Services and Scope

Self Help

Furman has just subscribed to an extensive support resource, Therapy Assistance Online (TAO), which combines online and mobile educational modules and practice tools with short phone conversations or video conferences with a therapist. Information about how to connect is coming soon.

We’ve also compiled a wide range of resources on our Anytime Support page, as well as a list of self-help books students can check out at the Furman Library.

Groups and Workshops

We offer and co-sponsor groups and workshops that focus on topics such as boundary setting, public speaking, skills of resilience, grief, and healing from sexual assault. Each semester, we post and advertise our latest group listings.

Single Sessions and Brief Individual Counseling

During these one-on-one sessions, which typically last 30-45 minutes, a licensed counselor will help you set and attain goals to feel better and stay well. Some concerns, such as talking through an immediate stressor or decision, can be addressed in a single counseling session. Other concerns may necessitate several collaborative, goal-focused sessions to help you navigate and build skills to manage a more intense episode or crisis.

Nutrition Counseling

Our registered dietician can help you determine and maintain a healthy weight, transition to a vegetarian diet, plan balanced meals, and even identify and heal disordered eating and body image concerns.

Psychiatric Consultation

During individual counseling, you and your counselor might discuss the option of including medication in your treatment plan. If you decide this is something you want to try, then your counselor can refer you to one of our part-time psychiatrists for a consultation. Our psychiatric services are an adjunct to counseling; these are not stand-alone services.

Referral and Case Follow-up

If you and the counselor determine that you need longer-term, more-intensive, or more-specialized treatment than the Counseling Center provides, then our case manager can refer you to a reputable provider in the community. The case manager will continue to follow up with you, to make sure you’re getting the help you need to progress in treatment.

What we treat

• Academic pressure
• Adjustment to college
• Anger management
• Anxiety
• Body image/eating
• Substance use
• Cross-cultural adjustment
• Depression
• Family/relationship problems
• Grief
• Perfectionism
• Self-esteem
• Sexuality/gender identity
• Stress management
• Reaction to trauma

Eligibility

Furman undergraduate day students who are currently enrolled are eligible for services at the Counseling Center.  Students on leave, dismissed students or recent graduates are not eligible for services. Students who are conducting research, doing an internship in Greenville or working for the university are eligible for services.

The Counseling Center uses a stepped-care model to ensure that students can access care in a timely manner.  An assessment of a student’s autonomy (level of functioning) and symptom intensity determines the treatment plan. Our model supports the Furman Advantage by offering a broad array of services that help students take responsibility for their mental health and wellbeing.

Many of our students have full academic and extracurricular lives. Our single session services, workshops and self-help resources are geared to busy students who are looking for an occasional “sounding board” to find solutions to challenging situations. Also, the Counseling Center makes referrals and works closely with Student Life, ensuring that our clients use all available resources.

Students who have the capacity and the motivation to work intensely and collaboratively with a counselor in session, and independently between sessions, benefit most from our therapy services. Therapy at the Counseling Center is reflective, brief and goal-directed.

Students whose symptom severity is outside our scope, or who require/desire intensive, ongoing treatment, can receive crisis management and referral-coordination and follow-up services.

Access

Students access services through a brief consultation (a 20-25 minute clinical meeting) in which the student and therapist discuss the presenting concern and the impact on functioning. The brief consultation concludes with a collaborative plan that the student can follow. Given the flexibility of our model, a student’s care can be stepped up or down, depending on intensity of distress and level of autonomy.