Our "Student Development" approach to counseling focuses on the developmental needs of students that typically occur between the ages of 18 and 22. Chiefly, these needs include learning how to develop, maintain and nurture relationships. Programs and services address ways students can learn to cultivate healthy lifestyles, leadership skills, assertiveness skills, communication skills, and identify and minimize high-risk behaviors, including use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs.
We also provide more traditional counseling services that would be found in the majority of college and university settings. Individual, short-term professional counseling is available to help students identify personal, academic and/or career challenges, and to learn positive coping skills to manage their lives.
Examples of reasons students seek counseling include the following :
Career Counseling
Career counseling helps students understand the relationship between self-knowledge and career choice. This is accomplished through assessment of interests, competencies, values, experiences, personal characteristics and desired lifestyle. Individual career counseling is designed to assist those students who may be questioning whether engineeiring or science is the best career path for them.
SDS allows students the opportunity to take interest inventories and personality assessments that can assist in the decision-making process.
Academic Counseling
Individual academic counseling assists students who need to learn new or different ways to study or take tests. The goals of academic counseling are to learn how to study effectively, communicate their knowledge in testing situations and maximize success. In some cases, the counselors may consult with and/or refer students to the Director of Academic Services.
Crisis Intervention
Counselors are trained and experienced in providing crisis intervention services as well as consultation regarding crises in order to prevent, resolve, and/or minimize the effects of crisis on the individual and the CSM community.
