Counseling Centers of the 1990s

Abstract

Stone and Archer, in a prominent article, identified a variety of challenges that college and university counseling centers would face in the 1990s. They offered 43 recommendations, grouped by six counseling center functions, that centers could adopt to meet the challenges. Sixty-seven counseling center directors completed a survey designed to assess the extent to which Stone and Archer’s recommendations had been heeded in the 5-year period from 1990-1991 to 1995-1996. Significant positive increases ( p < .001) in adherence were obtained for 23 recommendations (53.5%) with some change found in each one of the six counseling center functions. The survey results suggest that counseling centers actively responded to the many challenges they encountered in the first half of the decade.

Promoting Psychosocial Adjustment and Stress Management in First-Year College Students: The Benefits of Engagement in a Psychosocial Wellness Seminar

“…17,18 Further, students might not recognize their need for mental health services, or they might hesitate to seek help for various personal, social, or cultural reasons. [19][20][21] Given these challenges, it is not surprising that mental health services are greatly underutilized on college campuses.…”

Outreach by College Counselors: Increasing Student Attendance at Presentations

“…Information collected from students through focus groups, a survey, and presentation evaluation forms revealed factors that seem to be important to increasing attendance. O utreach programming is an increasingly important activity for college counseling centers (Archer & Cooper, 1998;Guinee & Ness, 2000;Stone & Archer, 1990). In fact, providing outreach interventions is an accreditation standard for college and university counseling centers set by the International Association of Counseling Services (Boyd et al, 2003).…”

Tragedy at Virginia Tech

“…Yet the potential for stunned, slow-forming reactivity in the aftermath of this tragedy has been superseded by burgeoning interest, increasing energy, and passionate initiative in the belief that counseling psychologists, in view of our traditional central role as college counselors and university mental health specialists, have much to offer in response to the lessons learned in every phase of this episode. As has been cited in benchmark articles in the past (see Guinee & Ness, 2000;Stone & Archer, 1990), counseling centers and their leaders must assert their pivotal role and offer focused expertise in matters of critical importance to the campus community. Indeed, the traditional pervasive role of counseling psychologists in campus counseling centers positions our profession to be a major contributor to the resolution of this concern.…”