Services

At Champlain, the overall health of our students is always a top priority. We offer a variety of counseling services and resources at our Skiff Hall location on campus. All degree-seeking students taking classes on campus are eligible for counseling services free of charge.

If you are experiencing a mental health crisis and need to speak to someone immediately, please call the on-call counselor at (802) 865-5745 or Campus Public Safety at (802) 865-6465. Counselors are also available for same day and walk-in appointments during regular business hours.

See a list of our available services here. If you're not sure which option will be right for you, please get in touch with us—we'd be happy to assist you.

Individual Counseling

A counselor will meet with you one-on-one for 30 or 50 minutes to explore personal issues of concern or importance. Students come to the Counseling Center for a wide variety of reasons. These might include relationship problems, academic anxieties, exploring gender or sexuality, feeling unusually sad, irritability, sleep problems, eating issues, difficulty paying attention, feeling lonely, suicidal thoughts, worrying too much, and adjusting to college life.

The counseling center has returned to in-person sessions. We recognize that offering tele-health appointments was beneficial to many and reduced barriers to accessing care, as such, once you've completed your in-person intake appointment and have been assigned a long-term counselor, you and your counselor can discuss whether switching to tele-health counseling is well-suited for your care. Reasons may include accessibility concerns, if you are ill and need to stay home, or if you cannot commute to your appointment. We hope to work collaboratively to find the best form of care for you.

Group Counseling

Typically, two counselors will work together to facilitate a discussion with a small group of students who have expressed a common issue. Groups might be centered around family stress, disordered eating and body image, concerns related to gender, or anxiety and depression. Group members share experiences, learn different perspectives and provide each other with support. Groups typically meet once a week for 6 to 8 weeks and sessions may run between 1 to 2 hours.

Consultation

Formal and informal collaborations with faculty, staff, students, parents, and family members who seek advice and information on issues of concern to them. A consultation affords these individuals the opportunity to develop strategies on how best to help or guide students who may be experiencing distress or mental health challenges. Consultation with a counseling center staff member may involve an in-person meeting or a phone conversation.

Outreach and Education

We offer a wide variety of services such as facilitating workshops, conducting screening days, crisis event responses/debriefing, liaison relationships with departments and organizations on campus, attending or being present at campus events to reduce stigma and support other departments, interviews, tabling, social media, psychoeducational materials (printed as well as web-based), and community campaigns.

Medication Management

The Counseling Center partners with the Student Health Center for psychiatric medication management. However, psychiatry services on campus and in the surrounding community are extremely limited and we do not have the capacity to manage all students' medications. We suggest you schedule follow-up appointments with your home healthcare provider well in advance to correspond with school breaks and other visits home. If your home healthcare provider would like to be in touch with the Student Health Center directly to provide additional support, we are happy to do so, provided we have a signed release on file.

Let's Talk

"Let's Talk" offers 20 minute consultations with a counselor to problem solve, de-stress or learn about Counseling Center services. It is offered weekday evenings via Zoom. Sign up here!

Let's Talk Disclaimer

Let's Talk is a drop-in service designed to provide registered, traditional undergraduate students with easy access to informal and confidential conversations with counselors from the Counseling Center at Champlain College. Let's Talk provides the opportunity for counselors to help students who have a specific problem, have a concern about a friend and or would like more information about counseling. Let's Talk does not constitute mental health treatment. Let's Talk counselors can help students determine whether formal counseling through the Counseling Center would be useful, and if appropriate, refer students to community resources. Conversation with Let's Talk counselors are confidential, with a few rare exceptions. These include circumstances in which we believe that you may pose a physical threat to yourself or another person, if we become aware that a minor or vulnerable adult is being abused or neglected or in the event of a judge or court order. Outside of these rare exceptions, your Counseling Center records cannot be shared with anyone, including college staff or faculty, without your written permission. Let's Talk counselors keep brief written notes of their contact with students. These notes are accessible only by Counseling Center clinicians. We also use our electronic health record to track general utilization and trends in our site locations. There is no interface between our record system and any college system.

The Counseling Center at Champlain College would like to extend a huge thank you to Cornell University for the name, "Let's Talk," and the idea for the program, modeled with their permission.