in the Counseling Center, located in the CHIP Center in Wick building.
Your first appointment is a consultation session in which both you and the counselor get a sense of your concerns and needs. You may first be asked to complete some questionnaires which provide the counselor with more information about you and your background, and then you will talk with the counselor about your concerns. You will have a chance to ask questions about what you can expect from counseling. Together you will set goals for what you want to accomplish. Depending on the counselor and on you, this consultation phase may last more than one session.
If student concerns require interventions that are outside the scope of our services, the counselor will offer referrals to other services on campus and in the community.
You and your counselor will decide together on the frequency of appointments (e.g., weekly, bi-monthly, or maybe just for occasional “check-in” sessions). Sessions usually last 45 minutes. The duration of counseling depends on your goals and progress. Remaining in counseling is voluntary.
Your commitment, motivation, and honesty are necessary to make counseling work, and you are an active participant in the ongoing decisions about what happens in the sessions.
For counseling to work best, there must exist between the student and the counselor an air of trust and privacy. For this reason, and in order to uphold the ethical and legal standards of the mental health professions, counselors keep everything that is disclosed in counseling confidential. This means that, unless you give the counselor permission to do so, the counselor may not disclose to anyone on campus (including professors and administrators) anything that you share with the counselor. They also may not share information about you with your parents, romantic partner, roommates, or anyone else. There are a few, very rare exceptions to this policy of confidentiality, and they include situations in which there is serious risk of danger to self or others.
An emergency involves one or more of the following:
- Behavioral or verbal threat indicating harm to oneself
- Behavioral or verbal threat indicating harm to someone else
- Inability for an individual to care for her/himself
Note: All threats of suicide or violence against someone else should be taken seriously. If the threat is immediate, call police without hesitation. If the threat is not immediate, consult right away with a counselor or Residence Life staff member.
For Immediate Help
- Police: 911
- Crisis Services (Buffalo): (716) 834-3131
- Campus Safety: (716) 839-8246
- Residence Life: (716) 839-8200
You may follow up a crisis with a call to one of our counselors to schedule an appointment.
Other Emergency Phone Numbers
Crisis Services:
(716) 834-3131
24 hour help line provides immediate response to callers experiencing a personal, emotional or mental health crisis.
Rape and Domestic Violence Hotline (Local)
(716) 834-3131
National Suicide Hotline
988
National Domestic Violence Hotline
1-800-799-SAFE (7233)
Students are welcome to seek services wherever they like. Please be aware that Daemen does not pay for these services and any fees charged are the student’s responsibility.
Good question! Each year, many Daemen students participate in personal counseling. If you think you might benefit from trying it, even if you’re a little nervous about it, please make an appointment and see if it might be right for you.
Don’t wait until a problem becomes huge to call. You will likely experience the most benefits if you catch a problem early.