Information for Parents | Linfield College

Counseling Counseling

Information for Parents and Frequently Asked Questions about the Counseling Center

John F. Kerrigan, Jr., Ph.D., Director

Here are some of the questions parents might have when a son or daughter is a student at Linfield College. Many of these are related to the Counseling Center but information about other Linfield campus offices is also included:

Tell me about the Counseling Center; what services are available for my student?

The Linfield College Counseling Center offers short-term individual and group counseling for currently enrolled students. We are also available on a “consulting” basis to speak with individuals or groups concerned about a third party, for example, students concerned about a friend who seems depressed, or a professor who has noticed declining grades in a student in her class and suspects the cause might be drinking. Another group who frequently uses us as consultants are parents who call the Counseling Center with concerns or questions about their Linfield student. We’re always happy to talk with parents. A third way we serve the campus community is by providing training to campus groups like academic advisors or residence life staff.

All Counseling Center services are FREE to currently enrolled students.

The Counseling Center is located in Walker Hall, Room 124 on the Linfield College campus in McMinnville.

The phone number is 503-883-2784.

The mailing address is: Counseling Center, Linfield College, 900 S. Baker Street, McMinnville, Oregon 97128.

Our e-mail address is: counseling@linfield.edu

Questions

Counseling Center staff web page
All professional staff members in the Counseling Center are Oregon licensed mental health professionals with graduate degrees in social work, counseling or psychology. All have extensive experience in their fields and in working with young adults.
The Counseling Center also serves as a training site for graduate students from the Portland State University Master's in Social Work program. Linfield students seeking services have the right to decline to see a graduate trainee.

How does a student make an appointment at the Counseling Center?

A student can make an appointment in person or by phone. A student would come to the Counseling Center in Walker 124 between the hours of 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM and speak with one of our secretaries, Tami Harrell or Patti Bonofiglio to schedule an appointment.
A student can also make an appointment by calling the Counseling Center, 503-883-2784, during regular office hours and asking to speak with Tami.

What hours are available for counseling appointments?

Counseling appointments are available from 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM. We can also make special arrangements for students such as student teachers whose schedules would prevent them from being seen during regular office hours.

What other offices on campus help students?

There are several other campus offices available to help students. These include the Chaplain’s Office, the Student Health Center, Learning Support Services, International Programs, the Career Center, and the Dean of Students’ Office. However, in a larger sense, all the offices at Linfield are there to help Linfield students directly or indirectly.

What kinds of problems do college students usually have?

We typically see students with problems that can be classified as “developmental” or “psychological,” although the distinction is not always precise. The developmental problems are those that young adults worldwide face such as developing their own identities separate from the family they grew up in, learning to establish relationships and get along with others, choosing a direction for their future, learning how to communicate effectively, managing their own emotions, making appropriate choices, gender identity concerns, finding ways to deal with their own problems, grief, problems at home, etc.

The psychological problems students may experience include depression, anxiety and panic, dealing with traumatic events, substance abuse, thoughts of suicide, learning disabilities including attention-deficit disorder, and eating disorders (although this is far from an exhaustive list of the kinds of problems students experience).

What services aren’t available in the Counseling Center?

We do not offer treatment for serious or life-threatening conditions. Examples include anorexia and other severe eating disorders requiring hospitalization, alcohol or drug addiction (we do work with alcohol abuse), ongoing psychotic disorders, and more serious personality disorders. Instead, in these cases we will assist the student to find appropriate treatment off-campus and help the individual to be as successful as possible during their time at Linfield. Parents are invited to call and discuss their student’s needs at any time although the professional staff are not able to discuss clients without a signed Release Of Information form.

Are there limits to how many times a student may be seen at the Counseling Center?

We do not impose rigid limits on the number of sessions a student may see a counselor and it's quite normal for a student to be seen at several different points in their Linfield career. For example, a student might be seen as a freshman dealing with homesickness, again as a sophomore for boyfriend/girlfriend problems, as a junior for help with test anxiety, and as a senior dealing with worries about making appropriate choices for life after Linfield.

On the other hand, we are not set up to provide ongoing, long-term treatment or case management services for more serious psychological disorders due to the small size of our staff. Instead, we would be happy to help a student in need of such services find an appropriate mental health practitioner in the area.

What medical services are available on campus for my student?

The Student Health Center, located in Walker Hall, Room 105, provides primary medical care for students. The phone number is: (503) 883-2535 or (503) 472-6161 after hours. Staffed by two nurse practitioners, the services include mostly diagnosis and treatment of acute illnesses such as colds, flu, ear infections, rashes , musculoskeletal problems, headaches, routine gynecological care, etc. A health educator is available to provide health promotion and education services. For services not provided on campus, the Health Center can make a referral to a local health clinic. Emergency medical treatment is available at the Willamette Valley Medical Center in McMinnville, phone number: (503) 472-6131.

Are the Counseling Center and the Health Center part of the same office?

No. The Counseling Center and the Student Health center are separate offices although both report to the Dean of Students. However, the two offices often work cooperatively to ensure that a student’s medical and emotional needs are both met.

My student has been seeing a therapist at home. How is this situation handled?

If your student has been working successfully with a therapist at home and wants to continue seeing this person, we encourage this if it's practical (this usually means not too far away; Portland can work, Honolulu usually can't). Another option would be for that therapist to confer (after getting appropriate signed consent from the client) with a Counseling Center staff member about the specifics of the case and develop a plan to ensure your student will continue to receive needed services. This might mean the student’s seeing a counselor in the Counseling Center or maybe arranging to meet with a mental health provider in the local area for ongoing psychotherapy. This decision will depend on the specifics of the case such as the diagnosis, kind(s) of treatment used, level of care required, prognosis for the future, etc.

A doctor at home has prescribed medication for my student for depression, ADD, panic attacks, etc. Can my student get prescriptions refilled at Linfield?

The Counseling Center has no medical providers so your student would be referred to the Student Health Center. The healthcare professionals there will be happy to discuss refills and any other medical questions. There are several pharmacies in McMinnville available to fill prescriptions.

Is there a psychiatrist on the staff of the Student Health Center?

Linfield has a consulting psychiatrist who works closely with the Counseling Center and the Student Health Center on the McMinnville campus. Students should make an appointment at the Student Health Center for an evaluation.

Are there psychiatrists in McMinnville?

At this point, there are no psychiatrists in full time private practice in McMinnville. Other psychiatrists practice in Salem (22 miles) and in the Portland metro area.

Why wouldn’t anyone at Linfield give me any information about my student when I called?!

Although this is a frequent source of unhappiness and frustration among parents, in general the reason that Linfield personnel do not give out information about our students is that it is against the law to do so without that student’s permission. This includes a student’s grades. At the beginning of each academic year students can specify if they want their information provided to parents and many students readily authorize this.

Information from the Student Planner, distributed to students at the start of the school year explains Linfield policy about giving out student information this way:

Information about students fall into two general categories: that which is “public” and that which, by law, needs to remain private.
Public information is often called “Directory information” and includes name, addresses, e-mail address, telephone numbers, dates of attendance, class, previously attended institutions, major, awards, honors, degrees conferred, past and present participation in officially recognized sports and activities, physical factors (height, weight of athletes), date and place of birth. Upon careful consideration a student may ask the institution not to release such information but then will not be listed in campus directories, on the Dean's List, or other public pronouncements.

On the other hand, information contained in student files and student transcripts is private and, in general, is released only with written permission of the student. The primary exception to this is that faculty and other campus personnel connected with a student's educational program, curricular and co-curricular, may receive and review information about the student, including the student's transcript. In accordance with federal students over the age of eighteen may review the contents of their college files.
Information gathered about students during counseling or as part of the college judicial process is confidential and will not be divulged without the written permission of the student. The exception to this practice arises when, in the judgment of the counselor, a student poses an immediate threat to himself or another individual.

Click here for detailed information from the Linfield College policy handbook

So how do you find out information about your student at Linfield? One way is to ask your student directly. For example: “Tell me about what your classes are like.” or “I want to receive your grades directly from Linfield every semester but you need to sign a form at the Registrar's Office for this to happen. Have you done this yet?” or “I’d like to come for parents’ weekend so I can meet your friends and find out more about Linfield. Would this be OK with you?” Such direct but non-confrontational questioning can also be helpful in opening and maintaining good channels of communication.

Please refer to the next section for specific information about counseling-related information and confidentiality.

My student told me he is seeing a counselor. Can I talk to this counselor?

Professional ethics as well as state law prohibit mental health providers from disclosing any information gained in the course of counseling or psychotherapy without a release of information signed by the client. Here is the relevant section from the American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles for Psychologists and Code of Conduct:

5.02 Maintaining Confidentiality.

Psychologists have a primary obligation and take reasonable precautions to respect the confidentiality rights of those with whom they work or consult, recognizing that confidentiality may be established by law, institution al rules, or professional or scientific relationships.

Here is the relevant section from the National Association of Social Workers’ Ethical Standards:

1.07 Privacy and Confidentiality

(b) Social workers may disclose confidential information when appropriate with valid consent from a client or a person legally authorized to consent on behalf of a client.

(c) Social workers should protect the confidentiality of all information obtained in the course of professional service, except for compelling professional reasons. The general expectation that social workers will keep information confidential does not apply when disclosure is necessary to prevent serious, foreseeable, and imminent harm to a client or other identifiable person. In all instances, social workers should disclose the least amount of confidential information necessary to achieve the desired purpose; only information that is directly relevant to the purpose for which the disclosure is made should be revealed.

Parents are welcome to call the Counseling Center any time. However, please recognize that we are unable to provide any information about a student client without first having a signed release of information form from that client authorizing us to disclose such information. This includes not only information about what the person has discussed with a counselor but even whether someone has been seen in the Counseling Center.

We are able to listen to whatever information you wish to provide about your student but without a release of information form signed by the client it will necessarily be a one-sided conversation. It can also be awkward for the counselor to have information about a client that didn't come from that client. On the other hand, if you're concerned about your student's welfare or she's talking about suicide, by all means take those kinds of statements seriously and contact us immediately.

Another option is to explain to your student you'd like to talk directly to the counselor she/he is seeing in the Counseling Center but that written permission is needed for the counselor to disclose any information. He can then respond by agreeing or not agreeing to your request to authorize the counselor to provide information about his counseling.

I want my student to get help from the Counseling Center. How do I get them to go?

The Counseling Center staff often receive calls from parents who are concerned about their student and ask how they can convince him to get help. The direct approach of saying something like “I'm worried that you seem pretty down after breaking up with your girlfriend. Would you consider seeking help from the Counseling Center?” can work well. Sometimes the student may not even know that help is available or only needs a bit of encouragement from a parent. Hearing from a parent that it's normal both to have problems and to seek help in overcoming these can also be helpful.

However, there's really no way to force the student to seek help short of making threats. This option is usually counterproductive because even if the student gives in and makes an appointment, she is typically resentful and angry about being forced to so something she doesn't want to do and counseling rarely works well under such circumstances.

There may also be other elements contributing to a student's reluctance to seek counseling. The first is the typical young adult's desire to be independent and solve her own problems. This is understandable and appropriate up to a point but not when the problem is something the individual can't solve on her own like depression or serious difficulties with a roommate. One approach in this situation is to acknowledge the efforts your student has already made, remind her that there are sometimes problems we can't solve on our own, and that seeking help for such a problem is OK and smart, not a sign of weakness. Illustrating this point with an example from your own life may also be helpful.

Another factor that can inhibit your student from seeking help is the stigma many people still have about seeking help from a mental health professional. This seems to be more of a problem for men than women who may be more used to talking about feelings and open to asking for help. You as the parent may be in a position to encourage your student to consider counseling and you can also inform them that it’s often possible for someone to be seen on a walk-in basis where no appointment is needed, paperwork isn't required, and the individual doesn't even have to give their name. Sometimes this “no obligation” opportunity to talk to a counselor and find out about the services available can correct mistaken ideas and help the individual to feel better about using counseling to resolve problems. The student may also learn about other campus offices such as Learning Support Services or the Student Health Center that are available to help.

Someone may also be concerned that information disclosed in counseling will become part of their Linfield academic file or that others on campus will find out confidential information. If this is a concern, you can inform him that counseling information does NOT become part of a student's academic records and that no information is released by our office without first having written authorization from that person. In addition, none of the student workers in the office ever have access to confidential counseling files.

Is it possible for someone from the Counseling Center to call my student and ask him to come in?

Sometimes a parent will call, explain that she is worried about the student, and ask if it's possible for a Counseling Center staff member to contact their student and ask him to come in. The parent may or may not have already have suggested counseling to their student. If the idea of counseling has not been brought up by the parent, we ask that they first suggest this. If the parent has already suggested counseling but the student has not yet contacted us, we may offer to contact the student by e-mail, explain that a parent has called the Counseling Center because she's concerned, and offer to meet with the student if this is something he/she would be open to. However, the whole process is a lot “cleaner” if the student contacts us and requests services instead of our contacting them at the request of the parent.

Students usually respond in one of three ways to such a message from Counseling Center staff. The most common is no response. Another is a short message by return e-mail declining the offer of a meeting. The third is that the person calls and makes an appointment. We require the potential client to schedule his or her own appointment and we do not make appointments for third parties, i.e., a parent would not be able to make an appointment for a son or daughter.