Your appointment

What to expect

Booking a Counselling session

You can make an appointment, or contact us for further information. All information is treated confidentially.

phone: 0121 204 4007

email: counselling@aston.ac.uk - It is helpful to for us if you include your phone number and your Student Number. If you are requesting an  appointment, it is also helpful if you complete the pre-counselling form (Word) and attach it to your email. If you have any concerns about the security of your email, please bring the Form in person when  you come for your appointment.

in person: The Hub on the ground floor of the Main Building

When you book your appointment we will collect some basic information from you: name, address, degree course, etc. Our policy on Confidentiality and Record Keeping (see below) will also be outlined to you, and we will ask you to indicate your agreement to this.

You will not be asked to talk about what has brought you to the service at this point. That will happen in the privacy of the Counselling room.

Pre-counselling questions

Before your first meeting it is helpful if you can complete our Pre-counselling questions (Word). Answering these questions gives you an opportunity to indicate what has brought you to the Counselling Service and how you hope to benefit from the sessions.

Your first session

In the first session, the Counsellor will invite you to talk about your concerns. You may be very clear about what you want to discuss, or you may be uncertain where to begin.

If you are unsure where to start, the Counsellor will help you to focus on your main concerns.

Through the Counselling, you may begin to think about any choices or changes that you wish to make, and start to put them into practice.

Counselling sessions generally last for 50 minutes, and take place in a comfortable and private room. Some people find two or three sessions is enough; others find that more meetings are appropriate.

If you have any questions about the Counselling, please raise them with your Counsellor.

Cancelling an appointment

We aim to make our service easy to access, and to keep waiting times to a minimum. In order to help us to do this, we ask that, if you need to cancel an appointment, you give us at least 24 hours notice. This will normally allow us to offer your appointment to somebody else.

If an appointment is cancelled with less than 24 hours notice, there may be some delay before an appointment is offered to you.

Regular failures to attend, or persistent cancellations, will be taken to indicate that you no longer wish to use the service.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is of paramount importance to the Counselling Service. In normal circumstances, your Counsellor will not divulge anything about the Counselling to another person, unless you wish this, and give your permission. Occasionally the Counsellor may suggest that it could be helpful for you to consult your doctor or talk to your tutor.

There may be exceptional circumstances in which the Counsellor believes that it is necessary to break confidentiality and talk to a third party. This may occur, for example, if the Counsellor considers that you may cause harm to yourself or others, or have harm caused to you. In such cases, wherever possible, the Counsellor will discuss this with you.

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