Services and FAQ

Counseling Center Hours

Monday 8:30am – 2:30pm
Tuesday 8:30am – 4:30pm
Wednesday 8:30am – 2:30pm
Thursday 8:30am – 4:30pm

Please email counseling@brandongraphics.com and request a counseling appointment. Include your name and phone number as well as ALL times you are available Monday and Wednesday, 8:30am – 2:30pm and Tuesday and Thursday, 8:30am – 4:30pm. (Note: sessions are typically 45-50 minutes.)

You will receive a reply email with a counseling appointment time and date, your counselor’s name and further instructions on how to prepare for your first session.  You will also receive a link to an online confidential intake form. Please follow the instructions and complete all (confidential) forms before coming to your first session.

Counseling center services are free for currently enrolled students during the semesters.

Counseling sessions are scheduled weekly or bi-weekly and typically last 50 minutes per session. Some clients like to check-in monthly.

During the first appointment the counselor will review initial paperwork and explore reasons for seeking therapy. After the assessment of client concerns and review of the client’s goal, the therapist will craft a plan of treatment and eventually review this with the client. Evidence based practices and interventions are used to create change and establish growth for the client. Sessions will be terminated at the end of the semester, when the treatment plan is completed, or when the client feels they no longer need services. Students are welcome to return for services at any time during the school year and when there is availability.

Referrals are provided if the client wishes to continue counseling over break or if the client is in need of specialized treatments. If for any reason a client is not comfortable with their therapist, they have the option to meet with another therapist based on availability. While sessions are free to students there are policies in place for clients who repeatedly no-call/no-show or who have a pattern of canceling late.

Mission

The Counseling Center is committed to promoting the academic mission of Warner Pacific University, to prepare students to engage actively in a constantly changing world, by providing a variety of psychological supports that will increase retention and graduation by strengthening students’ ability to tolerate distress, form healthy relationships, and discover healthy expressions of their ideals and values. The Counseling Center also advances the university’s mission by providing educational programming and consultation to the students, faculty, and staff.

Values

Our work is driven by care for the students we serve and a dedication to promoting connection and support among the WPU community.  We recognize that compassion and health for ourselves as staff promotes compassion for our students and our community.

Diversity and Respect

We respect the fundamental rights, dignity, and worth of our students including their rights to privacy, confidentiality, self-determination, autonomy, and connection. In our work, we are aware of cultural, individual, and role differences, including those of age, gender identity, race, ethnicity, national origin, citizenship status, religion, sexual orientation, disability, language, and socioeconomic status. We strive to identify and reduce the impact of our biases on our work. We work to challenge systemic discriminatory practices in our community.

Equity

We recognize, respect, and attend to the diverse strengths and challenges of our students and our counseling center staff and seek to minimize potential barriers to accessing counseling services and resources.

Integrity

We strive to build and sustain a culture of trust, transparency, and healing in which every person, including students, staff, and faculty, are treated respectfully and ethically.

Innovation

We learn from experience and seek new perspectives that proactively challenge our assumptions and traditions to meet the ever-evolving needs of our students, center, and university community.

The most frequent request by students is for individual and relationship counseling. Individual counseling can focus on such concerns as anxiety and tension, depression, procrastination, grief due to loss, loneliness, low self-esteem or self-confidence, performance/striving issues, issues with food, identity or orientation concerns, and many other personal issues. Relationship counseling focuses on improving or understanding relationships between roommates, teachers, friends, engaged couples, spouses, and parents.

Counseling Services also offers a variety of opportunities for clients to understand themselves better and to enhance their relationships with others.

Counseling Services can also help students to:

1. Develop more independence and maturity.
2. Handle life situations more effectively.
3. Accept responsibility for behavior.
4. Manage stress and anxiety appropriately.
5. Live by a personal value system.
6. Create a healthy and satisfying lifestyle.
7. Develop a mature sexuality.
8. Develop and maintain satisfying interpersonal relationships.
9. Enhance self-esteem and self-confidence.
10. Resolve conflicts and make decisions more effectively.
11. Address and gain satisfaction out of work activities.

It’s a question of measuring to what extent you are managing — anything that makes you feel overwhelmed or limits your ability to function to the level you would like are basic cues that it is time to seek a counselor. Other signs include:

• Everything you feel is intense or overwhelming (or reversely, you feel numb and detached from life).
• You’ve suffered trauma and you can’t seem to stop thinking about it.
• You have unexplained and recurrent headaches, stomach-aches or a rundown immune system.
• You’re using a substance to cope.
• You take extra measures to either avoid people completely or constantly distract yourself from being by yourself.
• You’re getting negative feedback from work or school.
• You feel disconnected from previously beloved activities.
• Your relationships are strained.
• Your friends or family have told you they’re concerned.

When self-harm or suicidal thoughts are present, talk to someone and see a counselor. This is absolutely a time to engage in a non-judgmental, accepting counseling relationship to find the support and care that you need.

One of the most difficult steps in counseling occurs before you even see a counselor for the first time. Deciding to seek counseling is the first step in change. Once this decision has been made, the mechanics for change have been set in motion. In the process of changing the way you think, feel, or behave, you usually must try out new ways of doing things. This can make you anxious or frustrated. Also, in the course of counseling you may come to realize that things you once thought of only in a positive or negative way you may see a bit differently. The challenges of pushing your limitations may also cause personal challenges, but with commitment and practice, you will find that you can stretch your limits and find new and exciting aspects of yourself.

You can expect someone who is interested in listening to your concerns and in helping you develop a better understanding of them so that you may deal with them more easily and effectively. Your counselor will take you seriously and be willing to openly discuss anything you wish to discuss. Your counselor will be willing to answer some questions about herself or himself directly and honestly. Because counselors have different beliefs about how people change, they differ on how much talking they do in sessions, whether they ask you to do “homework,” and their focus of discussion. If you have any questions about what is going on, by all means ask. Counselors have no “magical” skills or knowledge, and will be unable to solve your problems directly for you. Your counselor will want to work with you, but won’t do for you what you are capable of doing for yourself. Except under unusual circumstances, your counselor will maintain strict confidentiality about you as required by laws and ethical guidelines, and will openly discuss this with you in the first session.