Attending classes, completing midterms and working a full-time or part-time job all while keeping up with family or friends can be potential stressors in one’s life. The University of North Florida’s Counseling Center aims to create an environment where you can not only be heard but work on bettering yourself mentally and emotionally. 

The Counseling Center has gone through many changes in the past few years and continues to undergo changes with the goal to be more convenient to students who are in need of guidance and help. 

The addition of group therapy and weekly art therapy sessions has made the center more accessible as well as accommodating to students who prefer a more social setting to improve on social skills and explore their blind spots. In-person or Zoom Individual sessions allow the student to sit down with a counselor in a more private setting that allows them to open up about personal situations.  

However, because the center has a limited number of counselors, UNF only allows each student to have up to 12 one-on-one visits per academic year. In 2019, the center began only offering 6 therapy sessions per semester or 8 sessions per semester for those in need. 

According to Misha Bogomaz, assistant and training director of the counseling center, the process starts off with an initial appointment to assess the needs of each student. He says that sometimes students will come into the center in such distress, who seem to need to be seen weekly or every other day. In cases like these, UNF counselors are able to connect them with providers in the Jacksonville community. 

“Initial appointments get scheduled during the semester at various times, around the final and midterms. That’s when we get busier so that appointment gets scheduled a little bit further,” Bogomaz said. “Once we see someone in that appointment and they seem to be very appropriate with us they get to stay with us and then they get assigned to the first available counselor.”

For students who are in the midst of a crisis, the center also offers 24-hour on-call counseling. Students can also come in from the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and be seen immediately by a counselor. 

According to Bogomaz, the counseling center wants students to know that they have recently received more financial support from the university in hopes of hiring more counselors, offering even more outreach, group activities and training opportunities. 

This comes after a duo of meetings back in December of last year to assess student fees. The center requested a $0.43 increase to help alleviate student wait times and understaffing; However, SG committee members only voted in favor of an increase of $0.05 for the center after a long-heated debate.

The counseling center serves an extremely important role in the well-being of UNF students. For more information on how to schedule an appointment visit the center’s website.

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