Counseling & Consultation Services FAQ

An intake is a time for you to meet with a counselor to determine if CCS is the best service to address your needs. After talking with us about your needs during an initial brief screening appointment, we will ask you to complete some paperwork, and the intake therapist will spend approximately 45 minutes discussing what brings you in for services. At the end of the appointment, the therapist will discuss next steps in regard to recommending services that may be a good fit for you, including individual therapy or group therapy. If CCS cannot offer the services that best fit your needs, the therapist will work with you to get you connected to a more appropriate resource elsewhere at Butler or within the Indianapolis community.
A consultation is a one-time appointment to help you work through a current problem that will likely not require continued therapy sessions. If you are seeking advice or information rather than counseling for yourself, you may also set up a consultation session or meeting with a counselor. Students often come in seeking support on how to help friends/roommates with concerns or to inquire about what kind of services/resources are available for a particular issue, such as sexual assault, alcohol, and drug problems, or eating disorders. If you decide after your consultation that you would like to return to CCS for therapy services, you will need to schedule an intake appointment.

CCS provides both short-term individual therapy and group therapy.
CCS offers a short-term model of individual therapy. Sessions are focused on the presenting problem and the student’s goal for treatment. Common reasons for seeking individual therapy include:

Relationship concerns
Depression/Anxiety
Adjustment to college life and loneliness
Grief/Loss
Understanding one’s sexual/gender identity
Eating and body image concerns
Self-esteem/Self-confidence
Anger management
Stress management and coping skills
Sexual assault and other trauma recovery
Alcohol and substance use problems

Group therapy is often the most effective type of counseling if your problems involve relationships with other people. For this reason, your therapist might recommend group instead of individual therapy. Groups usually involve 5-8 students and are led by two members of the CCS staff. The group provides a safe and supportive environment in which you can constructively experiment with new ways of relating to others, share personal experiences, express fears and concerns, and get support and feedback. Learn more about Group Therapy.

While CCS does not currently have session limits, the average length of individual therapy is between 6-8 sessions. In an effort to meet the demand and see as many students as we can, we collaboratively work with students to determine the appropriate length of treatment. CCS aims to be flexible within this short-term model, and we know that each student has unique circumstances. If you know that you are likely to want weekly therapy sessions for the entirety of your time at Butler, we are happy to help you find referrals in the community to meet this long-term need.

Due to the high level of interest in counseling services, we typically cannot offer same day therapy appointments. However, if you are in a crisis during business hours, we will attempt to make someone available as soon as possible. Alternatively, you can seek immediate care in person or by phone at local hospitals that offer mental health care, such as St. Vincent’s Stress Center (317-338-4800) and Community Health Network (317-621-5700). We do attempt to offer same day or next day brief screening appointments with our therapists to determine your needs.

During CCS Business Hours
Crisis services are available to currently enrolled students. If you or someone you are concerned about is in crisis and does not need immediate medical help or law enforcement, please call our front desk at 940-9777 and let the staff know that you are seeking services for a crisis situation. While we cannot guarantee immediate assistance, we will attempt to make someone available as soon as possible to meet your needs.
Examples of crisis situations:

Considering suicide
Thoughts of hurting other people
Recent victim of sexual assault
Extremely disorganized or bizarre thinking or perceptions

If someone needs immediate medical attention, is threatening immediate self-harm, or has attempted suicide please call 911 immediately.
After Business Hours
If you are experiencing a crisis outside of our business hours, there are several local and national resources to help you. St. Vincent’s Stress Center and Community North both offer 24-hour phone crisis intervention as well as evaluations for hospital stays. You can contact them directly, or contact BUPD if you need assistance accessing any of these resources.
Community Resources:

St. Vincent’s Stress Center 24-hour line (317) 338-4800
Community North 24-hour line (317) 621-5700 or text HelpNow to 20121
National Suicide Hotline (888) 273-TALK (8255)
Local Crisis Hotline (317) 251-7575
www.crisischat.org

Some students may accept a referral for professional help better than others. It is usually best to be frank with students about the limits of your ability to assist them—limits of time, energy, training, objectivity. Most students find it reassuring that you respect their willingness to talk and that you want to support them in getting the assistance they need. Confused students may be comforted to know that they don’t necessarily have to know what’s wrong before they can ask for help. Assure them that seeking help doesn’t necessarily mean that they have serious problems. Feeling down or low on energy and motivation; experiencing difficulties in relationships with friends, parents, partners; feeling anxious or depressed, and having concerns about future goals or plans are common experiences for college students and are also all very good reasons for seeking professional assistance.
Remember, that except in dangerous emergencies, the decision whether to accept or reject the referral is ultimately the student’s. If you want to know whether a student has accepted your referral, please ask them. Any information about students’ use of our service is confidential, and CCS cannot provide any information about counseling to anyone without the student’s written consent.

When you refer a student, it is helpful to promote CCS in its entirety, rather than suggesting the student see a particular therapist. However, encouraging the student by sharing your knowledge and confidence in therapists at the center is certainly appropriate. Encouraging the student to accept an appointment at the earliest available time slot will allow the student to be seen sooner and does not rule out the option of seeing a specified therapist at a later time.

During the first appointment, an intake therapist will begin an assessment of the student’s needs and the ways in which the CCS might be able to help. No information obtained in therapy shall be discussed in any way by the therapist without the client’s written permission unless disclosure is required by law.
After the initial meeting, the intake therapist will review the student’s information with a professional team to determine the best service for their needs. If our model of services is not appropriate for their presenting concern, we will assist in finding the services that will best meet their needs.

CCS contracts with a licensed psychiatrist, Dr. DeLynn Williams, to provide consultations for medications related to mental health conditions such as mood disorders and anxiety disorders. Unlike most other CCS services, students will be charged a fee for using this service. Initial consultations are billed at $200, and follow-up medication checks cost $80 for 20 minutes and $125 for 40 minutes. Students will have their student account billed with a health service fee label.

All information gathered in counseling, including the fact that a student has come to CCS, is held in strict confidence. No information is released to anyone unless the student requests it or it is within the exceptions to confidentiality stated in Indiana state law, such as:

(a) CCS is court ordered to release information
(b) an immediate danger of serious harm to someone (self or others) requires that information be released to prevent the harm from happening
(c) risk of harm to children, the elderly, and the physically or mentally handicapped

If a student is entering law enforcement or the military he/she should know that applications routinely ask if you have sought counseling in the past.

Providing letters of documentation is a service that must occur within the context of an on-going therapeutic relationship. CCS generally does not provide letters based solely on an intake/initial visit. On rare occasions, a CCS clinician may provide a letter as a documentation for an ongoing client; this decision depends on the nature of the letter you are requesting, the time frame of therapy and of concerns relevant to the letter, and your counselor’s professional opinion. There are some types of letters that are outside the scope of our services, including disability or accommodation assessments and letters related to service or support animals.

If you are assigned to work with someone that you are uncomfortable with or do not like, the first thing we suggest for you is to discuss it with your counselor directly. All of the counselors at CCS are very comfortable with this type of discussion and understand that the main focus of our work is to help you achieve your goals. If we are interfering with this progress, we don’t mind stepping aside and letting you work with someone else. Most of the time we find that the discomfort you are experiencing can be resolved by having thoughtful conversations in session and trying different things. If this does not work, please contact CCS and let us know you want to switch. We will schedule a time for you to speak with the someone to help us determine why the switch is in your best interest and to make sure that we are able to assign you with another counselor who will best match up with your needs.

Yes. CCS is here to help Butler University students develop the personal awareness and skills necessary to overcome problems, make effective decisions, and grow and develop in ways that will allow them to maximize their total educational experience at Butler University. Outreach services and educational programming serve as an integral part of our mission and an essential tool for prevention, wellness, and promotion of a supportive campus climate for all members of the Butler community including Butler University students, faculty, and staff. Please contact our Outreach Coordinator Dr. Christine Kiray at mailto:ckiray@butler.edu if you are interested in requesting a program.
Programs are available for any campus organization, student group, or university department. The following list offers examples of topics we often provide, but the CCS staff members are available to collaborate with campus partners to design each program to fit each specific need or request: