Counselling gives you the opportunity to talk in complete confidence about any issues past or present that are troubling you. It is a space where you can talk about yourself with someone impartial, who will help you to process things and reach useful conclusions.
Counselling should not be seen as somewhere to come for ‘advice’ about how to solve your problems, rather a place where you will be helped to come to your own understanding about what you need to do or how you need to be. The discovery of your own solutions can be very empowering and is at the heart of a satisfactory life.
All counsellors at the college are familiar with the workings of the college and university and its impact on a student’s life, so are able to help you with the perspective of experience.
College counselling is available as both short- and long-term support, and students are normally offered an initial appointment within a few days. The College can also call on a diverse team of additional counsellors including counsellors independent of the college, male counsellors and ethnic minority counsellors – see below how to request this.
Our own Homerton College Counsellors, Catherine Snelson and Carol MacIntyre-Jones are both trained counsellors and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.
Catherine is our in-house counsellor. She sees both undergraduate and postgraduate students and is available Mondays to Thursdays. In addition to appointments she offers a drop-in session at 3.00 pm every Wednesday during full term in her room, QW109.
Carol is our dedicated PGCE counsellor and can make herself available at times compatible with the demands of the PGCE timetable. Her appointments are online.
If you have been referred for a different kind of specialist counselling by a psychiatrist or other medical professional the College has the potential to assist students financially, partly by a direct contribution and partly by supporting an application to the appropriate University fund. Please speak to your Tutor in the first instance.
If you would like to indicate any specific preferences or needs (for example for a male counsellor, an ethnic minority counsellor, or someone external to the college) please email counselling@homerton.cam.ac.uk in complete confidence, after which an appropriate counsellor will be in touch accordingly.
