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Student Counselling and Mental Health Advice Service

Welcome to the Student Counselling and Mental Health Advice Service

I need help with

Urgent care

Urgent care

If you need urgent help please contact your doctor, or Imperial College Health Centre on 020 7584 6301.

You can also ask to see someone at the Accident and Emergency department of your nearest hospital. Information about your local A&E services can be found here. Call 999 if you need help straight away

Other urgent out of hours mental health support

Samaritans - for people experience high levels of distress including suicidal feelings. Call 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org, this service is 24 hours.

Shout crisis text service - offers a 24 hour text service, free on all major mobile networks, for anyone in crisis anytime, anywhere. Text 'SHOUT' to 85258.

Closure announcement

The Student Counselling and Mental Health Advice Service will be closed for the Christmas break from 4pm on Friday 20th December and will reopen at 9am on Thursday 2nd January. During this time you can continue to complete the registration form for counselling, however the information will only be reviewed when the Service re-opens in January. You will not be able to complete a Concerned About a Student referral during this period and instead, we would encourage you to make use of Other Sources of Help for more urgent support.

For advice on other issues, please refer to the Imperial College Student Support Zone webpage

From all of us at the Student Counselling and Mental Health Advice Service, we wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year! See you in 2025!

Our Services

Find out more about the different types of support we offer below.

Our Services

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Counselling

The Counselling Service offers both individual and group counselling in the form of talking therapy to help students explore and address a specific emotional difficulty or concern. For individual counselling, we offer up to 5 sessions of brief, focused counselling usually occurring weekly. Our therapeutic groups are run termly, meeting once a week for 6 weeks with the same group of students each week.
Student sitting talking to professional

Mental Health Advice

For students experiencing moderate to severe or enduring mental health difficulties, the Mental Health Advice Team offer support on an ongoing or intermittent basis during your studies to help you manage the impact of your mental health difficulties and to liaise with your academics and medical professionals as needed.
People Talking at Table

Mental Health Intervention Officers

If you have concerns about your own wellbeing or the wellbeing of another another student and want advice on where to get support, this team is here to help assess your needs and signpost you to the appropriate services. This is usually a one-off appointment rather than ongoing emotional support.

Parts of the Service

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Mental Health Study Mentors

Study mentoring is a form of specialist support for students with mental health and neurodevelopmental difficulties. It is designed to support students keep on track with their academic work by helping students to identify the impact of their condition upon their learning and to develop effective study strategies.
Workshop

Psychoeducational Workshops, Courses and Webinars

Our Service offers a variety of one-off psychoeducational workshops and webinars on topics such as mindfulness, sleep, procrastination and exam stress throughout the year. We also offer a 4-week course based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for those struggling with low mood as well as a 4-week mindfulness-based course for stress reduction.
Stuedents working together

Self-Directed Support

Often a good place to start, we’ve put together some self-directed support full of useful information and strategies to help you find ways of coping with your difficulties and improving your wellbeing. This includes our Kind Mind video series, symptom-specific self-help leaflets, Silver Cloud - our online CBT modules - as well as a list of useful external and crisis resources.