Cristina M. Costa
- Interim Director
- Counseling Center
The Counseling Center cares about the mental and physical well-being of our students and College community.
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 8:30 am-4:30 pm, Wednesday: 8:30 am–6 pm
(Summer hours: Monday–Friday: 8:30 am–4:30 pm)
HOPE Line (401-456-4673) is a 24/7 mental health emergency line for all Ȧ students.
For on-campus emergencies, please contact Campus Police at 401-456-8888.
For all other emergencies dial 911.
To help you navigate the Counseling Center, here we provide information on:
We strive to achieve this mission by:
Our main goal is for you to feel both understood and cared for. After assessing the concerns together, you and your therapist will develop a plan that meets your needs.
Although much learning in college occurs in the classroom, there is also a great deal of learning that occurs outside it. In counseling, the learning is about you, who you really are and where you are going with your life, how to manage emotions, or how to resolve or cope with internal or interpersonal conflicts. Counseling can help renew a sense of active engagement in learning and life.
Please Note: All services at the Counseling Center are free to Ȧ students. You do not need to provide insurance or payment of any sort. Counseling is covered by your student health fee and tuition, so you and/or your insurance will never be billed.
The approaches to counseling used by our staff and students span a diversity of perspectives, yet there is also cohesiveness in our understanding of what promotes wellness and distress. Our therapists tend to be informed by humanistic, contemporary relational psychodynamic and mindfulness-based approaches and consider systemic and cultural factors. This amounts to respect for the client as an important collaborator, a broad perspective that past relationships often impact and guide our current relationships with others and ourselves while balancing this with a focus on the present, and an understanding that many factors outside of us contribute to our wellbeing.
Students will have a chance to indicate their preferences about the background of their therapist. We are invested in facilitating the best match between therapist and client.
The Ȧ Counseling Center takes students’ privacy very seriously and maintains a strict policy on confidentiality. Limitations to confidentiality will be discussed at the first session. Mental health records are maintained separately from your academic records and are not released without your written consent.
If you are experiencing overwhelming challenges and need to speak with a therapist urgently, we offer same day appointments during the week.
You can speak with a clinician any time of day or night, thanks to Ȧ Counseling Center's partnership with TELUS Health. Calling the Hope Line or using the TELUS Health app will get you in touch with a TELUS Health clinician.
Request an appointment online or over the phone with counseling services.
The Counseling Center is made up of licensed psychologists, a psychiatrist (Fall/Spring semesters only), social workers and graduate students in training, all from different cultural and theoretical backgrounds.
Learn more about Ȧ's initiatives, information and resources related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
First-year college students are at the highest risk of developing depression and anxiety.
Ȧ faculty, staff and students are transitioning back to face-to-face interactions on campus. But what is the healthiest way to return to “normal”?