Scope of Clinical Care

Health & Wellness Services - Counseling Services strives to facilitate the development of St. Norbert College students by providing psychological interventions to promote their holistic well-being.  Health & Wellness Services - Counseling Services has three essential roles for advancing the educational mission of St. Norbert College:

1. Providing clinical services that help students achieve their academic and personal goals.
2. Educating the campus community about the psychological and developmental needs of students through community-level interventions, including outreach programming and consultation.
3. Responding to the psychological effects of crisis impacting individual students and the campus community.

Our Counselors utilize a brief therapy model to help students resolve or effectively manage a specific concern, or achieve a desired change in support of their academic and personal goals.  Clinical services within this framework include clinical assessments to determine the appropriate level of care, group and individual counseling, Therapy Assistance Online (TAO), support for autism spectrum disorders (see SNC ASD Support Program) and crisis intervention.  Our Counselors also provide consultation, outreach, and referral services (e.g. Wellness By Design In Action).  Students are encouraged to schedule a needs assessment to discuss their concerns with a counselor who will help determine the most appropriate option(s) to address their concerns.  Some students may require services and interventions beyond the scope of clinical care provided.

Students with the following concerns and characteristics will likely need a different type or level of care than what is within the role and scope of St. Norbert College’s Health & Wellness Services - Counseling Services.  The list below reflects some of the most common exceptions to care provided and is intended only as a guide.

• Students who appear to have longer-term treatment needs. Reasons may include:
  
  • Consistently needing services more than once per week and/or frequent consultation after hours that cannot be stabilized with short-term crisis intervention
  • Active eating disorders requiring extensive medical monitoring
  • Concerns which a brief therapy model of treatment will not appropriately address
• Students who need services other than those offered at Health & Wellness Services - Counseling Services.  Reasons may include:
  • Intensive outpatient or inpatient treatment
  • Medical detoxification and/or medical stabilization
  • On-going mandated treatment
  • Comprehensive assessments (e.g., learning disabilities, ADHD)
  • Psychological assessments or evaluations for selection, performance prediction, or forensic purposes (e.g., professional school application, employment security assessment, litigation or legal adjudications)
  • Specialized services beyond the clinical expertise of Counseling staff
• Students who are unable to comply with treatment (e.g., repeated no shows)
• Students who are already receiving on-going therapy with another mental health provider
• Students seeking therapy for the sole purpose of obtaining documentation for another office
• Students seeking services while away from campus (e.g., away over semester breaks, Study Abroad, etc.)
• Finally, Health & Wellness Services - Counseling Services serves only currently enrolled students. Employees of the college are encouraged to utilize mental health resources available through the college’s participation in the Employee Assistance Program. More information is available through Human Resources.