Counseling Services

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Life can be full of bumpy roads, especially when navigating the challenges of college. Many college students go through unexpected changes and react with a variety of emotions that may be difficult to experience or understand. To support our students through hardships, Eastern Maine Community College offers free and confidential counseling services. Counseling often benefits students by helping to learn new ways to cope with adversity, utilize their personal strengths, understand themselves better, and explore new opportunities. We are able to provide individual, group, and couples counseling; consultations and workshops/programming. Our counseling services are offered in an environment that is supportive, welcoming, and accepting of all students.


LOCATION: Maine Hall, Room 124. Please email counseling@emcc.edu.

OFFICE HOURS: Monday – Friday, 10am – 6pm
*Walk-in counseling services are not available at this time. Counseling sessions are by appointment only.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Office Phone – 207.974.4858
Office Fax – 207.974.4758
Email – counseling@emcc.edu
*Secure and private communication cannot be guaranteed via email.


Counseling

EMCC offers short-term counseling services to currently enrolled students. Many students have struggles that keep them from achieving success in their academic and personal lives. Talking with a professional counselor can help with exploring concerns, self-understanding, and developing new ways to cope with difficulties.

Counseling is provided in three modalities:

INDIVIDUAL
Individual counseling involves working one-on-one with a counselor. Appointments are spent discussing issues that relate to the goals which you and your counselor establish in your intake meeting. Appointments typically last for 50 minutes.

COUPLES/PAIRED
Couples or paired counseling allows EMCC students who are romantically connected or are close friends to meet with a counselor to discuss relationship problems. Meeting with a professional, neutral person often helps couples to talk about their difficulties more openly than when they are on their own. Many times, couples are able to mend or even strengthen their relationship.

GROUP
Several group counseling opportunities will be offered throughout the year. These groups may focus on simply providing support or on a specific theme. Groups typically have five to ten members, meetings generally last an hour and a half, and occur weekly or biweekly for a specified length of time. If you would like to request a specific group topic or to be notified of groups being offered, please contact the counselor through phone or email.


WHAT TO EXPECT AT YOUR FIRST SESSION
Your first session is called an Intake Interview. During the appointment, your counselor will go over some paperwork with you and then ask some questions about your current concerns, your overall functioning, and what you hope to gain from counseling. You will be encouraged to ask any and all questions you may have about counseling.

At the end of the appointment, you and the counselor will discuss how to best meet your current needs. This may involve individual or couples counseling on campus, group counseling, or a referral to a specialist counselor in the local community. If on-campus counseling is recommended, you and the counselor will establish a few goals for your work together which will help guide future meetings.

WHAT HAPPENS IN COUNSELING
Counseling may look different for every person and concern. However, there are some pieces consistent to all counseling that you can expect. 1) Your counselor will encourage you to talk about yourself – your experiences, thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. 2) You will receive support without judgment and your counselor will respect the pace and method with which you wish to proceed (e.g. emotional validation, insight, problem-solving, etc.). 3) Your counselor will be able to utilize what you choose to bring to each session to help you work toward achieving your goals for counseling.

You can get the most out of your time in counseling by:

  • being open and honest with your counselor;
  • putting thought into what you want to discuss before your sessions;
  • trying new coping strategies or activities that are suggested;
  • coming to all scheduled appointments.

CONFIDENTIALITY
Information that you share in counseling will be treated with strict confidentiality in accordance with state and federal laws. All counseling records are kept completely separate from your EMCC academic files and only your counselor may access them. Your counselor cannot disclose anything about you without your permission, except in the event of an emergency, where state law mandates that necessary information is shared with the authorities. If you have any questions about how your counselor will protect your confidentiality, please ask because we want you to feel safe and comfortable in your work with us.