Counseling Center office on the Edinburg campus Celeste Cruz/Vaquero Radio
The university Counseling Center offers different services year-round depending on students’ mental health needs.
The center provides different confidential services such as individual counseling, couples counseling and group counseling.
Clinical therapist for the Counseling Center Bianca Esquivel said she encourages early intervention such as having a counseling session as soon as the first warning sign shows up.
“To make sure that we’re avoiding burnout and that we’re avoiding, you know, if experience lots of suicide, that we kind of address that and manage it together,” Esquivel said.
She said anxiety and depression are the most common reasons students go to the counseling center.
“And usually related to, like, academic stress, but recently relationship related stress too. And a lot of the times, maybe stuff that has nothing to do with academic stress as well, like family life,” Esquivel said.
She said before an official session students have to complete a 20-minute screening assessment.
“So students’ first appointment is actually called a screening,” Esquivel said. “It’s about a 20 minute interview just to see if they’re eligible for services, and at the end of those 20 minutes we’ll give them some recommendations, right, on which services might be most helpful.”
Esquivel shared a situation showing the impact of her service which was when she was able to help a student from a financial constraint.
“So with this particular student , she really went out of her way to tap in all the resources that she had,” she said. “ So she was always very consistent with our sessions and she was very open about how she was feeling.”
Director of the Counseling Center Christopher Albert said the center is working to implement a new initiative called the Frontline project.
Albert said the Frontline project trains faculty, staff and students to serve as peer counselors.
“They can recognize that a student is struggling and then talk with them,” he said. “They’re more likely to be in a position of already having that trust type of relationship with a student.”
Students interested in visiting the Counseling Center can call 956 665-2574 for Edinburg and 956 882-3897 for Brownsville.
This is Celeste Cruz for Vaquero Radio.
