Community Counseling & Assessment Clinic

 Instructions for Extra Credit Counseling

This is an excellent opportunity for you to gain greater self-awareness and explore personal, interpersonal, and vocational topics in a safe, understanding environment which can provide you with first hand experience on how it feels to be a client in a helping relationship. Counseling can also be a growth experience that helps each of us to improve our day-to-day personal and interpersonal functioning.

It is helpful to recognize that you need not have a “problem” in order to benefit from a counseling experience. All of us can identify aspects of ourselves that we would like to improve. Of course, in order to participate in counseling, you must be willing to disclose a certain degree of personal information (e.g., your thoughts, feelings, and reactions to various events in your life). During your initial appointment, the counselor will help you identify areas to explore in counseling. Common areas explored by students choosing this option include, but are not limited to career/vocational exploration, the management of stress, anxiety, and/or anger, relationship and family issues, academic concerns (time management, study skills, test anxiety, etc), and identity development and self-esteem enhancement. 

In order to benefit from this experience, you must be willing to attend scheduled counseling sessions, participate, and take the process seriously. Given that the clinic is not always able to accommodate all students who select this option, it is important that only those students who are really interested participate. Therefore, we reserve the right to discontinue counseling following 2 consecutive absences or clear evidence that you do not intend to take the counseling process seriously.

If you are interested in participating in this option, the first step toward completing this option is to schedule an initial interview in the USM Community Counseling and Assessment Clinic by calling 266-4601 or in person in OMH in Room 202. This interview will be used to gather pertinent information and help you decide how you might want to use your time in the sessions. Following this interview, the information you provided will be reviewed by our clinic’s case assignment team in order to determine whether you have been able to identify relevant issues to discuss in counseling and which counselor is best qualified to work with you. Following the approval of the team, you will be contacted in order to schedule counseling times. This usually takes a week or two following your initial interview.

Students selecting this option will be charged a total of $10.00 to cover the initial interview and six sessions. $5.00 is due during the initial interview, and a one-time fee of $5.00 is due during the first 6 counseling sessions. Although there is no limit to the number of sessions you may attend, you will receive credit for six sessions of counseling (the initial interview does not count as one of these sessions). You will need to attend all six sessions for credit, as partial credit will not be given. There will be no additional points awarded for participating in more than the minimum number of sessions.

The USM Community Counseling and Assessment Clinic is a teaching facility for counselors-in-training. Consequently, all counseling sessions in the clinic are videotaped. These recordings are used by the teaching staff to ensure that you receive the services you requested and to provide supervision of your counselor-in-training by faculty. There are circumstances when one of your instructors may be supervising your assigned counselor and therefore have access to the information you discuss in session. These circumstances are usually unavoidable, however you will be informed of the individuals who provide supervision in order for you to make an informed decision about whether to continue counseling. Faculty supervisors are licensed psychologists, or license-eligible psychologists/counselors. Information revealed during the counseling sessions will be held in strict confidence and will not be revealed to any person or agency except under certain circumstances (e.g., a medical emergency, you report a clear intention to harm yourself or someone else, or you report the abuse or neglect of a child or vulnerable adult).

YOU CAN EARN A TOTAL OF 20 EXTRA CREDIT POINTS FOR PARTICIPATING IN THIS CLASS CREDIT COUNSELING EXPERIENCE. YOUR COUNSELOR WILL NOTIFY DR. NICHOLSON WHEN YOU HAVE COMPLETED YOUR SIX SESSIONS.

Please contact your instructor (Dr. Nicholson) to discuss any concerns or questions you have about this extra credit option.