» Making a First Appointment

You can expect to find someone who is interested in listening to your concerns, helping you understand them better and guiding you to resolving them in a healthy manner. Your counselor will take you seriously, and be willing to discuss anything you wish to talk about. Counselors are not here to solve your problems for you, yet are here to help you look at your concerns in a new way, and assist you in deciding how to change what you want to change.

Although counselors can differ in their approaches, a positive relationship and partnership is essential in all counseling for it to be effective. As you develop trust in your counselor, you may be open to trying new ways of approaching your problems, thinking in new ways or experimenting with new behaviors.

You can expect to be actively involved in your counseling which is necessary for progress towards your goals to occur. This includes a commitment to attending your scheduled appointments (see attendance policy), to talk as honestly as you can about what is bothering you, and be willing to look at things in different way. You are also encouraged to let your counselor know if something isn't working for you, or if you feel that you are not benefiting from your experience at SPCS.

You can expect information shared by you to be strictly confidential. Our records are separate from academic records and only you have access to them. Any disclosure outside of SPCS will be done only with your written permission, with the exception of a few legally mandated exceptions which will be thoroughly disclosed in the consent form you read before signing up for an appointment.

In order to best support student responsibility, encourage continuity of counseling treatment and to meet the high volume of students we serve, we need our clients to attend their scheduled appointments. We therefore have firm policies regarding cancellations and no-show appointments.

• If you miss a scheduled appointment without calling to cancel and do not contact SPCS within 24 hours following the missed appointment, the same appointment time and/or counselor may no longer be available.
• If you cancel your appointment late (less than 24 hours’ notice and not due to an onset of illness or emergency), it will count as one of your sessions.
• Repeated no-show or cancellation of appointments may result in a termination of services at SPCS. In that instance, appropriate outside resources will be provided.

SPCS experiences a high demand for services and we want to be able to assist all students requesting help. 

We offer assessment and brief therapy and are available for emergency crisis situations during regular office hours. At times, there may be a wait for additional appointments for non-emergency situations. When there is a wait for additional appointments, students may wish to pursue other options in the community.

Our community resource list is given to every student who makes an appointment and is available to anyone upon request. Students are encouraged to check their insurance company’s website. For students who have Chapman’s health insurance, the website is www.UHCSR.COM.