At the end of March 2023, the Integrated Programme for Personal and Professional Development of UP (short: UP Personal Growth), co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation and the European Union from the European Social Fund, within the Operational Programme for the Implementation of the European Cohesion Policy 2014-2020, on the basis of the public call for proposals Strengthening the role of career centres in the holistic treatment of students, and in cooperation with the Department of Psychology of the UP Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies (UP FAMNIT), the UP Psychological Counselling Centre started its operation.
It is aimed at all UP students and offers them psychological support in the form of individual meetings. The counselling centre offers free help to students who are experiencing problems related to learning, studying or achieving their academic goals, difficulties in balancing their commitments and personal life, in coping with stressful situations, emotional problems (such as, for example, stress, anxiety, depression, etc.). (e.g. anxiety, panic attacks, depression, eating disorders or other mental health problems), self-esteem and other personal difficulties (e.g. difficulties in experiencing oneself, managing emotions), difficulties in interpersonal relationships and various other psychosocial problems in the transition to adulthood or in coping with life changes.
The psychological counselling centre, staffed by professionally trained counsellors, offers individual counselling in a confidential and safe environment. Individual sessions are held in person in rooms set up and equipped for this purpose in the UP building in Brolo. If necessary and agreed, counselling and confidential discussions can also be conducted remotely using the ZOOM application.
Since the launch of the UP Psychological Counselling Centre until the end of June 2023, 75 students have registered for counselling, of which 62 are women (82.67%) and 13 are men (17.33%). Most of the students who use the free counselling services are students of UP PEF and UP FAMNIT, while the number of students coming from other UP members is lower.
The counselling process is carried out by students submitting an application via an online form (available HERE) to express their interest in joining the UP Psychological Counselling Centre. In the form, they indicate which of the listed sets of problems they are facing by means of pre-prepared categories. The counsellors will then contact them by e-mail and arrange a time for the first meeting. Usually, counselling involves several consecutive meetings, or as agreed and needed. However, in case of more serious problems, students can also be referred to external experts.
At UP, already during the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting changes in life and social patterns, there was a great need to establish a psychological counselling centre to provide students with relief and professional support. Therefore, the actual establishment and start of the UP Psychological Counselling Centre can be considered as an important contribution to the university environment.
The Counselling Centre will continue its work after the completion of the UP Personal Growth project, and will be joined by the so-called Student Counselling Centres in all UP members, which will provide a supportive support network that can respond to various psychosocial distress and study-related problems of students who do not require more complex psychological counselling, but who nevertheless face problems that have a significant impact on their academic performance and quality of life. Students whose problems appear to be more complex will be referred from the student counselling centres to the counselling specialists at the UP Psychological Counselling Centre.