As the holiday season continues, the University of Rhode Island Counseling Center will continue to provide services in Rhode Island throughout the break and J-Term.
URI offers free counseling to students throughout the semester from Roosevelt Hall as well as remote services through the TELUS Health Student Support app.
As stress mounts in the coming month, URI Counseling Center Director Cory Clark encourages students to seek support. The only caveat comes with students who may retire home from the holidays across state lines. Due to licensing restrictions, URI counselors aren’t permitted to see patients outside of Rhode Island.
If a student resides in-state, the Counseling Center is permitted to see them virtually.
For students out of state over the break seeking support, Clark recommends utilizing the TELUS mobile app. Free to download and access for URI students, TELUS offers 24/7 chat support, short-term counseling and referrals for long-term care.
While still on campus, students are welcome to schedule a counseling session, according to Clark. Due to time constraints, sessions will prioritize long term goals to short term management before the student departs for break.
“We kind of go along those lines, you know, of recognizing there’s not really enough time to see [students] multiple times, so we shift our focus,” Clark said.
If a student is only able to fit in one appointment before they leave the state for break, Clark said their intake appointment may look different than usual.
“Normally, a first full session might be going information gathering and finding out what brings them in and some of their history,” Clark said. “We kind of forego that pretty much at this stage, just to be more helpful.”
While the holiday season brings excitement for some, for others it spells stress. 89% of adults in the United States say something causes them stress during the holiday season, according to a 2023 study by the American Psychological Association.
Concerns with having enough money for gifts, missing family or loved ones and experiencing or anticipating family conflict are three of the study’s most cited reasons for elevated stress.
The holiday season coincides with many people for the onset of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Characterized by symptoms of depression that come during the fall and winter months, SAD is more common in young people and women according to the American Psychiatric Association , usually presenting from ages 18 to 30.
For students seeking treatment, the URI Counseling Center website walks through what to expect. Beginning with a phone call to assess how to proceed best, the counselors may recommend individual or group therapy, according to the website.
Another route for treatment at the Counseling Center is a referral from a counselor for medication, longer term therapy, academic advising or career counseling. The Counseling Center website describes individual on-campus therapy as “short-term.”
If students are seeing an off-campus therapist virtually and require a roommate-free space to meet, the Counseling Center provides that space, Clark said.
Whether a student is looking for long-term care or short-term solutions, the URI Counseling Center is available.
For students in immediate crisis, call 988.