Individual and Group Counselling

The Counselling Service offers talking therapy which is a collaborative process where you will have the opportunity to explore any emotional difficulties you may be experiencing and think together with your counsellor about how to address your concerns and improve your wellbeing. During your sessions, your counsellor won’t necessarily just tell you what to do, but rather will support you in better understanding your problems and encourage you to think about ways you can look after yourself.

If instead you are looking for more specific tips and strategies to try out, we recommend exploring our other offerings first, including self-directed support, and our workshops, or courses.

"This is my first year at College… I’ve never lived away from home before; I feel homesick. I used to be top of my class; now the work is so much more demanding and there are people on my course who are more intelligent than me!"

"I can’t focus on my work; I feel low and I don’t understand what’s happening to me. Sometimes I feel anxious for no apparent reason."

In addition, students bring a range of issues associated with academic problems, low mood, stress and anxiety, depression, relationship issues, loneliness, bereavement, issues around sexuality, self-esteem or self-harm.

Students with the following concerns will likely need a different type or level of care than what is within the role and scope of the Student Counselling Service. The list below reflects general guidelines and is intended only as a guide.

• Students who appear to have longer-term treatment needs or concerns which a brief therapy model of treatment will not appropriately address (see the difference between long-term and short-term therapy below)
• Students who are already receiving ongoing therapy with another mental health provider
• Students seeking therapy for the sole purpose of obtaining documentation for another process (e.g. Mitigating Circumstances) 
• Active eating disorders requiring medical intervention/monitoring – Instead we would encourage you to speak with your GP, or you can find more specialised support through The UK's Eating Disorder Charity - Beat (beateatingdisorders.org.uk)
• Comprehensive assessments (e.g. learning disabilities, ADHD) – carried out by the Disability Advisory Service 
• Specialised services beyond the clinical expertise of the Student Counselling Service staff

If you are unsure or have any questions, please do get in touch and you can discuss your concerns with a member of the team who will help determine the most appropriate support option(s) to address your concerns.

The Student Counselling Service utilises a brief therapy model to help students attend to or effectively manage a specific concern. In order to decide what type of support feels right for you, it is important to think about what the main differences are between short-term counselling and longer-term or open-ended counselling. If you decide longer-term counselling is more likely to benefit you, here is a list of some external resources that are able to offer open-ended counselling.

If you’re struggling with academic stress, you might also find it helpful to:

• Speak with your departmental Wellbeing Adviser, who is there to offer confidential pastoral support and assist you in managing academic concerns, such as mitigating circumstances.
• Speak with your personal tutor or your senior tutor, who are there to offer advice regarding academic matters and guide and support you in handling individual student problems or queries in your department.
• Attend one of our ‘Procrastination to Productivity’ workshops, delivered termly, to explore reasons you may be struggling to get started with your work and practical tools to help you manage your time.
• Attend one of our ‘Stress Less for Exam Success’ workshops, delivered in November, May, and July before exam periods begin. 
• Attend a PhD Reflection Group with the Imperial College Chaplaincy 
• Apply for mitigating circumstances if needed
• Attend one of the Library’s Study Skills Workshops 
• Speak with an Advice caseworker from the Imperial College Union who provide guidance on university regulations, appeals, mitigating circumstances, academic misconduct, fitness to practice, fitness to study, disciplinaries and issues with your supervisor Academic Issues | Imperial College Union

If you need support with difficulties related to finances or accommodation, you might find it helpful to:

• Speak with someone from the Imperial College Union 
• Speak with someone from the Student Advice Team 

If you’re experiencing bullying, harassment, discrimination or sexual misconduct:

• Speak with someone from the Imperial College Union 
• Report it to Report + Support - Imperial College London
• Speak with a sexual violence liaison officer (SVLO) 

For general support:

• Try our online self-directed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy modules called Silver Cloud, with specific modules on a range of topics such as stress, anxiety, panic, low mood, or body image.
• Check out our Kind Mind video series, with short episodes on topics such as managing stress, resilience and trauma, settling into university, staying connected, mindfulness, getting good sleep and gratitude.
• Attend one of our psychoeducational workshops, courses, or webinars 
• If you feel you may benefit from longer-term therapy rather than counselling, see our list external resources
• Speak with your GP

To arrange an appointment you will need to register with the service through our webpage. You will need to use your College login details. We use a standalone system and any information you provide is confidential to our Service.

We offer a confidential space where you can talk about issues you feel troubled by. Hence we will not usually pass on personal information about you to anybody outside the Service, unless you have given us permission to do so. Further information is given in the Student Counselling and Mental Health Advice Service Privacy Notice below.  A printed copy is available from Reception.‌

You can talk with your counsellor about this at your therapeutic consultation if you have any questions.

Confidentiality and Data Protection Policy

Privacy Policy

Once you have registered with us you will be offered an initial conversation with a counsellor where you can talk about your difficulties and discuss whether counselling might be helpful. This may also be a starting point to another source of help if that is more appropriate. To ensure you are seen as quickly as possible we ask you to let us know the times you are available so we can offer you an appointment that fits around your schedule. The greater flexibility you have in when you are able to attend the more likely it is that you will have an earlier appointment. We do request that you give us as much notice as possible if you are unable to attend your appointment. This is to enable us to offer the time to another student who is waiting for an appointment.

Initial conversations last approximately 30 minutes, and we aim to offer you this as soon as we are able following your registration. Following the initial conversation, you and your counsellor will decide the most supportive options for you.

During the appointment, you will have the opportunity to talk with a counsellor about your concerns, to think together about what you might need, and decide about what help might be most useful to you. This may or may not be continuing into counselling. You will be able to think with your counsellor if there are any other relevant support within or outside of Imperial College, which could be helpful to you.

Some of the possible recommendations following your initial conversation are:

• Brief-counselling with our Service (up to 5 sessions)
• Longer-term or open-ended therapy with an external service
• Making an appointment with your GP
• Other external, specialised services
• Internal support from another department, such as your personal or senior tutor, your departmental wellbeing adviser, Chaplaincy, the Disability Advisory Service, the SU Advice Centre, etc.
• A psychoeducational workshop or webinar on exam stress, procrastination, sleep difficulties, mindfulness, or self-compassion
• A 4-week course on either improving low mood or stress reduction
• A 6-week Compassion Focused Therapy group
• Silver Cloud – online self-directed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy modules on a range of topics such as stress, anxiety, panic, low mood, or body image
• Other self-directed support, such as our Kind Mind video series or written self-help guides

Following this meeting, if you and your counsellor agree that counselling with the Service is the best way forward for you, we will offer you an appointment as soon as a counsellor has space available at the time you have let them know you are available to attend.

Before you attend for your initial conversation, it may be helpful to reflect on the following questions to help you prepare you for your first session so that you get the most out of your appointment.

• What brings me to counselling?
• If I were to have counselling sessions, what would I like to get from my sessions, what would I want to be different?
• What have I already tried? If you’re unsure about what might be helpful to try, I would suggest taking a look at some of the Self-Directed Support  we’ve put together to give you some ideas, in addition to attending one of our workshops or courses .
• What am I willing to change?
• Is now a good time for me? Why have I decided to come to counselling at this point in my life?

We aim to offer you a weekly appointment at the same day and time within 4 weeks from when you are first seen. This might be longer at times of particularly high demand. Ongoing counselling appointments are 50 minutes long and you will meet with the same counsellor in the same place each week. Appointments are usually very limited due to a high demand for the service, so it’s important to make sure you’re able to attend all of your sessions in order to help you get the most benefit from them. Your sessions are an investment in yourself and your wellbeing and just like making any other changes, requires commitment and effort.

The Counselling Service offers talking therapy, which is a collaborative process where you and your counsellor talk together about what’s been going on for you in order to help you make sense of our feelings and understand yourself better, help you recognise unhelpful patterns in the way you think or act, and find ways to change them (if you want to). The counsellor will generally not tell you what to do since the process of counselling encourages clients to create their own ways forward, in the supportive environment of the counselling room.

If you are looking for something a bit more directive or don’t feel quite ready to talk to someone, we encourage you to explore some of our Self-Directed Support  in addition to attending one of our workshops or courses 

While you wait for your ongoing counselling appointments, why not try:

Silver Cloud
Watch a Kind Mind episode
Explore our online self-directed resources
Speak with your departmental wellbeing adviser
If you need to speak to someone urgently

For the counselling process to be effective, it is important that students attend appointments regularly. We understand that there are times when circumstances or unexpected events will require you to cancel or to not attend a scheduled appointment, so we ask that you give us as much notice as possible so that we can offer this space to another student.  

Due to high demand and to keep the service accessible to those who need it, the service adheres to the following cancellation policy: 

Initial conversation:

We can reschedule a maximum of one initial conversation if you let us know at least 48 hours before the appointment. If you wish to reschedule with less than 48 hours notice this will count as a missed appointment, and you will be added back on to the waitlist. If you miss your appointment without letting us know before the session, you will need to re-register with the service at a later time 

Ongoing counselling appointments:

We can reschedule a maximum of one missed or cancelled appointment within an academic year.  Any subsequent missed or cancelled appointments will need to be counted as a used session. If you cancel or do not attend 3 counselling sessions, or 2 consecutively, your registration with the service will end and your file will be closed. You would be welcome to re-refer for counselling again when you can commit to regular attendance.