Counselling & Mental Health

The Counselling Service is confidential, free and impartial. It is here for all students and staff who study and work at City St George's.

Merging legacy City and St George's resources

As we bring together resources for Clerkenwell & Moorgate (legacy City) and Tooting (legacy St George’s) students, some content may be specific to one campus and not the other. For the most relevant information, try using specific keywords or exploring content related to your department. If you need help, our support teams are available to guide you.

Clerkenwell & Moorgate students can use Support@City

Tooting students can contact studentlifecentre@sgul.ac.uk.

Tooting campus students register here Clerkenwell/Moorgate campus students register here

What is counselling?

Counselling provides a non-judgemental, confidential setting in which to think about things in your own way. The aim is to help you gain perspective and a better understanding of your situation, to enable you to develop a fuller, more rewarding life, and to learn more effective ways of dealing with potential problems in the future.

Counselling is a confidential service which is separate from teaching and assessment and student records.

Many students who have attended the service say it helped them in their personal life, enabled them to deal better with stress and helped them to study more effectively.

When is counselling needed?

Coming to university is a time of change. Life at university can be stressful. You don’t have to suffer alone in silence. Counselling can help.

Studying or working within the health professions can be both rewarding and difficult. At times, personal and emotional problems can get in the way of concentration and make it difficult to study effectively. A short period of counselling can be very helpful in finding different perspectives and ways of managing problems.

Clients of the service are encouraged to talk about any emotional or practical difficulties they are facing. Early consultation can prevent difficulties developing into unmanageable problems.

Seeking counselling is an important step but no problem should be considered too small to be brought to the counselling service.

For Tooting Campus Students

What to expect from your first counselling session

Who can use the service?

We offer a time-limited counselling service available to all undergraduates and postgraduates studying at City St George’s. The service is also available to university staff. It is free and confidential. None of the counsellors discriminate on the grounds of sexuality, race nor religion. They aim at all times to be impartial and non-judgemental.

What sort of problems?

Counselling can help you find different perspectives to help manage relationships with friends and family, worries about work and examinations, worries about yourself—in fact anything that causes you stress.

“I’m so grateful this service is available. It guided me through a difficult time and ultimately meant that I remained in higher education and completed my degree” — Student client

How do I make an appointment?

If you are a Tooting student please register here

If you are a Tooting staff member please register here

Please let us know if you have any issues with registering by emailing us at counselling@sgul.ac.uk. Please note you need to complete the online form in one attempt, so have GP details etc to hand. If you don't know the answer to any question, please write 'don't know' or 'prefer not to answer' in the relevant box.

Open Hour

Open Hours (one-to-one drop-in sessions) are available at 12 noon Monday to Friday. These sessions are for students who do not already have an allocated counsellor and you do not need to book. Please come to the Counselling Service on Hunter Level 2, a few minutes before 12pm. It would also be helpful if you could register before you come.

Where is the service?

Level 2, Hunter Wing. Turn left from lifts past Pret-a-Manger and continue to the end of the corridor where you will find counselling rooms on your left.

Appointments outside normal working hours are available most days.

Is it confidential?

The counselling service is confidential and separate from teaching and assessment. We do not share any information without your consent, including whether you are coming for counselling. The only exceptions to this are if we are seriously worried about safety (yours or someone else’s).

Who are the counsellors?

Lorraine Brown
Anthony Green
Matt Hefford
Yeshoda Singhania
Robert Sookhan
Amanda Stewart-Harries
Leticia Valles

Anti-racism Statement

At the University Counselling Service, we strive to be anti-racist. This means that, in addition to having cultural competence, our counsellors acknowledge the reality of racism and racist oppression in our society, and recognise the impact of racism on mental health. We are working to ensure that every student, including students of colour, feels welcome in our service. We will do our best to listen openly and non defensively, and to provide emotional and psychological support.

For Clerkenwell and Moorgate Campus

Student Mental Health Service

While studying at university it is important to know what mental health support and services are available.

Our Student Mental Health Service comprises of experienced, specialist Mental Health Advisers who provide guidance on how to navigate the support within the University and external agencies.

This is a confidential service, built on the principles of creating a supportive environment to maximise your student experience, in line with the Equality Act. We work closely with the University to make this possible.

From our first conversation with you, we can advise on what support is appropriate. This may involve advice on:

Specialised Reasonable Adjustments
applying for DSA funding
guidance on managing your emotional and mental health
help and recommendations of contacting relevant, external support services
follow-up MHA support appointments specific to your level of need
referrals to City’s Counselling Service
referrals to mental-health mentoring.

While we are not a Crisis Service, the Student Mental Health Service can advise, aid in referrals and support making contact with intervention services if you have an urgent mental health need.

Student Counselling Service

The Student Counselling Service offers confidential, time-limited specialist counselling to support and help you understand any issues or difficulties that may affect your wellbeing.

Counselling can help identify emotional or psychological difficulties, develop coping strategies and promote wellbeing.

You can talk to a counsellor about anything that is important to you such as:

relationship / family difficulties
depression / anxiety / stress
eating difficulties
loss / bereavement
procrastination / fear of failure
addictions
sexual / identity issues
suicidal thoughts / self-harm
self-esteem and confidence
bullying / harassment / abuse

The first appointment is to understand why you would like counselling and decide on the most appropriate therapeutic support available to you such as further sessions, recommending another service etc.

The Service adheres to the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Ethical Framework and recognises that confidentiality is of paramount importance. However, in some situations a counsellor may need to share relevant information with internal and/or external services to ensure you are being supported as best as possible.

The Service is unable to offer psychiatric assessment, mental health diagnosis or long-term counselling.

The Service cannot provide medication monitoring, prescription service or psychiatric support including home visits and other interventions best dealt with by a GP, the NHS, psychiatric intervention and/or emergency services.

Who we support

Counselling is available to all current UK-based students. It would be extremely helpful for you to be registered with a UK based GP before you start counselling. If you are not registered, please register as soon as possible by finding your nearest NHS surgery via www.nhs.uk.

Please note that we are unable to offer ongoing counselling to students who are not in the UK at the time of their counselling appointment(s).

You can access support and guidance through Togetherall and through your GP.

Additional resources can also be found on additional support services

If you have withdrawn from your course, we are unable offer counselling but you can access counselling support via your GP.

How to apply

If you are a Clerkenwell or Moorgate student, register here

If you'd like to understand the support you can receive through our services, book an online chat with one of our Engagement Advisers who can assist with signposting to internal and external services.

Providing evidence of your disability or health condition

We may ask for evidence when you register with the Disability, Neurodiversity or Mental Health Services. You can email this to us at wellbeing@city.ac.uk or submit it when you complete your e-referral form with us.

Further information on the evidence we may ask for

If you would like to, you can download our evidence request form and return to us by email at wellbeing@city.ac.uk once completed.

You can send this to your GP or evidence contact to provide us with confirmation of your health condition.

Help and Support Online

As well as accessing help from City St George’s Counselling Service, Student Life Centre, or tutors, there is wealth of support available to students online.

The brief list below includes links to NHS resources as well as apps, podcasts and websites of charities dedicated to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of students and young people.

Self Assessment

The NHS Mental health tools page offers lots of useful resources including:

wellbeing self assessment
mood self assessment
depression self assessment
mental health video wall
lift your mood video wall.

Online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Courses

Living Life To The Full

Free online courses covering low mood and stress. Work out why you feel as you do, how to tackle problems, build confidence, get going again, feel happier, stay calm, tackle upsetting thinking and more.

MoodGYM

Learn cognitive behavioural therapy skills for preventing and coping with depression with MoodGYM.

Apps and Podcasts

Headspace

Headspace have a mobile app which makes practicing mindfulness much easier! Helping you learn easy techniques that you can transfer from the session into your everyday life. You can sign up for a free trial and start your meditation practice with a 10-day beginner’s course.

Mental Health Foundation

Listen to episodes of the 'Let’s Talk: Mental Health' podcast, which gets together with different people and experts to chat about mental health and explore the topics that can affect how we think and feel.

Happify

Happify is an app aimed at developing skills in order to boost emotional wellbeing.