Counseling Services FAQs

It is free for ANY student to meet with a therapist! We do not bill your insurance for these appointments; these services are free for all students. (The only exception is Smith School of Social Work graduate students; in that case we are happy to offer referrals!)

It is also free to meet with a psychiatric prescriber. However, if you are picking up medicine from the pharmacy (Serios, CVS, or Walgreens), there may be a co-pay associated with their prescription.

Counseling services are confidential! This means that Schacht staff cannot communicate with your caregivers/family, friends, professors, or any other people outside of Schacht about your care, unless you sign a release of information giving them written permission. Therapists cannot even confirm whether they know a student.

There are some instances where confidentiality has limits:

• If a therapist is concerned about a student’s immediate safety (referring to severe suicidal ideation or intent), the therapist may have to break confidentiality by helping the student connect with Campus Safety and/or a higher level of care (e.g., in-patient support).  
• If a therapist is concerned that a student is at imminent risk of harming someone else.
• If a student has a release of information on file, the therapist could communicate with those specified individuals or entities. 
  • NOTE: If you are unsure if you have a release of information on file, you can ask about this at an initial consultation or when you schedule an appointment. You always have the right to revoke releases as well. 
• If we receive a subpoena from a judge, we may be compelled to release your records.
  • We encourage you to discuss concerns with your therapist. 
  • In the event of receiving a subpoena, it is our policy to contact the student to notify them. 

If you would like to schedule an initial consultation, you can self-schedule using the patient portal or call us to schedule. If you believe you need more urgent support, please call us at 413-585-2800 so we can get you in as soon as possible. 

When you call, be prepared to share your: 

• Name and date of birth
• Student ID number (the number on your OneCard that starts with 99)
• A brief sentence about what you are looking for (e.g., “I would like to set up an initial appointment with a therapist”)
• Your schedule 

There are ALWAYS urgent/crisis appointments available during our working hours. We hold several appointment slots open every day for if a student walks in or calls with a more urgent concern. 

We also always hold slots for initial consultations. Students are typically able to schedule these appointments within a few days or weeks of their call. These appointments are the “starting point” for students to connect with therapy and create a plan for care going forward. Some students may continue to be seen on campus and some students may be referred off-campus; this is based on a variety of factors like health insurance, financial access, therapy fit, and student preference.

Talking with a therapist can be helpful for anyone who is navigating life stressors that are too overwhelming or difficult to navigate alone. Sometimes even just speaking one’s situation aloud can be helpful and therapy can also provide an important outside perspective. Some people find it helpful to get support during life transitions; even positive changes (like starting college, getting into a new relationship, or coming out) can be accompanied by stress that can be helpful to talk about. Therapists are also available to provide support around difficult life experiences, such as trauma, unhealthy relationship dynamics, encounters with discrimination, and more.

If you’d like to learn more about our staff, check out our staff webpage! This can be a good starting point to see if any of our therapists and prescribers seem like they would be a good fit. However, it can be really hard to assess this just by looking at a biography. The best way to determine if there is a good fit is to attend a session or two.

Personality fit is uniquely important for a therapist compared to a physician, dentist, etc. This is someone you’re going to be spending an hour with every week for the foreseeable future, so generally getting along really matters. Do you have a similar sense of humor? Do you feel like they’re easy to talk to? Those factors are very important. 

Getting a sense of their values can be really important also. If you know that talking about identity is important to your therapy, it can help to have a therapist with shared identity/identities. Therapists with different identities can also be great sources of support, as long as you feel comfortable talking about the parts of yourself that are important. This can obviously feel really sensitive and vulnerable, but it’s definitely helpful to test the waters about important subjects and see how you feel talking about them. 

Schacht staff members are not available to meet with students while they are abroad. However, students can get ongoing support through the TELUS Health app wherever they are in the world.

The first step to accessing supports around ADHD is to call the front desk at 413-585-2800; they will ask several screening questions to best determine the type of appointment you need. 

If you already have a completed neuropsychological evaluation confirming an ADHD diagnosis, and/or you have a current prescription for a stimulant medication, please plan to bring a copy of the report and/or the pill bottle from your most recent prescription. This will allow our psychiatric care team to determine whether a new or ongoing prescription is appropriate and safe. The provider will also conduct a brief evaluation, which can be used to support ARC accommodations and to consider other medication options. 

Therapists at the Schacht Center have the ability to explore what is called differential diagnosis (looking at the most likely explanation for a person’s set of symptoms) and offer psychoeducation/resources related to ADHD. These impressions may help inform our prescribers’ practices but are rarely an official diagnosis. We are happy to provide referrals for full neuropsychological evaluations anytime!

Please note: In certain situations, stimulant medications may be contraindicated (e.g., if someone is experiencing mania, actively using substances, or having difficulty maintaining a healthy weight). In these situations, providers at the Schacht Center may decline to prescribe stimulants, at their discretion, despite neuropsychological testing results or past diagnosis.

No! Services at Schacht are free for ANY undergraduate student! We do not bill your insurance for these appointments; they are a service that is free for all.

No. If your student is 18 or older, they have the right to privacy around medical care and therapy. Information about services provided is protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

No. Under HIPAA, if your student is over 18, they are responsible for managing their medical care. Even if they give you permission to make appointments for them, we need to work directly with a student to schedule them. Self-directed management of appointments and schedules is an important part of gaining independence and entering adulthood. If you would like to provide scaffolding and support to your student, we recommend using techniques like: 

• Offer students the space to make these choices for themselves. In adolescence, it is common for young people to want to find a sense of independence and autonomy. When students are pressured to do something (especially by caregivers), that can sometimes decrease their motivation to act. 
• Honor that learning new life skills is a process. Frustration, stress, and confusion are common feelings that accompany learning something new. If your student is having those emotions come up, provide active listening and support, rather than giving into that urge to swoop in and do things for them. 
• Trust your student—you have taught them so many skills and tools for navigating the world of which you may not even be conscious. Allow them to use these opportunities to practice those skills. 
• Provide scaffolding when asked. Some students may appreciate advice about managing phone anxiety. Some may also benefit from roleplaying a practice call. 

We encourage students under 18 to make their own appointments at the Schacht Center. Therapists and providers will then discuss the student’s thoughts and preferences about including parents and other family members in their treatment process.

Please refer to our page on navigating mental health crises. This page includes resources and tools for supporting a student.